Once there was a poor widow, as often there has been, and she had one son. A very scarce summer came, and they didn’t know how they’d live until the new potatoes were ready to eat. So Jack said to his mother one evening, “Mother, bake my cake, and kill my hen, so I can go seek my fortune; and if I find it, don’t worry, I’ll soon be back to share it with you.”

So she did as he asked, and he set out at dawn on his journey. His mother came with him to the yard gate and said, “Jack, would you rather have half the cake and half the hen with my blessing, or all of them with my curse?”

“Oh, mother,” said Jack, “why do you ask me that? You know I wouldn’t take your curse even with a fortune.”

“Well then, Jack,” she said, “here’s the whole lot with my thousand blessings.” She stood on the yard fence and blessed him as far as she could see him.