JACK'S MOTHER shrank back just as the giant took hold of the last branch of the bean stalk.
Then Jack cut the stem quite through and darted from the spot.

Down came the giant with a terrible sound. He fell on his head and broke his neck.
So he lay dead at the feet of the woman, he had injured so much.

Then a beautiful lady stood before them.
"Jack," said she,
"you have acted like a brave knight's son. Dig a grave and bury the giant. Then go and kill the giantess."

"But I couldn't kill anyone unless I were fighting with him; and hardly a woman.
Besides, that giantess was really kind to me a lot of times."

The fairy smiled on Jack.
"I'm pleased with your generous feeling," she said.
"But hurry on to the castle and act as you will find needful."

Jack asked the fairy if she would show him the way to the castle, for the bean stalk was down now.
She told him that she would drive him there in her chariot.
It was drawn by two petty-looking birds. Jack thanked her.

The fairy drove him a long distance round, till they reached a village which lay at the bottom of the hill.
Here they found a number of miserable-looking men assembled. The fairy stopped and talked to them:
"Friends and miserable-looking friends," said she, 
"the cruel giant who oppressed you and ate up all your flocks and herds is dead
- this young gentleman was the means that delivered you from that one.
He is in fact the son and heir of your kind old master, the knight."

The men gave a loud cheer and would serve Jack as faithfully as they had served his father.
The fairy bade them follow her to the castle. The old giantess saw them coming.
Then she got frightened, for she guessed that something had happened to her husband,
and as she came downstairs very fast she caught her foot in her dress,
and she fell from the top to the bottom and broke her neck.

The people took crowbars and forced the portal,
and soon found the body of the giantess at the foot of the stairs.

Thus Jack took over the castle, with the hen and the harp.

The fairy also brought his mother to him.
He had the giantess buried, and sought to do right to those the giant had robbed.

Before she said farewell, the fairy explained to Jack,
that she had sent the butcher to meet him, in order to try what sort of lad he was.

"If you had looked at the gigantic bean stalk and only stupidly wondered about it," she said,
"I should have left you where misfortune had placed you.
But you showed an inquiring mind and great daring,
So you deserved to rise, when you climbed the bean stalk,
you didn't know that."

She then took her leave.

THE END