Once upon a time there lived a man and his wife and nine children in a small house, and they had no land.
Their father died, and the eldest son called Jack had not much sense.
They were very poor, and their mother went out working every day. The support she had for the children, was a bowl of meal every day, to make porridge for them when she came home. Jack had to mind the children when his mother was out working. When she used to be coming home, she could hear the children crying with the hunger, waiting for her to come home.
One evening an old beggarman came in to Jack and asked him for lodgings for the night, and he got them. He asked Jack why all the children were crying, and Jack said they were crying with the hunger, He told him to put the pot on the fire, and fill it with stones, He did as he was told, and the children fell asleep