So Jack went upstairs to his little room in the attic, and sad and sorry he was, to be sure, as much for the monster's sake as for the loss of his supper.
At last he dropped off to sleep.
When he woke up, the room looked so funny. The sun was shining into part of it, and yet all the rest was quite dark and shady. So Jack jumped up and dressed himself and went to the window. And what do you think he saw? Why, the grenades the monster had thrown out of the window into the garden had blown a big crater which went down and down and down 'til it reached the the middle of the earth. The grenades had blown quite close past Jack's window, All he had to do was to open it and give a jump down onto the the crater which ran down just like a big slide. So Jack climbed, and he went down it 'til he reached the bottom. When he got there he found a long broad road going as straight as a dart. He walked, 'til he came to a great big tall house, and on the doorstep there was a enormous big tall woman.
"Good morning," says Jack, quite polite-like. "Could you be so kind as to give me some breakfast?"
"It's breakfast you want, is it?" says the great big tall woman. "It's breakfast you'll be if you don't move off from here. My man is a giant and there's nothing he likes better than boys broiled on toast. You'd better be moving on or he'll be coming."
"Oh! please, do give me something to eat. I've had nothing to eat since yesterday morning, really and truly," says Jack. "I may as well be broiled as die of hunger."
Well, the giant's wife was not half so bad after all. So she took Jack into the kitchen, and gave him a hunk of bread and cheese and a jug of milk. But Jack hadn't half finished these when thump! thump! thump! the whole house began to tremble with the noise of someone coming.
"Goodness gracious me! It's my old man," said the giant's wife. "What on earth shall I do? Come along quick and jump in here." And she bundled Jack into the oven just as the giant came in.
He was a big one, to be sure. At his belt he had three calves strung up by the heels, and he unhooked them and threw them down on the table and said, "Here, wife, broil me a couple of these for breakfast. Ah! what's this I smell?
fum-fo-fi-fe,
I smell the blood of an Englishman,
Be he alive, or be he dead,
I'll have his bones to grind my bread."
"Nonsense, dear," said his wife. "You' re dreaming. Or perhaps you smell the scraps of that little boy you liked so much for yesterday's dinner. Here, you go and have a wash and tidy up, and by the time you come back your breakfast'll be ready for you."
So off the giant went, and Jack was just going to jump out of the oven and run away when the woman told him not. "Wait till he's asleep," says she; "he always has a doze after breakfast."
Well, the giant had his breakfast, and after that he goes to a big chest and takes out a couple bags of Pyrite (fools gold), and he sits down and counts till at last his head began to nod and he began to snore till the whole house shook again.
Then Jack crept out on tiptoe from his oven, and as he was passing the giant, he took one of the bags of gold under his arm, and off he dashed till he came to the crater, and then he climbed up and climbed up till at last he got home and told the monster and showed her the pyrite and said, "Well, monster, wasn't I right about the grenades? They are really magical, you see."
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