Jack and the Beans . . . Talk

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Jack. Jack was very poor and he lived with his mother. All they had to eat was potatoes. And one day they didn't even have that much.

Jack was sharpening his ax. His mother was about to make lunch. Suddenly she stopped as she opened the cupboard. There was nothing in it. They realized they would have to make some money. But how? "We'll sell something!" cried Jack, surprising his mother. "That's a great idea, Jack" she said. "But we don't have anything we can sell." Jack was quick to happily offer his ax. His mother was also quick to reject that idea. "You never know when an ax may come in handy," she said. They both looked at each other. There was only one other thing that they could sell: their cow. Jack protested, but his mother made him.

Jack was on the way to the market to sell the cow. That was when the old man appeared beside him. Jack kept on walking figuring that the man was just a curious passerby. The man kept walking beside him. Now Jack guessed that the man was also going to the market. So he asked him where he was going. "Me?" said the man. He frowned, thought, blinked, shrugged. "I guess I'm going wherever you are."

"Well," said Jack, beginning to get confused. "I'm going to the market to sell my cow." "Oh" said the man. Then he frowned again. "Well, I don't know if I can walk that far. So, I'll save you and me both a trip . . .and I'll save you some money." By now, Jack was really confused. "I'll trade you that cow for . . . five magic beans." There are two reasons Jack took the offer.

1. He was too confused not to.

2. Were they magic . . .? Even if they weren't they were still food.

So he made the trade. When Jack got home, he was very happy. "Mom!" he yelled. "Mom, you'll never guess what I got for the cow. Five whole magic beans! Can you believe it?" His mom, of course, couldn't. What she couldn't believe was that Jack had made such a foolish trade. So she sent him to bed without any dinner . . . which she had to do herself, as they were out of money and food. As she went off to bed, she threw the beans out the window.

Then something happened that neither of them expected: a beanstalk grew! Right in their backyard, where she had thrown the beans out. They couldn't guess how it got there but it did. There is one real secret as to how the beanstalk got there: the beans were magic! Neither of them knew this; they just picked the beans and ate them. Now, this beanstalk was no normal beanstalk. It took up half the backyard; it grew lots of beans; it was so tall that nobody could see the top. As the days went by and Jack got older, he got more curious. So one day, he decided to climb the beanstalk.

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