Jack is a young boy living with his widowed mother. Their only means of income is a cow. When this cow stops giving milk, Jack is sent to the market to sell it. On the way to the market he meets an old man who offers to give him "magic" beans in exchange for the cow.
Jack takes the beans but when he arrives home without money, his mother becomes furious and throws the beans out the window and sends Jack to bed without supper.
As Jack sleeps, the beans grow into a gigantic beanstalk. Jack climbs the beanstalk and arrives in a land high up in the sky where he follows a road to a house, which is the home of a giant. He enters the house and asks the giant's wife for food. She gives him food, but the giant returns and senses that a human is nearby:
However, Jack is hidden by the giant's wife and overhears the giant counting his money. Jack steals a bag of gold coins as he makes his escape down the beanstalk.
Jack repeats his journey up the beanstalk two more times, each time he is helped by the increasingly suspicious wife of the giant and narrowly escapes with one of the giant's treasures. The second time, he steals a hen which laid golden eggs and the third time a magical harp that played by itself. This time, he is almost caught by the giant who follows him down the beanstalk. Jack calls his mother for an axe and chops the beanstalk down, killing the giant. The end of the story has Jack and his mother living happily ever after with their new riches.
I think there are several life lessons in this folktale. Jack accepted the bag of beans from the old man but his mother thought they were worthless. She never dreamed that the beans were truly magic and her brave son would use this opportunity to change their lives forever.
We should be thankful for the opportunities that we are given. We may not be able to see their value at the time, but they might lead to positive changes for us in the future.
I made this handmade greeting card for Challenge #142 - Anything Goes With/ Mo Image. I used the digital image They Grow So Fast from Mo's Digital Pencil Shop. I printed it on kraft cardstock and colored it with Prismacolor pencils. I used a vintage picture postcard for the background.
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