No More Learning

' So he took out the sword he had got from the giant, and he
put it in at the back of the serpent's neck, the way blood and water
came spouting out that went for fifty miles inland, and made an end of
him. And then he made off, and no one saw what way he went, and the
bully brought the princess to the king, and claimed to have saved her,
and it is he who was made much of, and was the right-hand man after
that.

But when the feast was made ready for the wedding, the princess took
out the bit of hair she had, and she said she would marry no one but
the man whose hair would match that, and she showed the shoe and said
that she would marry no one whose foot would not fit that shoe as well.
And the bully tried to put on the shoe, but so much as his toe would
not go into it, and as to his hair, it didn't match at all to the bit
of hair she had cut from the man that saved her.

So then the king gave a great ball, to bring all the chief men of the
country together to try would the shoe fit any of them. And they were
all going to carpenters and joiners getting bits of their feet cut off
to try could they wear the shoe, but it was no use, not one of them
could get it on.

Then the king went to his chief adviser and asked what could he do. And
the chief adviser bade him to give another ball, and this time he said,
'Give it to poor as well as rich. '

So the ball was given, and many came flocking to it, but the shoe would
not fit any one of them. And the chief adviser said, 'Is every one here
that belongs to the house? ' 'They are all here,' said the king, 'except
the boy that minds the cows, and I would not like him to be coming up
here. '

Jack was below in the yard at the time, and he heard what the king
said, and he was very angry, and he went and got his sword and came
running up the stairs to strike off the king's head, but the man that
kept the gate met him on the stairs before he could get to the king,
and quieted him down, and when he got to the top of the stairs and the
princess saw him, she gave a cry and ran into his arms. And they tried
the shoe and it fitted him, and his hair matched to the piece that had
been cut off. So then they were married, and a great feast was given
for three days and three nights.

And at the end of that time, one morning there came a deer outside the
window, with bells on it, and they ringing.
And it called out, 'Here
is the hunt, where is the huntsman and the hound? ' So when Jack heard
that he got up and took his horse and his hound and went hunting the
deer. When it was in the hollow he was on the hill, and when it was on
the hill he was in the hollow, and that went on all through the day,
and when night fell it went into a wood. And Jack went into the wood
after it, and all he could see was a mud-wall cabin, and he went in,
and there he saw an old woman, about two hundred years old, and she
sitting over the fire. 'Did you see a deer pass this way? ' says Jack.
'I did not,' says she, 'but it's too late now for you to be following a
deer, let you stop the night here. ' 'What will I do with my horse and
my hound? ' said Jack. 'Here are two ribs of hair,' says she, 'and let
you tie them up with them. ' So Jack went out and tied up the horse and
the hound, and when he came in again the old woman said, 'You killed
my three sons, and I'm going to kill you now,' and she put on a pair
of boxing-gloves, each one of them nine stone weight, and the nails
in them fifteen inches long. Then they began to fight, and Jack was
getting the worst of it. 'Help, hound! ' he cried out, then 'Squeeze,
hair,' cried out the old woman, and the rib of hair that was about the
hound's neck squeezed him to death. 'Help, horse! ' Jack called out,
then 'Squeeze, hair,' called out the old woman, and the rib of hair
that was about the horse's neck began to tighten and squeeze him to
death.