Once upon a time there lived a cobbler—that's a man who makes and repairs shoes. This man did not earn much money with his work—he was poor — and so his wife also earned extra money by growing vegetables in her little garden and selling them at the market. They had a little son called Jack and he used to help his mother.

He sat by his mother's stall in the market and when people came past, he shouted, "Fresh cabbages, carrots, peas—come and buy!"

And people smiled at the little boy and they came and bought his mother's vegetables.

Now one day a very strange-looking woman came to that market. Her face was thin and sharp and full of wrinkles, her eyes were red and her nose was big and pointed and hooked so that it nearly came down to her chin. She hobbled on a long stick and she hobbled right up to the stall where the cobbler's wife sat with her wee Jack and the baskets filled with fresh vegetables.

"Let me look at your greens!" said the old woman with a high shrill voice.

And she bent over the baskets and clutched with her long brown fingers at the cabbage, held it up to her nose, and threw it back again. Then she picked up another and did the same. And she picked up another and did the same. The cobbler's wife did not like that at all, for who would like to buy a cabbage which that old hag had held to her long nose? And little Jack did not like it either how the old woman treated the greens.

He said to her, "Don't put your nose to our things. Other customers won't like it!"

"Oh," said the woman, "You don't like my long nose, do you? Well, soon you will have a nose even longer than mine, ha-ha-ha!"

But Jack's mother said, "Don't talk such nonsense to the child. If you want to buy anything, make haste and don't frighten my other customers away."

The old hag gave her a grim look and said, "Well and good, it shall be as you say. I will take these six cabbages but, as you see I have to walk with a stick, I can't carry them. So let your little son carry the basket with the cabbages to my house. It is not very far from here."

Jack did not like to go with the horrid old woman, but his mother ordered him to go, for she felt sorry for the old person. So the old woman paid, Jack put the cabbages in the basket and followed her. As she hobbled very slowly, it took them quite a while until they came to a small tumbledown house. From the outside it looked a very poor and rather dirty house, but when they came inside, little Jack was surprised to see that the walls were of marble and decorated with gold and precious stones and the floors were so smoothly polished that he slipped and fell. He was still more surprised when the old woman took from her pocket a whistle and blew it and there came several guinea pigs running downstairs. They walked upright like people upright on two legs and were dressed like real people too!

And the old woman said to them, "Get my slippers, you lazybones, and quick!"

The guinea pigs ran and came back with slippers and put them on her feet. These slippers were really coconut shells lined with silk and once the old woman had them on, she could slide and glide with the shells on the polished floor that it was a wonder to see.

Well, little Jack put the basket with the cabbages down and wanted to go back to his mother, but the old woman said, "Wait, I must reward you for carrying the cabbages for me. I am going to give you a nice plate of soup."

And in no time at all the old woman cooked in the kitchen a pot of soup with all kinds of spices and herbs in it and it had quite a wonderful smell. And the guinea pigs brought him a silver bowl of that soup with the marvellous smell and Jack sat down and ate it with great enjoyment.

But as soon as he had eaten the soup, he felt terribly sleepy and drowsy and although he said to himself, "I must go home, I must!", his eyes closed and he fell asleep.

And it seemed to him that he had a strange dream; he dreamed that he was turned into a guinea pig, that he became a servant of the old woman and he polished the shiny smooth floors and then he worked in the kitchen and learned to cook the most marvelous dishes—specially pastries. In the end he could make hundreds of pastries and he could cook wonderful soups that made your mouth water when you smelled them. It seemed to him in his dream that he was for seven years a guinea pig, serving the old woman.

And one day after these seven years, the old woman went out while Jack was working in the kitchen. He had to look for some herbs and noticed a cupboard he had not seen before. He opened it and there was a packet of herbs which had a strange bluish-green color and a flower that was a red as fire. And this herb smelled just like the soup hed had eaten when he first came to the old woman. And when he smelled this herb, he sneezed —and woke up. He felt himself sitting in the armchair in which he had fallen asleep.

"What a strange dream that was," thought Jack. "But now I must go home."

He did not know what really had happened to him—and I will tell you tomorrow what it was.

You have heard how little Jack woke up in the house of the horrible old woman and wondered about the strange dream he had. His limbs felt rather stiff from sleeping and he thought: "I must still be drowsy" for as he walked to the door he was knocking his nose against cupboards and walls. The old woman's guinea pigs were running around him but they did not stop him and he walked out of the house and hurried to the market where his mother was.

As he walked in haste through the streets, he heard people say: "Oh, look at that ugly little man with the long nose!" And he looked round to see if there was some little dwarf behind him but all the people he saw looked quite ordinary. At long last he came to the marketplace and saw his mother at her stall. She looked paler than usual and Jack rushed to her, saying, "I am sorry I am so late in coming back, mother."

But she looked at him with horror and said, "You ugly dwarf, what do you want of me?"

"What do you mean mother?" said Jack in surprise.

"No more of your jokes, dwarf!" shouted the mother, "and don't call me mother. I have had a lovely little son who disappeared seven years ago and noone knows what happened to him and I don't want to be called mother by a horrible creature like you. Go away!"

Poor Jack thought his mother must be ill that she did not recognize him. And Jack, who could not understand what had happened, went away to his father, the cobbler. He walked in and said, "Good day" and the cobbler said to him, "Good day to you, little man," but he too did not recognize him.

And Jack, who could not understand what had happened, said, "Tell me, master cobbler, have you not a son to help you with your work?"

And the cobbler said, "Aye, I had a son but he disappeared seven years ago and has not been heard of since. But what do you want here, little man? A new pair of shoes? Or perhaps a leather bag to put your nose in to keep it warm! It must be hard on you to have such a long nose in this cold weather!"

"A long nose!" said Jack in astonishment. "May I look in the mirror to see what is wrong with my nose?" He went to the mirror and looked at himself and when he saw what he looked like, tears came into his eyes. His nose had grown enormously so that it hung over his mouth and chin, his body had become fat and round so that it looked like a full sack, but his legs were like little thin stalks. And he had not grown in these seven years at all— he was no taller than a little boy.

Now poor Jack knew it had not been a dream, that he had really been a servant of that old woman and that she had made him so horrible-looking that even his own parents could not recognize him. They would never believe that their handsome little son had become a long-nosed ugly dwarf.

And so he sadly left the cobbler's shop and wondered what he should do.

Then he remembered that he had learned to cook when he was with the old woman, that he could make hundreds of pastries and lovely soups and he thought that the King of his country might like a good cook, even if he was an ugly dwarf.

Of course, he could not go to the King himself; the King had already a master-cook, and Jack had to go to the master-cook and ask if he needed any help.

"Yes, I do need a helper," said the master-cook, "but not an ugly dwarf who knows nothing about cooking!"

"But I do!" cried Jack, "please try me out!"

"Well," said the master-cook, "the King wants for his lunch today: chicken soup with dumplings. Can you make it?"

"I can make a better soup than he ever had," said Jack, "Just give me all the herbs and spices I need for it." So he set to work and made the soup and the master-cook was amazed what a lovely soup it was.

And when the King tasted the soup, he called the master-cook and said, This is the loveliest plate of soup I have ever had! Tell me, how did you make it?"

The master-cook answered, "Well, I did not really make it, but this morning an ugly little dwarf with a horrible long nose came and asked to be my helper and I let him make the soup to try him out."

"He is a wonderful cook!" said the King, "and I want you to keep him to make all my soups for me!"

And so Jack, the ugly dwarf with the long nose, became the special soup-cook for the King. He was well-paid and people said of him: "He looks funny with his long nose, but the King likes him for he makes the best soups in the world."

And later Jack cooked other things for him as well: roast lamb, chicken, and goose. Jack always went himself to the market and to the shops to choose the most tender and the most plump chicken and geese for the King's table.

And one day he went to the market and saw a woman he had never seen before and she had a cage with three live geese in it. Jack thought these geese looked nice and plump so he bought them. But as he carried the cage with the three geese back to the King's palace, he was surprised to hear that two of them cackled as all geese do, but the third one sat silently in the cage and only sighed and groaned like a human being.

Jack said aloud to himself: "I wonder if that goose is ill. I'd better kill and cook it first."

And to his amazement the goose said, "Let me live. I will bring you good fortune."

You can imagine how surprised Jack was about that speaking goose—and what happened then I'll tell you next time!

It was a great surprise for Jack when the goose started to speak and begged Jack to save her life. When he had recovered from his astonishment, he said: "I would certainly not kill a goose which speaks human language! But I wonder if you are really a goose or if you have been changed into a goose by some magic power."

And the goose answered, "You are quite right, I am not really a goose. I am the daughter of a great wizard, a magician. Unfortunately my father had a quarrel with a witch and she hated him so much that she changed me, his only daugter, into a goose and sold me to some peasants."

Jack said, "Poor you, you are even worse off than I. But I too have been changed into my present shape, an ugly dwarf with a long nose, by a witch. She played a horrible trick on me by making me eat a plate of soup that smelled wonderfully."

"Oh," said the goose, "you too have fallen under the spell of a witch. But you know, there must have been a magic herb in that soup, and if you knew what that magic herb is called and where it can be found, the same herb would change you back into your real shape."

"I wish I knew the real herb," said Jack, "but alas, I don't know and so I have to remain a long-nosed dwarf. But I will certainly look after you and see that no harm will come to you!"

And so Jack took the cage with the three geese to the King's Palace. The other geese were killed and eaten, but for the goose who was really the daughter of a magician, Jack made a little wooden house and he fed her and looked after her. People wondered why the dwarf had a goose as a pet instead of a cat or a dog, but they did not mind. If the funny little man liked a goose, well, other people liked guinea pigs or white mice or hamsters, so why shouldn't he have a goose? They did not know, of course, that this was a special goose and that Jack had long talks with her in the evening when his work was finished.

Now, one day the King received a visitor, a proud prince from a foreign country and Jack had to cook the most delicious food for this occasion. You see, the King was very proud to have such a good cook and he wanted to show that no other king or prince had a better cook and ate better food than he. Whenever some delicious food was served, the King would say, "Tell me, prince, can your own cook in your land make this pastry nicer than my little dwarf?"

And the prince had to say: "No, your cook is better than mine."

But the prince was very proud and conceited and he did not like to say at every meal: "Oh, yes, your cook is the better one."

And so he said one day to the King, "You have a marvellous cook, but there is one thing my cook at home can do better than yours: it is called 'wonder-pastry.' "

The King said, "Oh, I'm sure my dwarf can make that too." And he called Jack to him and said, "Listen long-nose, we want 'wonder-pastry' for dinner tomorrow and if it is not on my table by tomorrow, your head will be cut off."

"Of course, of course, you will have the wonder-pastry tomorrow," said Jack, but he was trembling all over when he said it because he had never heard of that pastry and did not know how to make it! But in the evening, he went to his friend the goose and told her his troubles.

"Oh, don't worry," said the goose, "as it happens I know how to make wonder-pastry." And she told Jack exactly how to make it.

Well, Jack was happy again and next day he used all his skill in cooking to make the wonder pastry and he served it himself to the King and his visitor, the foreign prince.

The King said, "Mmm! it is delicious, don't you think so, Prince? Can your cook make it any better?"

And the Prince answered, "Well, it's not bad, not bad at all, but you know, something is missing: a special herb and without that special herb the wonder pastry is not as delicious as my cook back home makes it."

"What!" shouted the King, "a herb is missing? You miserable dwarf, why have you not put it in? I shall have your head cut off for this!"

Poor Jack was again trembling and he could only stammer, "I don't know what herb is missing! What is that herb?" And the foreign prince laughed and said, "Oh, it's a very rare herb; it is called 'Sneeze-with-ease.' And without that herb 'Sneeze-with-ease' the wonder pastry tastes only half as good as it should."

Then the King said to Jack, "I will spare your life for another day. Tomorrow you make the wonder-pastry again, and this time with the herb 'Sneeze-with-ease.' And if I don't get it for dinner tomorrow, you will die."

And so Jack went home again to his friend the goose to ask her where he might find the herb 'Sneeze-with-ease' for, if he could not find it, his head would be cut off.

As I have told you, Jack was once again in fear of his life, for if he could not find the herb 'Sneeze-with-ease' and use it for the wonder-pie, his head would be cut off. But poor Jack had never heard of a plant called 'Sneeze-with-ease' and still less did he know where he might find it. And so he came again in the evening to his little friend, the goose, and told her of his troubles.

The goose said, "It's lucky for you that I am the daughter of a magician, for my father taught me to know all the herbs and so I also know the herb 'Sneeze-with-ease.' And tonight is the night of the full moon and it is just in the silvery light of the full moon that this herb blooms. But it grows only at the foot of chestnut trees. Are there any chestnut trees near the palace?"

"Oh, yes!" said Jack. "About 200 yards from the palace there is a large clump of chestnut trees beside a lake."

"Well," said the goose, "then we must not waste any time but go there and look for the herb right away. Carry me on your arm and set me down once we are outside the palace and I will help you to find the plant because I know what it looks like."

And so Jack took the goose in his arm and walked outside the palace and people who saw him thought he took his pet for a walk. So they came to the old chestnut trees by the lake and in the light of the full moon they both looked for the herb 'Sneeze-with-ease.' The goose walked under every tree and she turned over every blade of grass under them but she could not find any 'Sneeze-with-ease' and the poor goose became so desperate that she began to cry.

And just then Jack cried, "Look! on the other side of the lake there is one chestnut tree all by itself. Perhaps we shall find it there!"

The goose hopped and flew along and Jack on his short legs ran after her as fast as he could and so they came to the tall old chestnut tree. This tree cast a deep shadow; it was so dark that it was hardly possible to see what grew under that tree, but suddenly the goose stood still and flapped her wings with joy, poked her head into the grass and pulled out something which she held out in her beak to Jack and said, "This is the herb 'Sneeze-with-ease' and there is plenty of it growing here!"

Jack looked at the herb; it had leaves that were bluish-green and the flower was a fiery red and from this flower came a smell which he thought he knew! Where had he smelled this lovely smell before? Oh! That soup he had eaten in the old woman's house, it had smelled just like this! And Jack put his long nose in the flower and drew in the scent with all his might and it made him sneeze and sneeze and sneeze and when he had finished sneezing, his head had come up from his shoulder, his legs were tall and strong, his body was slim, and his nose had shrunk and had become a nice small straight nose. You can imagine his joy that he was no longer an ugly, long-nosed dwarf, and the goose cried out, "Oh Jack, what a handsome young man you are now! No-one would think you were ever a long-nosed dwarf!"

And Jack said, "Yes, but it is you, dear goose, who have helped me, for without you I would never have known where to find the herb 'Sneeze-with-ease.' And as you have helped me, so I will help you. We shall not go back to the Palace at all. I have finished cooking for the King. I shall take you back to your father and as he is a great magician he will most certainly be able to take the evil spell from you."

And so the same night they set out and by noon the next day they came to the castle of the magician. The magician was very surprised when a handsome young man came in with a goose under his arm and said, "I have brought your daughter back to you." The magician had not known what had happened to his daughter, but now he spoke quickly a powerful spell and there stood, in place of the goose, a beautiful girl.

Of course Jack married the wizard's daughter and then he went to see his parents, who this time recognized him and cried tears of joy. Jack had brought them rich gifts from the magician so that they were no longer poor. So they were all happy except the King who wanted his wonder-pie made with the herb 'Sneeze-with-ease!' The ugly little cook with the long nose had suddenly disappeared and no-one knew where he had gone. There was no-one to make delicious meals for him any more, there was no one to make a wonder-pie for him and his visitor, the foreign price, went away and said "You see, only my cook can make a wonder-pie properly."

And that is the end of the story!