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

nothing else was alive in that land but himself. The trees were withered, the fields were bare, and every stream had run dry. Altogether it was not at all a nice place; but if it wasn’t nice it was new; and besides, he could not face the idea of going down that beanstalk again without anything to eat, and he set out to look for a house and beg a breakfast. At that moment something dark came between him and the light—fluttered above his head, and then settled on the road beside him.
    â€œOh, mercy! I thought it was a great bird,” cried Jack. But it wasn’t. It was a fairy—Jack knew that at once, though he had never seen one before. There are some things you cannot mistake.
    â€œWell, Jack,” said the fairy, “I’ve been looking for you.”
    â€œI believe I’ve been looking for you all my life, if you come to that,” said Jack.
    â€œYes, you have,” said the fairy. “Now listen.”
    She told Jack a story that made him all hot, and cold, and ashamed, and eager to do something heroic at once, for she explained how the new land he had found had once belonged to his father, who was a good and great man, and who had ruled his land well and been loved by his subjects. But unfortunately one of his subjects happened to be agiant, and, being naturally of a large size, he considered himself more important than anyone else, and he had killed Jack’s father, and with the help of a bad fairy had imprisoned the faithful subjects in the trees. Since the giant’s rule began the land had not flourished—nothing would grow on it, the houses fell down in ruins and the waters ran dry. So the giant had shut himself and his wife up in a large white house with his precious belongings, and there he lived his selfish, horrid life.
    â€œNow,” said the fairy, “the time has come for you to set things straight. And this is really what you’ve been trying to dream about all your life. You must find the giant and get back your father’s land for your mother. She has worked for you all your life. Now you will work for her; but you have the best of it, because her work was mending and washing and cooking and scrubbing, and your work is—adventures. Go straight on and do the things that first come into your head. This is good advice in ordinary life, and it works well in this land too. Good-bye.”
    And with a flutter of sea-green, shining wings the fairy vanished, and Jack was left staring into nothingness. He didn’t stare long though, for, as I said before, he was a changed boy. There are plenty of people who could go in for adventures splendidly, but somehow they are never able to do anything else, and if they don’t happen to fall in with adventures they can do nothing but dream of them, and so have a poor time of it in this world. Jack was one of these people. Only he, you see, had got out of this world and had fallen in with adventures into the bargain.
    He went along the road, and when he came to a large white house the first thing he thought of doing was, curiously enough, to knock at the door and ask for something to eat, just as you or I would have done if we had gone up a large beanstalk without our breakfast or our last night’s supper.
    â€œGo away!” said the little old woman who opened the door, just as many people do if you ask them for somethingto eat and they don’t happen to know you. “My husband is a giant, and he’ll eat you if he sees you.”
    â€œYou needn’t let him see me,” said Jack. “I haven’t had anything to eat for ages. Do give me something, there’s a good sort!”
    So she took him in and gave him some bread and butter and a poached egg, and before he was half-way through it the whole house began to shake, and the old woman seized Jack, put his eggy plate into his hand, and pushed him into the oven and closed the door.
    Jack had the sense not to call out, and he