u so?" thought Jack. "Are these your tricks upon travelers? But
I hope to prove as cunning as you are." Then, getting out of bed, he
groped about the room, and at last found a large thick billet of wood.
He laid it in his own place in the bed, and then hid himself in a dark
corner of the room.

The giant, about midnight, entered the apartment, and with his bludgeon
struck many blows on the bed, in the very place where Jack had laid the
log; and then he went back to his own room, thinking he had broken all
Jack's bones.

Early in the morning Jack put a bold face upon the matter, and walked
into the giant's room to thank him for his lodging. The giant started
when he saw him, and began to stammer out: "Oh! dear me; is it you? Pray
how did you sleep last night? Did you hear or see anything in the dead
of the night?"

"Nothing to speak of," said Jack, carelessly; "a rat, I believe, gave me
three or four slaps with its tail, and disturbed me a little; but I soon
went to sleep again."

The giant wondered more and more at this; yet he did not answer a word,
but went to bring two great bowls of hasty-pudding for their breakfast.
Jack wanted to make the giant believe that he could eat as much as
himself, so he contrived to button a leathern bag inside his coat, and
slip the hasty-pudding into this bag, while he seemed to put it into his
mouth.

When breakfast was over he said to the giant: "Now I will show you a
fine trick. I can cure all wounds with a touch; I could cut off my head
in one minute, and the next put it sound again on my shoulders. You
shall see an example." He then took hold of the knife, ripped up the
leathern bag, and all the hasty-pudding tumbled out upon the floor.

"Ods splutter hur nails!" cried the Welsh giant, who was ashamed to be
outdone by such a little fellow as Jack, "hur can do that hurself";
so he snatched up the knife, plunged it into his own stomach, and in a
moment dropped down dead.

Jack, having hitherto been successful in all his undertakings, resolved
not to be idle in future; he therefore furnished himself with a horse,
a cap of knowledge, a sword of sharpness, shoes of swiftness, and an
invisible coat, the better to perform the wonderful enterprises that lay
before him.

He traveled over high hills, and on the third day he came to a large and
spacious forest through which his road lay. Scarcely had he entered the
forest when he beheld a monstrous giant dragging along by the hair