Whack!  Whack!  Whack!

Jack could hear the bed being belaboured until the Giant, thinking every bone of his guest’s skin must be broken, stole out of the room again; whereupon Jack went calmly to bed once more and slept soundly!  Next morning the giant couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw Jack coming down the stairs fresh and hearty.

“Odds splutter hur nails!” he cried, astonished.  “Did she sleep well?  Was there not nothing felt in the night?”

“Oh,” replied Jack, laughing in his sleeve, “I think a rat did come and give me two or three flaps of his tail.”

[Illustration:  Taking the keys of the castle, Jack unlocked all the doors]

[Illustration:  “Odds splutter hur nails!” cried the giant, not to be outdone.  “Hur can do that hurself!”]

On this the giant was dumbfoundered, and led Jack to breakfast, bringing him a bowl which held at least four gallons of hasty-pudding, and bidding him, as a man of such mettle, eat the lot.  Now Jack when travelling wore under his cloak a leathern bag to carry his things withal; so, quick as thought, he hitched this round in front with the opening just under his chin; thus, as he ate, he could slip the best part of the pudding into it without the giant’s being any the wiser.  So they sate down to breakfast, the giant gobbling down his own measure of hasty-pudding, while Jack made away with his.

“See,” says crafty Jack when he had finished.  “I’ll show you a trick worth two of yours,” and with that he up with a carving-knife and, ripping up the leathern bag, out fell all the hasty-pudding on the floor!

“Odds splutter hur nails!” cried the giant, not to be outdone.  “Hur can do that hurself!” Whereupon he seized the carving-knife, and ripping open his own belly fell down dead.

Thus was Jack quit of the Welsh giant.

IV

Now it so happened that in those days, when gallant knights were always seeking adventures, King Arthur’s only son, a very valiant Prince, begged of his father a large sum of money to enable him to journey to Wales, and there strive to set free a certain beautiful lady who was possessed by seven evil spirits.  In vain the King denied him; so at last he gave way and the Prince set out with two horses, one of which he rode, the other laden with gold pieces.  Now after some days’ journey the Prince came to a market-town in Wales where there was a great commotion.  On asking the reason for it he was told that, according to law, the corpse of a very generous man had been arrested on its way to the grave, because, in life, it had owed large sums to the money-lenders.

“That is a cruel law,” said the young Prince.  “Go, bury the dead in peace, and let the creditors come to my lodgings; I will pay the debts of the dead.”

So the creditors came, but they were so numerous that by evening the Prince had but twopence left for himself, and could not go further on his journey.