THREE BEAN SEEDS
Bobby was a giant. He lived in the clouds
and, like most giants, he had a lot of gold. No one has ever explained how a giant can
live in a cloud without falling and how he can have a lot of gold because that gold would
fall right out of the cloud, too. But just take my word for it. Bobby was a happy giant
with a lot of gold who lived in a cloud.
Every once in a while, just for the fun of it, Bobby would
toss down a few magic beans to some of the poor people who lived on the ground way below
him.
"Here you go, people," Bobby would say. "Have
three magic bean seeds already." And he would toss them out of the clouds.
Once when he did this, the seeds landed near the house of a
fellow named Jack. Jack’s neighbor picked them up and when Jack’s grandmother
sent her only grandson out to sell their cow so they could get some money, Jack did
something very foolish.
When he returned, his grandmother was very excited.
"How much did you get?" she asked him.
"Grandmother," Jack said, "get ready to be
very proud of me."
Without fail, each time he said those words, his grandmother
was disappointed. This was no exception.
"I have traded our cow for these!" Jack exclaimed.
"Three bean seeds!"
"Jack! You numbskull! There are enough bean seeds for
you to have one, for me to have one and one left over. Isn’t that great! I hope
you’re not too hungry!"
"But grandmother!" Jack protested, "these are
magic beans and if I plant them, I can crawl up the beanstalk to where the giant lives in
the clouds and steal his money."
"And for this," his grandmother said wearily,
"I should be proud of you? Whoopie! My grandson is a criminal."
"Oh, grandmother! You don’t understand. This giant
is a mean guy. And besides, he’s rich."
"Bah," Jack’s grandmother said and threw the
three beans out the window. I’m going to bed and dream about sandwiches."
Well, Jack felt terrible for about two seconds until he saw
something growing out in the garden. It was a huge beanstalk. He grabbed an ax and started
climbing.
Higher and higher he went until he finally climbed into the
clouds where Bobby, the giant, lived.
"Hello!" Jack called. "Is there anybody
here?"
"Fee, fi, fo, fum?" Bobby the Giant replied,
"do I hear the voice of an Englishmen? Hey, how did you get up here?"
Jack looked up and up and up until he say the face of Bobby
so far above him.
"E-e-e-excuse me," Jack said, "are you a
giant?"
"Well, it’s a big job," Bobby said, "but
I am. What can I do for you?"
"My name is Jack and I traded my grandmother’s cow
for three bean seeds and now we don’t have anything. Do you have some gold I could
have?"
"Gold? I sure do. I’m a giant living in the clouds
so I don’t really need any money. Here. Have these three gold coins."
Bobby tossed the coins to Jack who caught them, lost his
balance on a cloud and started falling back to Earth. At the last moment he caught himself
on the beanstalk and climbed about half way back up.
"Gold coins!" Jack said to himself. "Now to
get some more."
Before he made his way to the top, Jack hid the coins in the
leaves of the beanstalk. He spent the rest of the afternoon stealing all the gold coins
from Bobby and hiding them in the leaves of that huge beanstalk.
Just as Jack was getting away with the last of the gold,
Bobby saw him and cried, "You can keep the lousy stuff. It’ll bring you nothing
but trouble anyway."
And it was true. Jack and his grandmother fought over the
money, spent it on vacations and finally stopped talking to each other. Bobby, on the
other hand, continued to live in the clouds and drop three bean seeds from time to time,
just to see what other stuff people would steal from him. And they never let him down. But
he was a happy giant and he didn’t care because he still had a lot of gold and he
didn’t need it anyway. And that’s the story of the three bean seeds.
The End |
