Chapter 98 97. Jack the Hero

Once upon a time in Rome there lived a woodcutter named Jack.One day, while he was chopping a branch from an oak tree, the branch fell and broke one of his legs.After three months in the hospital, he refused to stay for even a minute.So he ran away from there and came to Mallorca.One day, he untied the bandage that was covering the wound, and the flies bit the wound immediately.Jack beat them all to death with his hands.Now the flies stopped buzzing around him.He counted the killed flies on the ground around him, and there were exactly 500 Jacks, so he made a sign and hung it around his neck: I am the hero Jack, and I have killed 500 lives.He came to a city and stayed in a small hotel.

Next morning the governor sent for him. "Because you are a good man," the Governor sent for him. "Because you're a good man," said the governor, "there's a giant robbing around here, go and get him." Jack walked into a bush.As he was walking, he met a shepherd. "Where's the giant's cave?" Jack asked. "What are you doing there? The Giant will eat him up," answered the Shepherd. Jack said, "Sell me three or four cottage cheeses." So he went away with a bag of cheese.When he came to the cave where the Giant lived, he began to stamp his feet, making a noise on purpose.The giant came out. "Who is that over there?"

Jack picked up a piece of cheese and said, "Shut up, or I'll crush you like this rock." Then he squeezed the cheese with his hands until it was squeezed from between his fingers. seeped out. Seeing that Jack had such great strength, the giant asked him if he would like to work with him in the future.All right, said Jack, and threw away the rest of the cheese, and partnered with the giant. The next morning, when the giant's firewood ran out, he took a long, long rope, and went into the wood with Jack.He pulled up one oak tree with one hand and another with the other, and said to Jack, "Now, try pulling up some oak trees."

Jack replied, "Hey, Giant, do you have a longer rope? I like to tie the rope to all the trees and pull up the whole forest at once, so that I don't have to pull it up again and again." The giant replied, "Forget it. I don't want you to uproot all the trees, but two are enough. Well, that's it." The giant went home with the two uprooted oak trees, and Jack He took nothing in his hand. One day, the giant was going to have a top-drawing contest with Jack: whoever drew the top the farthest would win a hundred crowns.The giant went to the mill and took the windmill rope as a drawstring and the millstone as a top.The giant spun for nearly a mile, then went up to the top, pointed to the top, told how far it had gone, and said to Jack, "Now it's your turn."

Jack dared not touch the millstone at all, he could not move it an inch, but he cried out, "Take care! Take care, everyone!" The giant narrowed his eyes and looked into the distance: "Who are you calling? Who is there? I didn't see anyone." "I'm saying hello to the people over the sea." "Well, there is no need to draw it. If you draw it so far, we can't get it back." So the giant gave Jack a hundred crowns instead of asking him to draw the millstone. . Then Jack himself suggested a contest. "You're a smart man, let's try and poke a hole with our finger in the trunk of an oak, and see who can get deeper."

The giant agreed: "Let's bet another hundred crowns." Jack had first taken a hand drill and a pocket knife, and dug a hole in an oak tree, and covered the hole with bark so that no trace could be seen.The game started, and the giant poked halfway through the trunk with his fingers.Jack aimed at the hole he dug beforehand, and poked hard, driving most of his arm in. The giant had to give him a hundred crowns.But the giant was uneasy with such a powerful being.So he drove Jack away.When Jack was halfway down the mountain, the giant rolled down many large stones towards him.However, Jack didn't trust the giant at first, and he had already hid in the cave.When he heard the sound of the stone rolling down, he called out loudly, "What is that falling from the sky? Is it crushed limestone?"

The giant thought to himself: "My God! I threw a big stone at him, and he called the big stone limestone! Such a man is better to be friends than to be enemies." So he called Jack back to his cave.But.The Giant was still thinking how to get rid of him.One night, when Jack was asleep, the giant crept up to him and beat him across the head.However, it happened that Jack put a pumpkin on his pillow every night, but turned to sleep on his own.As soon as the Giant broke the pumpkin, Jack said, "I don't care that he smashed my head off, but you kept me from sleeping, and I'll get you!"

Now the Giant was more frightened than ever.I will trick him into the forest, he thought, and chain him there, and the wolves will tear him to pieces.He said to Jack, "Come on, let's go for a walk." "Wow." Jack agreed. "Do you like running races?" asked the Giant. "Let's just race," Jack replied. "Let me run for a while, because your legs are longer than mine." "That makes sense! Okay, I'll let you run for ten minutes first." Jack ran, ran, and ran into a shepherd who was herding sheep. "Sell me a sheep?" he asked.He bought a sheep, took out a knife, cut open the sheep's belly, and threw the sheep's intestines, liver, and other offal on the road. "If a giant asks me," he said to the shepherd, "tell him that I have gutted me out and thrown away in order to run faster, so that I run as fast as the wind. Then you Just show him the guts on the road.

Ten minutes later, the giant came galloping. "Did you see a man running here?" he asked the shepherd. The shepherd told him about the entrails and showed him.The giant said, "Give me a knife, and I will do the same." As he said this, he cut his stomach from top to bottom, and fell on the ground, dying.Jack, who had already climbed a tree, jumped down, borrowed two buffaloes, and dragged the giant to the city.The governor burned the giant's body in the middle of the town square.Jack was rewarded for his meritorious service, and he never had to worry about food and clothing.

(Marche region)