“I had a cat, mother,” said he, “a good mouser, but she made after a mouse and hasn’t come back yet.”
“Get out of my sight,” cried his mother, “before I lose my patience and do something I might be sorry for. Haven’t you an atom of sense about you at all, at all, at all? Wouldn’t a child know that’s no way to bring home a live cat? The safest thing to do with a cat is to tie a string around her neck, put her on the ground, and draw her home after you.”
“Say no more about it, sweet mother,” cried Jack, bawling outright; “that’s what I’ll do the very next time.” So his mother wouldn’t see him starve that night.
Well, the very next day Jack hired out to a butcher, and got for his day’s labor a splendid shoulder of mutton for Sunday’s dinner, for this was Saturday. Jack took the mutton, tied a string around it, put it on the ground, and dragged it home after him in the mud and dirt. So by the time he got home the meat was completely ruined.
When his mother saw it she was so upset that she threw her apron over her head and rocked herself to and fro and wept aloud. “If you had the least grain of sense in you, you useless omadhaun,” she wailed, “you’d have brought the sweet meat home on your shoulder.”
Jack put his arms around his mother and kissed her and promised to do that the next time. So she gave him his supper, but they had to make their Sunday dinner of cabbage.
Monday morning, bright and early, Jack went out once more and hired himself to a cattle-drover and for his day’s labor got a donkey. Although Jack was a husky fellow, he found it hard to hoist the donkey on his shoulder, but mindful of his mother’s grief he got it up and set out home slowly with the prize.
Now it chanced that on the way home he had to pass the house of a beautiful girl who unfortunately was deaf and dumb. The doctors said she would never speak until someone should make her laugh. Many had tried but without success. In despair her father, who was very rich, had promised that very day whoever could make her laugh should marry her.
The girl happened to be looking out of the window when Jack came along with the donkey on his shoulders, its legs sticking up in the air. He looked so funny she burst into a merry fit of laughter, and at once was able to hear and speak.
So her father, overjoyed, gave her to Jack with a sackful of money and more to come.