When he came to the top, what do you think he saw?
He saw a bright steel axe working all alone and cutting down a big pine-tree. No man was near it.
"Good-morning, Mr Axe," he said. "I think you must be tired chopping at that old tree all by yourself."
"Ah, master," said the axe. "I have been waiting for you a long time."
"Well, here I am," said Jack; and he took the axe and put it into his pocket.
Then he ran down the mountain and soon overtook his brothers.
"Well, Mr Why-and-How," said Paul, "what did you find up there?"
"It was really an axe that we heard," answered Jack.
"Of course it was," said Peter. "You might have saved yourself all your trouble by staying with us."
After the boys had passed through the woods they came to a great rocky place between two mountains. The path was narrow and crooked, and steep cliffs towered above it on both sides.