Jack stared out at Serena’s mother and saw the woman pacing around, her eyes scanning the carpet for any clue as to where Jack might be hiding.

“It’s lucky that she doesn’t know Serena lifted me up and hid me here,” thought Jack.

He had quite literally forgotten the existence of Gretel and the disappointment of the picnic. He was wildly infatuated with a giantess who would have eaten him if she had caught him by now. How incongruous the situation seemed. Yet Jack could hardly deny his feelings.

Serena waited until her mother had given up the search and left the room. Then the giant girl took Jack back out to the garden and found the top of the beanstalk.

“You’re very lucky,” she said, “Mother would be so angry, if she found out that I helped you escape.”

“Thank you, Serena. You saved me,” said Jack.

He waved goodbye to the girl and headed back down the beanstalk.

The next day, an older lad named Nils, who was 19, found the beanstalk and climbed it. Unwilling to venture into the castle, although ignorant of the threat which lay within, Nils walked around past it, and into a nearby giant forest. He was carrying an empty backpack, which he tended to take with him wherever he went. He came to a berry patch, which had berries which were, to Nils, as large as tennis balls.

“A few of these could fill my backpack and keep me in plentiful supply of this great fruit for weeks,” thought Nils, and began the strenuous task of picking the giant berries and putting them into his backpack.

Soon he heard a sound which made him tremble. Suddenly, towering high above him was a gigantic woman. She was simply enormous.

“What are you doing in my favourite berry patch?” she roared.

“G-g-gathering berries,” shivered Nils.

“Nobody gathers berries in MY patch!” roared the woman, “I shall eat YOU for my supper!”

“Please … don’t do that,” said Nils, “I am but a humble visitor to your land.”

The giant woman was in a playful mood.

“Run and hide,” she said, “I will come and look for you. The first time I find you I will let you go. The second time I find you I will also let you go. But the third time I find you I shall EAT YOU … Now off with you. Run and hide!”

Nils dashed here, there and everywhere in a panic. How could he hide from a giantess? It was impossible. He had almost given up hope of escaping, when he saw a tree trunk with a loose splinter at the bottom. Nils tugged with all his might, until the splinter came loose, climbed in and pulled the splinter back in front of him.

“She will never find me in here,” he laughed to himself, but he had laughed too soon.

When the giantess came looking for him, she was carrying an axe, and cut down the very tree in which Nils was hiding.

“Found you!” she said as she pulled him out and put him on the ground, “Now run and hide again.”