He seemed so tired and sad that the woman couldn’t say no, and she gave him a nice supper.
Then they climbed a winding stair and reached a bright, cozy kitchen. Jack was just beginning to enjoy himself, when suddenly there was a great pounding at the front door.
“Quick, quick!” cried the Giant’s wife; “jump into the oven.”
Jack was no sooner safely hidden than he heard the Giant say, in tones of thunder:
“Fee, fi, fo, fum,
I smell the blood of an Englishman!”
When Jack heard this he thought surely the Giant knew that he was in the house, but the wife said calmly:
“Oh, my dear, it is probably the people in the dungeon.”
Then they both came down to the kitchen. The Giant sat so close to the oven that by peeping through a hole, Jack could easily see him. He was enormous! And how much he did eat and drink for his supper! When at last he was through, he roared:
“Wife, bring me my hen!” And the woman brought in a beautiful hen.
“Lay!” commanded the Giant; and what was Jack’s surprise when the hen laid a golden egg. Every time the Giant said: “Lay!”—and he said it many times—the hen obeyed.