Arthur Rackham's Book of Pictures/Some Fairy Tales

by Arthur Rackham

III

13	JACK THE GIANT KILLER
	In the course of his adventures, Jack sleeps at the house of a monstrous Welsh giant with two heads. In the morning he has breakfast with the giant. Each has a bowl containing four gallons of hasty pudding. “One would have thought that the greater portion of so extrava­gant an allowance would have been declined by our hero, but he was unwilling the giant should imagine his incapability to eat it, and accordingly placed a large leather bag under his loose coat in such a position that he could convey the pudding into it without the deception being perceived. Breakfast at length being finished, Jack excited the giant’s curiosity by offering to show him an extraordinary sleight of hand; so taking a knife, he ripped the leather bag, and out, of course, descended on the ground all the hasty pudding. The giant had not the slightest suspicion of the trick, veritably believing the pudding came from its natural receptacle, and having the same antipathy to being beaten, exclaimed in true Welsh, ‘Odds splutters, hur can do that trick hurself.’ The sequel may be readily guessed. The monster took the knife, and thinking to follow Jack’s example with impunity, killed himself on the spot.”
14	JACK AND THE BEAN STALK
	Jack clambers down the beanstalk and chops it through with his axe; and the giant who is descending after him falls to the earth and is killed.
15	PUSS IN BOOTS
	Puss in Boots was the sole possession of a poor youth. The cat, however, manages by a succession of clever tricks to make his master’s fortune. He gains for him the fine castle and vast estates that belonged to an ogre by the same device that Loge used to get the Ring of the Niblungs from Alberich. He calls at the castle and, by pretending to doubt the ogre’s magic powers, he induces him to change himself first into a lion and then into a mouse, whereupon he falls upon him and eats him up. Perrault.
16	ADRIFT
	“I will put on my new red shoes,” she said one morning, “those which Kay has not seen, and then I will go down to the river and ask it about him.” It was quite early; little Gerda kissed her old grandmother, who was asleep, put on the red shoes, and went out quite alone through the town gate towards the river. “Is it true that you have taken my little play­mate? I will make you a present of my red shoes if you will give him back to me.” And she thought the waves nodded to her so strangely; she then took her red shoes, the most precious she had, and threw them both out into the river, but they fell close to the bank and the little billows soon carried them ashore to her; it seemed as if the river would not take the dearest treasure she had because it could not give back little Kay to her; but then she thought she had not thrown the shoes out far enough, and so she climbed into a boat which was lying among the rushes, and went right to the farthest end of it and threw the shoes into the water; but the boat was not fastened, and its motion as she got into it sent it adrift from the bank. As soon as she noticed this she hastened to get out of the boat, but before she could jump ashore it was an arm’s length from the bank, and it drifted rapidly down the river. The Snow Queen. Andersen.
17	THE FROG PRINCE
	The youngest daughter of the King loses her golden ball in a well in the forest where she has been playing. A frog hears her crying and bargains with her before he fetches back her ball. He will not accept her offer of her pretty dresses, or her pearls or diamonds, or even of her golden crown, but makes her promise that she will be fond of him and let him be her playmate, sit by her at table, eat out of her plate, drink out of her cup and sleep in her little bed—“if you will promise all this,” he says, “I will dive down and bring you back your golden ball.” Of course she agrees, thinking she may safely promise a frog anything he asks no matter how absurd it is. The frog brings back her ball, and the Princess has to keep all her promises much to her chagrin. But all ends happily. The frog proves to be a bewitched Prince, is restored to his natural form, and marries the Princess. Grimm.
18	SANTA CLAUS

13 Jack the Giant Killer

14 Jack and the Bean Stalk

15 Puss in Boots

16 Adrift

17 The Frog Prince

18 Santa Claus