“Now of course the money was what the Giant really wanted, so he said: ‘If you promise that you will never tell your little boy who his father was, or anything about me, I will let you go. If you do tell him, I shall find out and kill you both.’
“Your mother quickly promised, and ran out of the house as fast as she could. All day long she hurried over the rough roads with you in her arms. At last, when she could hardly walk a step further, she came to the little house where you live now.
“Now, my dear Jack. I am your father’s good fairy. The reason I could not help him against the wicked Giant was because I had done something wrong. When a fairy does something wrong she loses her power. My power did not come back to me until the day when you went to sell your cow. Then I put it into your head to sell the cow for the pretty beans. I made the beanstalk grow. I made you climb up the beanstalk.
“Now, Jack, this is the country where the wicked Giant lives. I had you come here so you could get back your mother’s treasure.”
When Jack heard this he was very excited.
“Follow the road,” said the Fairy, “and you will come to the Giant’s house. And do not forget that some day you are to punish the wicked Giant.” And then she disappeared.
Jack had not gone far before he came to a great house. In front of it stood a little woman. Jack went up to her and said very piteously: “Oh, please, good, kind lady, let me come in your beautiful house and have something to eat and a place to sleep.”
The woman looked surprised. “Why, what are you doing here?” she said. “Don’t you know this is where my husband, the terrible Giant, lives? No one dares to come near here. Every one my husband finds he has locked up in his house. Then when he is hungry he eats them! He walks fifty miles to find some one to eat.”
When Jack heard this he was very much afraid. But he remembered what the Fairy had told him, and once more he asked the woman to let him in.
“Just let me sleep in the oven,” he said. “The Giant will never find me there.”