“I’ll try,” says Jack, “upon any conditions.”
She took him out then into the Garden of Heads, and showed him three hundred and sixty-five rose bushes, and for every flower there was a man’s head on every one of three hundred and sixty-four of the bushes.
“There’s one bush without a flower yet, Jack,” says she, “but in less than three days I hope to see your head flowering on it.”
Then she took him into the castle again, and treated him to a fine supper. And when they had finished supper and drunk their wine and chatted, she got up to bid him good-night.
She took out of her hair a gold comb, and showed it to him. “Now,” she says, “I will wear that golden comb all night, and I’ll spend this night from midnight to cockcrow neither on the earth nor under the earth. Yet you must have that comb for me in the morning, and it must be taken from my head between midnight and cockcrow.” Then she stuck the comb into her hair again and went off.
Poor Jack acknowledged to himself that he had a task before him which he couldn’t do. He wandered down the stairs and out of the castle, and went meandering into the garden in low spirits.
The wee red man soon came to him and asked him what was the matter.
“Oh, matter enough,” says Jack, and commenced telling him all.
“Keep up your heart,” says the wee red man, “and I’ll see what I can do for you,”
So the little red man went and got his Cloak of Darkness, and then watched till midnight outside the Princess’s door.