The meats are set, the guests are coming,
The fiddler waxing his stick.’
She said, ‘The bridegroom waiting and waiting
To see thy face is sick.’
What said the new clock in her bower?
‘Tick, tick, tick!’”
Jack looked at these hot brown rocks, first on the left bank and then on the right, till he was quite tired; but at last the shore on the right bank became flat, and he saw a beautiful little bay, where the water was still, and where grass grew down to the brink.
He was so much pleased at this change, that he cried out hastily, “Oh how I wish my boat would swim into that bay and let me land!” He had no sooner spoken than the boat altered her course, as if somebody had been steering her, and began to make for the bay as fast as she could go.
“How odd!” thought Jack. “I wonder whether I ought to have spoken; for the boat certainly did not intend to come into this bay. However, I think I will let her alone now, for I certainly do wish very much to land here.”
As they drew towards the strand the water got so shallow that you could see crabs and lobsters walking about at the bottom. At last the boat’s keel grated on the pebbles; and just as Jack began to think of jumping on shore, he saw two little old women approaching and gently driving a white horse before them.