CHAPTER I

Mrs Jenny Gretapenny lived in a shoe. It was a large shoe, large enough to be a house to her, for it belonged to a giant. One day, as she was going to market, she found a penny on the road, and she said, “I will buy a sow and a pig with this penny.” So she bought a sow and a pig with the penny, and kept them in the giant's shoe. And the big one grew fat and the little one grew big ; and, in the course of time, the fat one became bacon, and the big one, that had once been a little pig, had little pigs of its own.

About this time the giant who owned the shoe said to the dwarf who collected his rents, “I am going into far countries to visit the kings and queens of the earth, and I must have money.” And the dwarf rose, and straightway went to Mrs Jenny Gretapenny, and said, “I am come for the rent.” And having got the rent, and paid it to the giant, he said, “Mrs Jenny Getapenny, the old woman who lives in a shoe, has more pigs than ever she had, and more bacon. She is increasing in wealth; she can pay more rent.”