The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1900-07-12

saucers, his nose as big as my arm, his
mouth like the end of a big stove
pipe and his teeth like iron spoons.
He came up the road snorting like a
horse, and was singing,
~ smell the blood of an Englishman;
Alive or dead / must have some"
Jack ran in the house to his mother
and she pulled up a plank in the floor
and dropped Jack down in the cellar
and put the plank back, and moved
her chair and table on it, and sat down
and went to knitting. Here came the
old giant, putting and blowing like
steamboat. He dident eat anything
but little boys. and he peeped in at
the door and said, I'm hungry, and
I'm hunting for boy" Jacks mother
told him she dident have any boy for
him, and to go off, or she would set
her big dog on him. Then he walked
all round the house and looked down
the chimney, for he was as high as
tree, but he couldent find Jack.
When he went away and was out of
and reaching her hand down, she pull
ed Jack out of the cellar. Soon after
this poor old woman came along and
begged for something to eat, and Jack
and his mother fixed her up good
dinner and some coffee, and the poor
woman was so thankful that she gave
Jack bean and told him to plant it
and it would grow as high as the sky
and have bushels and bushels of beans,
and the vine would grow as high as
tree in one night. So Jack planted it
right away, and next morning he went
out to see it, and the top OF it was
away up yonder and he could see it
growing higher and higher. so he
thought it would be fun to climb it,
enough to hold him up like ladder,
and he kept on climbing and the bean
vine kept on growing so fast that Jack
couldent catch up with it, and by and
by he got so high he couldent see the
ground and before long he got up to the
clouds and stepped off or the blue
floor of the sky, and looking around at
the beautiful country he saw a great
fine house that was built of stone. So
he walked over to it and didn't see
anybody-not a soul-nor dog, nor
a cat, nor a horse, nor COW, but he
heard great snoring inside and saw
bones all around the yard. Then he
peeped in and saw that same old giant
asleep on the floor of the wide hall.
His tongue was hanging out of his
mouth and his face was greasy and
bloody. for he had been eating some
body and laid down to sleep, and his
snoring shook the house, Jack was
awfully scared, and started to run,
but he saw an ak near the door, and he
wondered if he couldn't kill that old
giant while he was asleep. So he
slipped in on tiptoe and raising up the
ak as high as he could, he brought it
down on the old giants neck, and
with one blow cut his head off. The
blood spouted all over the room and
Jack ran away as hard as he could.
By and by he slipped back to see, and
sure enough the old giant was dead
and had stopped kicking and the blood
had stopped running.
Jack caught his big head by its long
hair and dragged it away off to the
bean vine and took it down to his
mother, and the folks came to see it
from all over the country, and were so
proud of little Jack that they gave him
clothes and pocket knives and marbles
and balls, and ever afterwards called
him Jack the Giant Killer. And there
has never been another giant in the
world since, for he was the last one.
Many a time have got the children to
sleep on that story, for of course l
vary it and embellish it and tell many
things to point moral and adorn the
tale
l have not forgotten how eagerly /
listened TO the little stories my mother
used to tell me when | went to bed,
nor how / devoured the Arabian
Nights when I grew older. Stories
that reward the good and bring grief
to the bad children are great helps to
raising them; they are kindergartens
to the ear and q comfort to their little
minds. / had rather please them with
little story like this than to fret my
self abusing Mark Hanna and his
crowd, for little children are nearer
heaven than Mari is, according to my
opinion. -s-BlLL ARR, in Atlanta Con-
I stitutiOn.