m his money-bags. He then began to count his
money--thousands and thousands of pieces of gold and silver.

[Illustration]

Jack wished he could take some of this money home to his mother; and,
presently, when the ogre fell asleep, he crept out of his hiding-place,
and hoisting the bags upon his shoulder, slipped quietly away with them.
The ogre was snoring so loudly that it sounded like the wind in the
chimney on a stormy night. So he never heard the little noise Jack
made, and Jack got safely away and escaped down the beanstalk.

His mother was overjoyed to see him, for she had been very anxious about
him when he did not come home the night before; and she was delighted
with the bags of money, which were enough to keep them in comfort and
luxury for some time.

For many months Jack and his mother lived happily together; but after a
while the money came to an end, and Jack made up his mind to climb the
beanstalk again, and carry off some more of the ogre's treasures. So one
morning he got up early, put on a different suit of clothes, so that the
ogre's wife should not recognize him, and set out to climb the
beanstalk.

[Illustration: _Jack and the Beanstalk_
Down Came the Beanstalk, Down Came the Ogre]

And he climbed, and he climbed, and he climbed, and he climbed, and he
climbed, and he climbed, and he climbed--until at last he climbed to the
very top and found himself in the ogre's country again.

When he reached the castle the ogre's wife was again standing in the
doorway. But when Jack asked for a night's lodging, she said she dared
not give him one, for only a few months before she had taken in a poor
boy who seemed half dead with fatigue and hunger, and in return for her
kindness, he had stolen some of her husband's money and run away in the
night.

But Jack begged so hard that at last she relented. She gave him a good
supper and hid him in a closet before her husband came home.

Presently there was a great noise outside and heavy footsteps that shook
the castle to its foundations. It was the ogre come home. As soon as he
entered the kitchen, he sniffed suspiciously, and said:

"I smell fresh meat!"

"It is only the crows on the housetops," said his wife. "They have
brought home a piece of carrion for their young."

After supper, the ogre told his wife to fetch his hen. This hen was a
very wonderful bird. Whenever the ogre said "Lay" she laid an egg of
solid gold. Jack thought that if he could only