Children's Tale

Jack was a thoughtful child of 7 years and 3 months. He lived in a
flat with his mother in a tiny village just outside Worcester.

His father had left years before and Jack did all he could to help, but
he wished he could do more.

It was coming up to his mother's birthday and Jack wanted to buy her a
really nice present. The only problem was, he didn't have any
money.

He thought and thought about this and finally he had an idea.

On the following Saturday morning he went along to the local car boot
sale with his mother and had a look around. He arranged to meet her by
the ice cream van an hour later and went off to explore.

Eventually he found something he just knew his mother would like. It
was a vase. It had a painting of a cow on the front of it and looked
like it was made of gold.

Jack approached the man who was selling the vase. He was huge with big
broad shoulders. His ginger whiskers touched his chest and he had hands
the size of dinner plates. He had pale blue eyes underneath gold,
rimmed glasses and wore the biggest sized boots that Jack had ever seen
in his life.

Looking up as far as he could, Jack took a deep breath and spoke to
the giant.
"Excuse me!" he said, being the polite lad he was.
"Yes sonny!" The giant said with a deep Scottish accent.
"I would like to buy that vase with the cow on it, but I haven't got
any money".
The giant laughed, "How do you expect to do that without any
money?"
"With this", Shakily, Jack handed the giant his favourite game from
his Sony Playstation. The game was called "Beanstalk".
"Well now", said the giant, "that's very interesting, why would you
swap such an expensive game for this old vase?"
Jack explained about his mother's birthday and how he couldn't afford
to buy her anything.

The giant scratched his beard. His blue eyes twinkled and his stern
face softened.
"Well I suppose my wee Jimmy will like it. Fee fi fo fum, I do believe
a deal's been done!" he said.
Jack and the giant shook hands and exchanged their goods.

When it was her birthday. Jack's mother was really surprised.
"Jack I really love my present but you shouldn't have swapped your
favourite game for it. It is lovely though, Thank you" and she kissed
Jack on the cheek, which he wiped off with the back of his hand as soon
she wasn't looking.

Jack's mother placed the vase with the cow on it, on top of the
fireplace and she named it Daisy.

Daisy sat on top of the mantelpiece for a few months until it was
nearly time for Christmas.

Jack's mother wanted to buy Jack a new "Beanstalk" game because she
knew how much he loved the old one. So she took Daisy to an
auction.

It turned out that Daisy was originally made in Worcester and was
painted by an artist called John Stinton. John Stinton was famous for
painting highland cattle on vases in around 1912.

In the auction Daisy fetched hundreds of pounds. So Jack and his
mother had a really nice Christmas and Jack got his "Beanstalk"
back.