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"Well, Jack," said his father, "what have you learnt at school?"
And Jack said, "I know what dogs mean when they bark."
"That's not much," said his father. "You must go to school again."
So he sent him to school for another year, and when he came back he asked him what he had learnt.
"Well, father," said the boy, "when frogs croak I know what they mean."
"You must learn more than that," said the father, and sent him once more to school.
And when he returned, after another year, he asked him once more what he had learnt.
"I know all the birds say when they twitter and chirp, caw and coo, gobble and cluck."
"Well I must say," said the father, "that does not seem much for three years' schooling. But let us see if you have learnt your lessons properly. What does that bird say just above our heads in the tree there?"
Jack listened for some time but did not say anything.
"Well, Jack, what is it?" asked his father.
"I don't like to say, father."
"I don't believe you know or else you would say. Whatever it is I shall not mind."
Then the boy said, "The bird kept on saying as clear as could be, 'the time is not so far away when Jack's father will offer him water on bended knees for him to wash his hands; and his mother shall offer him a towel to wipe them with.'"
Thereupon the father grew very angry at Jack and his love for him changed to hatred, and one day he spoke to a robber and promised him much money if he would take Jack away into the forest and kill him there and bring back his heart to show that he had done what he had promised. But instead of doing this the robber told Jack all about it and advised him to flee away, while the robber took back to Jack's father the heart of a deer saying that it was Jack's. Then Jack travelled on and on till one night he stopped at a castle on the way; and while they were all supping together in the castle hall the dogs in the court-yard began barking and baying. And Jack went up to the lord of the castle and said, "There will be an attack upon the castle to-night."
"How do you know that?" asked the lord.
"The dogs say so," said Jack.
At that the lord and his men laughed, but never-the-less put an extra guard around the castle that night, and, sure enough, the attack was made, which was easily beaten off because the men were prepared. So the lord gave Jack a great reward for warning him, and he went on his way with a fellow traveller who had heard him warn the lord.
Soon afterwards they arrived at another castle in which the lord's daughter was lying sick unto death; and a great reward had been offered to him that should cure her. Now Jack had been listening to the frogs as they were croaking in the moat which surrounded the castle. So Jack went to the lord of the castle and said, "I know what ails your daughter."
"What is it," asked the lord.
"She has dropped the holy wafer from her mouth and it has been swallowed by one of the frogs in the moat."
"How do you know that?" said the lord.
"I heard the frogs say so."
At first the lord would not believe it; but in order to save his daughter's life he got Jack to point out the frog who was boasting of what he had swallowed, and, catching it, found what Jack had said was true. The frog was caught and killed, the wafer got back, and the girl recovered. So the lord gave Jack the reward which was promised, and he went on further with his companion and with another guest of the castle who had heard what Jack had said and done.
So Jack, with his two companions, travelled on towards Rome, the city of cities where dwelt the Pope, in those days the head of all Christendom. And as they were resting by the roadside Jack said to his companions, "Who would have thought it? One of us is going to be the Pope of Rome."
And his comrades asked him how he knew.
And he said, "The birds above in the tree have said so."
And his comrades at first laughed at him, but then remembered that what he had said before of the barking of dogs and of the croaking of frogs had turned out to be true.
Now when they arrived at Rome they found that the Pope had just died and that they were about to select his successor. And it was decided that all the people should pass under an arch whereon was a bell and two doves, and he upon whose shoulders the doves should alight, and for whom the bell should ring as he passed under the arch was to be the next Pope. And when Jack and his companions came near the arch they all remembered his prophecy and wondered which of the three should receive the signs. And his first comrade passed under the arch and nothing happened, and then the second and nothing happened, but when Jack went through the doves descended and alighted upon his shoulder and the bell began to toll. So Jack was made Pope of all Christendom, and he took the name of Pope Sylvester.
After a while the new Pope went upon his travels and came to the town where his father dwelt. And there was a great banquet held, to which Jack's father and mother were invited at his request. And when they came he ordered his servants to give to his father the basin of water, and to his mother the towel, wherewith the Pope would wash his hands after dinner. Now this was, in those days, a great honour, and people wondered why Jack's father and mother should be so honoured. But after Jack's father had offered him the basin of water, and his mother the towel, Jack said to them, "Do you not know me, mother? Do you not know me, father?" and made himself known to them and reminded his father of what the bird had said. So he forgave his father and took him and his mother to live with him ever afterwards.
THE THREE SOLDIERS
Once upon a time three soldiers returned from the wars; one was a sergeant, one was a corporal, and the third was a simple private. One night they were caught in a forest and made a fire up to sleep by; and the sergeant had to do sentry-go. While he was walking up and down an old woman, bent double, came up to him and said:
"Please, sir, may I warm myself by your fire?"
"Why, certainly, mother, you are welcome to all the warmth you can get."
So the old woman sat by the fire for a time, and when she had got thoroughly warmed she said to the sergeant:
"Thank you, soldier; here is something for your trouble." And she handed him a purse, which seemed to have nothing in it.
"Oh, thank you, marm," said the sergeant, "but I wouldn't deprive you of it, especially as there is nothing in it."
"That may be so now," said the old woman, "but take it in your hand and turn it upside-down and, while you hold it like that gold pieces will come pouring out of it."
He took it, and, sure enough, whenever he held it up out came the gold pieces. So he thanked her very much, and off she went.
Next night the corporal had to play sentry, and the old woman came up to him and asked to sit by the side of the fire.
"Certainly, marm," said he, "and welcome you are. I have known what it is to shiver in my bones."
So the old woman sat by the fire for a time, and when she was leaving gave the corporal a tablecloth.
Said he, "Thank you, marm, kindly, but we soldiers rarely use tablecloths when we are eating our vittles."
"Yes, but this gives you vittles to eat," said the old woman. "Whenever you put this over a table or on the ground and call out 'Be covered!' the finest dinner you could eat at once comes upon it."
"If that is so," said the corporal, "I'll take it and thank you kindly." And with that the old woman departed, and the corporal woke up his comrades and called out: "Tablecloth be covered!" And, sure enough, the finest dinner you could imagine appeared upon the cloth.
Next night the private marched up and down doing sentry-go, when the old woman appeared again and asked to sit by the fire.
"Surely," said the private, "you're as welcome as my own mother would be."
And after she had sat some time by the fire she got up and said:
"Thank you kindly, sir; I hope this will pay you for your trouble." And she gave him a whistle.
"And what's this for?" said the private. "I can't play on the whistle."
"But you can blow it," said she, "and whenever you blow it out will come a regiment of armed men that will do whatever you tell them."
And with that the old woman departed, and they never saw her more.
So the three soldiers travelled on till they came to a city where there was a princess, who was so proud of her card playing that she had agreed to marry any one who could beat her at cards. Now the sergeant was also very proud of his card playing, and he thought he would try his luck with the princess. So when he went up to the palace he offered to play a game with her, but she said to him:
"What are your stakes? If I lose I have to marry you. But if you lose what do you lose?"
So the sergeant said: "I'll stake my purse."
"Why, what's a purse with nothing in it!" said the princess.
"There may be nothing in it now," said the sergeant, "but see here," and he turned the purse upside-down and put his hand under it, and it kept on dropping gold pieces into his hand as long as he held it upside-down.
So the princess agreed to play for the purse. But she had arranged a mirror at the back of his head in which she could see all his cards. And so she won easily, and he had to give up the purse.
But this princess was so charming that the sergeant had fallen in love with her, and when he went back to his comrades he asked the corporal to lend him his tablecloth. And he went back to the princess and said to her:
"Will you play me for this tablecloth?"
And she said: "It may be a very beautiful tablecloth but it isn't quite equal to me."
Then he laid it on a table and said, "Cloth, cover thyself." And there was a most delicious dinner spread upon it.
But, as the princess knew she would be able to beat him, she agreed to play him for the tablecloth, and, sure enough, by means of the mirror, she won the tablecloth from him.
The same thing happened when he borrowed the whistle from the private and tried his luck with the princess again. But this time he watched what she was doing, and knew that she had cheated him though he dared not say so. He lost again and went back to his comrades and asked them to forgive him, but he could not help it as the princess had cheated him. So his friends forgave him, and they all went their various ways.
Now the sergeant wandered along, and wandered along, and wandered along, till he came to the bank of a stream on which there grew fig trees, white and black. And he gathered some of these figs from the different trees, and sat down by the bank to eat them. And he ate a black fig, and then, feeling thirsty, went down to the stream to drink some of the water, and as he looked in he found that he had two horns on the side of his head just like a goat, instead of two ears. He didn't know what to do; but as he was still hungry he ate one of the white figs; and when he went to drink again he found the horns had disappeared. So then he knew that the black figs brought the horns and the white figs took them away. So he gathered some more of them and went back to the palace of the princess, and sent her up some of the black figs as a present from an admirer.
And after a while there was a rumour spread around the city that the princess had horns in her head, and would give anything to any one who could remove them.
So the sergeant went up to the palace and presented himself before the princess and said to her:
"I can remove your horns, but I want my purse, and my tablecloth, and my whistle back."
Then she ordered them to be brought and promised to give them back to him as soon as the horns were removed.
So he gave her a white fig, and as soon as she had eaten it the horns disappeared; and he took up the purse, the tablecloth, and the whistle. Then he said to her:
"Now, will you marry me?"
"No," she replied, "why should I?"
"Because you didn't win these fairly."
"That may be, or that may not be, but I see no reason why I should marry you."
Thereupon he blew his whistle, and the palace was filled with a regiment of soldiers. And the sergeant said:
"If you do not marry me these men shall seize your father and I will seize his throne."
So the princess married him, and he sent for the corporal and the private and made them rich and prosperous, and they all lived fairly happily together.
A DOZEN AT A BLOW
A little tailor was sitting cross-legged at his bench and was stitching away as busy as could be when a woman came up the street calling out: "Home-made jam, home-made jam!"
So the tailor called out to her: "Come here, my good woman, and give me a quarter of a pound."
And when she had poured it out for him he spread it on some bread and butter and laid it aside for his lunch. But, in the summer-time, the flies commenced to collect around the bread and jam.
When the tailor noticed this, he raised his leather strap and brought it down upon the crowd of flies and killed twelve of them straightway. He was mighty proud of that. So he made himself a shoulder-sash, on which he stitched the letters: A Dozen at One Blow.
When he looked down upon this he thought to himself: "A man who could do such things ought not to stay at home; he ought to go out to conquer the world."
So he put into his wallet the cream cheese that he had bought that day and a favourite blackbird that used to hop about his shop, and went out to seek his fortune.
He hadn't gone far when he met a giant, and went up to him and said: "Well, comrade, how goes it with you?"
"Comrade," sneered the giant, "a pretty comrade you would make for me."
"Look at this," said the tailor pointing to his sash.
And when the giant read, "A Dozen at a Blow," he thought to himself: "This little fellow is no fool of a fighter if what he says is true. But let's test him."
So the giant said to the tailor: "If what you've got there is true, we may well be comrades. But let's see if you can do what I can do."
And he bent down in the road and took up a large stone and pressed it with his hand till it all crushed up and water commenced to pour out from it.
"Can you do that?" said the giant.
The tailor also bent down in the road, but took out from his wallet the piece of cheese and pretended to pick it up.
When he took it in his hand he pressed and pressed till the cream poured forth from it.
The giant said: "Well, you can do that fairly well. Let's see if you can throw."
He took another stone and threw it till it went right across the river by which they were standing.
So the little tailor took his blackbird in his hand and pretended to throw it, and of course when it felt itself in the air it flew away and disappeared.
The giant said: "That wasn't a bad throw. You may as well come home and stop with us giants, and we'll do great things together."
As they went along the giant said: "We want some twigs for our night fires. You may as well help me carry some home." And he pointed to a tree that had fallen by the wayside and said: "Help me carry that, will you?"
So the tailor said, "Why certainly," and went to the top of the tree, and said: "I'll carry these branches which are the heavier; you carry the trunk which has no branches."
And when the giant got the trunk on his shoulders the tailor seated himself on one of the branches and let the giant carry him along.
After a time the giant got tired and said: "Ho there, wait a minute, I'm going to drop the tree and rest awhile."
So the tailor jumped down and caught the tree around the branches again and said: "Well, you are easily tired."
At last they got to the giant's castle and there the giant spoke to his brothers and told them what a brave and powerful fellow this little tailor was. They spoke together and determined to get rid of him lest he might do them some harm. But they determined to kill him in the night because he was so strong and might kill twelve of them at a blow.
But the tailor saw them whispering together, and guessing that something was wrong went out into the yard and got a big bladder which he filled with blood and put it in the bed which the giants pointed out to him.
Then he crept under it, and during the night they brought their big clubs and hit the bed over and over again till the blood spurted out onto their faces.
Then they thought the tailor was dead and went back to sleep.
But in the morning there was the tailor as large as life. And they were so surprised to see him that they asked him if he had not felt anything during the night.
"Oh, I don't know, there seemed to be plenty of fleas in that bed," said the tailor. "I do not think I would care to sleep there again." And with that he took his leave of the giants and went on his way.
After a time he came to the King's court and fell asleep under a tree. And some of the courtiers passing by saw written upon his sash, "A Dozen at One Blow."
They went and told the King who said: "Why, he's just the man for us; he will be able to destroy the wild boar and the unicorn that are ravaging our kingdom. Bring him to us."
So they woke up the little tailor and brought him to the King, who said to him: "There is a wild boar ravaging our kingdom. You are so powerful that you will easily be able to capture it."
"What shall I get if I do?" asked the little tailor.
"Well, I have promised to give my daughter's hand and half the kingdom to the man who can do it, and other things."
"What other things?" said the little tailor.
"Oh, it will be time to learn that when you have caught the boar."
Then the little tailor went out to the wood where the boar was last seen, and when he came near him he ran away, and ran away, and ran away, till at last he came to a little chapel in the wood into which he ran, and the boar at his heels. He climbed up to a high window and got outside the chapel, and then rushed around to the door and closed and locked it.
Then he went back to the King and said to him: "I have your wild boar for you in the chapel in the woods. Send some of your men to kill him, or do what you like with him."
"How did you manage to get him there?" said the King.
"Oh, I caught him by the bristles and threw him in there as I thought you wanted to have him safe and sound. What's the next thing I must do?"
"Well," said the King, "there's a unicorn in this country killing everyone that he meets. I do not want him slain; I want him caught and brought to me."
So the little tailor said, "Give me a rope and a hatchet and I will see what I can do."
So he went with the rope and hatchet to the wood, where the unicorn had been seen. And when he came towards it he dodged it, and he dodged it, till at last he dodged behind a big tree, till the unicorn, in trying to pierce, ran his horn into the tree where it stuck fast.
Then the little tailor came forth and tied the rope around the unicorn's neck, and dug out the horn with his hatchet, and dragged the unicorn to the King.
"What's the next thing?" said the little tailor.
"Well, there is only one thing more. There are two giants who are destroying everybody they meet. Get rid of them, and my daughter and the half of my kingdom shall be yours."
Then the little tailor went to seek the giants and found them sleeping under some trees in the woods. He filled his box with stones, climbed up a tree overlooking the giants, and when he had hidden himself in the branches he threw a stone at the chest of one of the giants who woke up and said to his brother giant, "What are you doing there?"
And the other giant woke up and said, "I have done nothing."
"Well, don't do it again," said the other giant, and laid down to sleep again.
Then the tailor threw a stone at the other giant and hit him a whack on the chin. That giant rose up and said to his fellow giant, "What do you do that for?"
"Do what?"
"Hit me on the chin."
"I didn't."
"You did."
"I didn't."
"You did."
"Well, take that for not doing it."
And with that the other giant hit him a rousing blow on the head. With that they commenced fighting and tore up the trees and hit one another till at last one of them was killed, and the other one was so badly injured that the tailor had no difficulty in killing him with his hatchet.
Then he went back to the King and said: "I have got rid of your giants for you; send your men and bury them in the forest. They tore up the trees and tried to kill me with them but I was too much for them. Now for the Princess."
Well, the King had nothing more to say, and gave him his daughter in marriage and half the kingdom to rule.
But shortly after they were married the Princess heard the tailor saying in his sleep: "Fix that button better; baste that side gore; don't drop your stitches like that."
And then she knew she had married a tailor. And she went to her father weeping bitterly and complained.
"Well, my dear," he said, "I promised, and he certainly showed himself a great hero. But I will try and get rid of him for you. To-night I will send into your bedroom a number of soldiers that shall slay him even if he can kill a dozen at a blow."
So that night the little tailor noticed there was something wrong and heard the soldiers moving about near the bedroom. So he pretended to fall asleep and called out in his sleep: "I have killed a dozen at a blow; I have slain two giants; I have caught a wild boar by his bristles, and captured a unicorn alive. Show me the man that I need fear."
And when the soldiers heard that they said to the Princess that the job was too much for them, and went away.
And the Princess thought better of it, and was proud of her little hero, and they lived happily ever afterwards.
THE EARL OF CATTENBOROUGH
Once upon a time there was a miller who had three sons, Charles, Sam, and John. And every night when the servant went to bed he used to call out:
"Good-night, Missus; good-night, Master; Good-night, Charles, Sam, John."
Now after a time the miller's wife died, and, soon after, the miller, leaving only the mill, the donkey, and the cat. And Charles, as the eldest, took the mill, and Sam took the donkey and went off with it, and John was left with only the cat.
Now how do you think the cat used to help John to live? She used to take a bag with a string around the top and place it with some cheese in the bushes, and when a hare or a partridge would come and try to get the piece of cheese—snap! Miss Puss would draw the string and there was the hare or partridge for Master Jack to eat. One day two hares happened to rush into the bag at the same time. So the cat, after giving one to Jack, took the other and went with it to the King's palace. And when she came outside the palace gate she cried out, "Miaou."
The sentry at the gate came to see what was the matter. Miss Puss gave him the hare with a bow and said: "Give this to the King with the compliments of the Earl of Cattenborough."
The King liked jugged hare very much and was glad to get such a fine present.
Shortly after this Miss Puss found a gold coin rolling in the dirt. And she went up to the palace and asked the sentry if he would lend her a corn measure.
The sentry asked who wanted it. And Puss said: "My Master, the Earl of Cattenborough."
So the sentry gave her the corn measure. And a little while afterwards she took it back with the gold coin, which she had found, fixed in a crack in the corn measure.