The Everything Fairy Tales Book by Amy Peters

Author:Amy Peters
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: epub, ebook
Publisher: Adams Media
Published: 2001-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Ugly Duckling followed the swan into the middle of the pond and looked down into the water at his reflection. The swan was right — the Ugly Duckling had grown into a beautiful swan!

The Blinded Giant

Once upon a time, there lived a fierce giant at a mill in Yorkshire. He had no friends, except for his dog, Hamlet. The giant's ears were abnormally large, and his hands were the size of wagon wheels. His head itself was the size of a wagon, and he had a wart the size of a loaf of bread at the end of his bulbous nose. To make matters worse for this rather hideous fellow, he had only one eye, placed like a bull's-eye in the middle of his broad forehead. Along with being ugly, he had a rather nasty diet. What was his preferred meal? One hundred giant loaves of bread that he made from the bones of people he ground in his mill.

As you can imagine, grinding the bones for all of this bread was a rather Herculean task. In fact, the giant thought long and hard (his head was large, but his brain was not!) about how to find an assistant to help him with the bone grinding and bread making. He was so completely feared and loathed that he thought it unlikely anyone would volunteer for this odious job. So, he decided to find a capable youth and steal him away.

He spent some time wandering through the local countryside, looking for the right assistant. He wanted a hard worker who wouldn't complain and wouldn't run away from him. After weeks of searching, he found his desired prey — a boy named Jack. He'd watched Jack help his mother and father without ever uttering a complaint. The giant liked Jack's polite demeanor, so he scooped him up and took the boy back to the mill.

Of course, Jack thought he was destined to be bone meal for the next batch of bread. But instead, the giant roared, “Fee, fi, fo, find. I want you to help me grind!”

And, so it went. Jack was so relieved at not being made into the giant's next meal that he agreed to stay on and work as a servant. It was hard and torturous work, running the mill all day; but Jack stayed and did as he was told, fearing for his life if he did otherwise.

Jack served the fierce giant for seven long years. In all of that time, the mean giant never gave Jack so much as one day off. Jack had no bed — just a pile of straw on a cold stone floor — and very little to eat. Finally, Jack was fed up. He couldn't bear it for one more minute. The county fair was coming and Jack begged to go. Everybody in the land went to the fair to see the traveling musicians, to meet their friends, and eat exotic foods. The giant, though, showed no mercy.

“No, no,” roared the giant.

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