Hello and Merry Christmas to you.

By popular acclaim, I wanted to do another segment on children's fairy tales.

The first one we did a few months ago was about fairy tales that were oriented towards girls,

and I wanted to do one about the fairy tales that were oriented towards boys.

And I thought I'd pick a classic, or a couple of classics actually,

Jack and the Beanstalk to start with,

and talk a little bit about that one and what it means.

And we have a nice little Lady Bird copy of the book here,

and we have some Hans Christian Anderson books, stories

that we're going to get into. So I won't read all of them to you, I promise, and I'm sure you won't

be falling asleep. But we're going to be talking a little bit about the flying trunk and the

little tin soldiers, a little tin soldier, as good examples for boys to learn about.

So Jack in the Meadstock, you all know it.

Jack is a bit of a lazy boy.

He lounges around the house all day.

He doesn't help his mother,

but he's kind-hearted and decent,

and you know, he does his best.

And then as his mother, who's a widow, becomes more and more broke,

she decides that he has to sell the cow, because they have nothing left,

and that's the last thing that they've got.

So he's pretty desperate.

...