Read Online Fairy Tales for Young Readers by E. Nesbit - Free Book Online Page A

“I shall pretend to myself I’m a rich farmer with a cow to sell every market-day.”
    So the rope halter, with Jack at one end of it and the cow at the other, started off down the road.
    â€œAsk five gold pieces for her,” said the Mother, “and take what you can get; and don’t let the grass grow under your feet.”
    Jack went along very slowly, and kept his eyes fixed to the ground, because if the grass did grow under his feet he wanted to watch it growing. So this was how it was that he ran plump into something hard, and, looking up, saw a butcher, very smart in a new blue coat with a red carnation in his button-hole.
    â€œWho are you shoving of, young shaver?” the butcher asked crossly. “Why don’t you look where you’re going?”
    â€œBecause I thought I might see you,” said Jack.
    â€œHa! I see you’re a clever boy,” said the butcher, not at all offended. “Thinking of selling your cow?”
    â€œWell,” said Jack, “that was rather the idea.”
    â€œAnd what’s the price?”
    â€œFive gold pieces,” said Jack boldly.
    â€œI wouldn’t rob you of her by offering such a poor price,” said the butcher kindly. “Look here.”

    He pulled out a handful of large, bright-coloured beans.
    â€œAren’t they beautiful?” he said.
    â€œOh, they are—they are!” said Jack. And they were. They had all the colours and all the splendour of precious stones.
    â€œI never saw anything at all like them,” said Jack, and longed to have them in his pockets, to take them out and play with them whenever he liked.
    â€œWell, is it a bargain?” the butcher asked.
    â€œOh, yes,” said Jack. “Take the ugly old cow.”
    And with that he took the beans, thrust the end of the rope into the butcher’s hand, and hurried off towards home.
    I don’t think I had better tell you what happened when he told his mother what he had done. You can perhaps guess. I will only say that it ended in his mother throwing the beans out of the window and sending Jack to bed without his supper. Then she spent the evening ironing, and every now and then a tear fell down and hissed and fizzled on the hot iron.
    The next morning Jack woke up feeling very hot and half choked. He found his room rather darker than usual, and at first he decided that it was too early to get up; then as he was just snuggling the blanket closer round his neck he saw what it was that was shutting out the sunshine. The beans had grown up into a huge twisted stalk with immense leaves. When Jack ran to the window and pushed his hand out among the green he could see no top to the plant. It seemed to grow right up into the sky. Then suddenly Jack was a changed boy. Something wonderful had happened to him, and it had made him different. It sometimes happens to people that they see or hear something quite wonderful, and then they are never altogether the same again.
    Jack scrambled into his clothes, ran to the door, and shouted:
    â€œMother, those beautiful beans have grown! I told you I’d made a good bargain with that silly old cow. I’m goingto climb up and see what’s at the top.” And before his mother could stop him he was out of the window and up the beanstalk, climbing and wriggling among the branches, and when she reached the window he was almost out of sight. She stood looking up after him till she couldn’t see him any more, and then she sighed, and went up to her son’s untidy room, to make his bed and set all straight for him.
    Jack climbed on and on until his head felt dizzy and his legs and arms ached. He had had no supper last night, you remember, and no breakfast before he started. But at last there was no more stalk to climb, and as soon as he reached the top tendril it suddenly flattened and opened out before him into a long white dusty road. He was in a new land, and as far as he could see