Jill and the Beanstalk - Part 2

Astra paused for a moment. She had realised that the story was going take much longer to tell than she had originally anticipated. She had already been speaking for some time, but had still not reached the "meat" of the tale. She quickly glanced round her audience to check for any signs of boredom, and was pleased to see that even the adults seemed to be engrossed in her story. She carried on:

Unlike her outward journey, Jill's journey home went without anything noteworthy happening. She found that the magic basket really did work as the woman had told her that it would. Not only did it provide her with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of food, but it was far tastier food than anything that she had ever had before.

Some four or five days after she had left her home, she was back. Her mother was overjoyed to see her, but at the same time deeply worried. "What made you turn round and come straight home?" she asked Jill. "Did something bad happen?"

"No, mother. I helped a man who had been set on by robbers. His mother gave me a magic basket, that will provide us with a never-ending supply of food." She demonstrated, and her mother saw that it was really so. Naturally, she was delighted. "We shall never go hungry again," she said.

1. As an afterthought, for they were surely far less important than the basket, Jill added: "And she also gave me some seeds."

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