James Greenwood

“ In short, what the old Thatcher had to tell, and what, with mouths agape and pipes grown cold in their nervous grasp, the seven middle-aged labourers for the first time in their lives listened to, was "Jack and the Beanstalk." Never did story-teller command a more attentive audience. They were with the thatcher every step of his way up the "ladder as high as the sky," and when Jack blew the horn that hung at the gate of the castle of the two-headed giant, every man wetted his lips with his tongue, as though in imagination he was taking a turn at it. ”

“ Nobody asked the thatcher any question when he had done. Every man relit his pipe and took a drink of beer, and composed himself to silent cogitation until the clock struck ten, when, with a nod for "good night, they took their departure; to dream, I have no doubt, of the redoubtable Jack, and wake in a sweat at the scratching of a mouse, exaggerated in the ghostly stillness to the noise of Giant Blunderbore coming head first down the chimney. ”

“ After this comparatively animated conversation we subsided once more to silence, and puffed at our pipes with a fixed regard each for his brown beer jug on the table. At last one old gentleman - a thatcher by trade, who sat in a corner by himself - startled the company by a strange noise he was making in his throat. It was at first supposed that he had been drinking and his beer had gone the wrong way, but alarm quickly gave way to amazement when it was discovered that the aged thatcher was chuckling with suppressed laughter. ”