Chapter XIX

The morning shone brightly, all nature was gay;
And the Giant at breakfast was pegging away:
On pantomime rolls all so fiercely fed he,
And he ate hasty-pudding along with his tea.

Oh, why starts the monster in terror and fright?
Why gapes and why stares he when Jack meets his sight?
Why mutters he wildly, o'ercome with dismay,
"How long have ghosts taken to walking by day?"

{023}

XX.

"Pless us!" he cried, "it can't be;--no! "
"'Tis I," said Jack, "old fellow, though."
"How slept you?" asked the monster gruff.
"Toi lol," he answered;--"well enough:

About twelve, or one, I awoke with a rat,--
At least, I fancied it was that,--
Which fetched me with its tail a ' whop; '
But I went off again as sound as a top."

XXI.

Jack's feet the Giant did n't scan,
Because he was a Pagan man;
And knew no more than a mining lad
What kind of a foot Apollyon had;

But he thought to himself, with a puzzled brow,
"Well, you're a rum one, any how."
Jack took a chair, and set to work,--
Oh! but he ate like a famished Turk;

In sooth it was astounding quite,
How he put the pudding out of sight.
Thought the Giant, "What an appetite!"
He had buttoned his coat together
O'er a capacious bag of leather,

And all the pudding he could n't swallow
He craftily slipped into its hollow.

{024}

XXII.

When breakfast was finished, he said, "Old brick,
See here; I 'll show you a crafty trick;
You dare not try it for your life:"
And he ripped up the bag with a table-knife.

Squash! tumbled the smoking mess on the floor,
But Jack was no worse than he was before.

"Odds splutter hur nails!" swore the monster Welch,
And he gashed his belly with fearful squelch;
Let the daylight in
Through the hole in his skin,--
The daylight in and the pudding out,
With twenty gallons of blood about;
And his soul with a terrific "Oh!"
Indignant sought the shades below.

{025}

JACK SCRAPES AND ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE PRINCE OF WALES