with good green grass in it, and it belonging to a giant. So he knocked
down a bit of the wall and drove them in, and he went up himself into
an apple-tree and began to eat the apples. Then the giant came into the
field. "Fee-faw-fum," says he, "I smell the blood of an Irishman. I see
you where you are, up in the tree," he said; "you are too big for one
mouthful, and too small for two mouthfuls, and I don't know what I'll
do with you if I don't grind you up and make snuff for my nose." "As
you are strong, be merciful," says Jack up in the tree. "Come down out
of that, you little dwarf," said the giant, "or I'll tear you and the
tree asunder." So Jack came down. "Would you sooner be driving red-hot
knives into one another's hearts," said the giant, "or would you sooner
be fighting one another on red-hot flags?" "Fighting on red-hot flags
is what I'm used to at home," said Jack, "and your dirty feet will be
sinking in them and my feet will be rising." So then they began the
fight. The ground that was hard they made soft, and the ground that was
soft they made hard, and they made spring wells come up through the
green flags. They were like that all through the day, no one getting
the upper hand of the other, and at last a little bird came and sat on
the bush and said to Jack, "If you don't make an end of him by sunset,
he'll make an end of you." Then Jack put out his strength, and he
brought the giant down on his knees. "Give me my life," says the giant,
"and I'll give you the three best gifts." "What are those?" said Jack.
"A sword that nothing can stand against, and a suit that when you put
it on, you will see everybody, and nobody will see you, and a pair of
shoes that will make you ran faster than the wind blows." "Where are
they to be found?" said Jack. "In that red door you see there in the
hill." So Jack went and got them out. "Where will I try the sword?"
says he. "Try it on that ugly black stump of a tree," says the giant.
"I see nothing blacker or uglier than your own head," says Jack. And
with that he made one stroke, and cut off the giant's head that it went