“Well, here I am at last”, said Jack, as he took the axe, pulled it off its haft, and stuffed both head and haft into his wallet.
So when he got down again to his brothers, they began to jeer and laugh at him.
“And now, what funny thing was it you saw up yonder on the hill-side?” they said.
“Oh, it was only an axe we heard”, said Jack.
So when they had gone a bit farther, they came under a steep spur of rock, and up there they heard something digging and shovelling.
“I wonder now,” said Jack, “what it is digging and shovelling up yonder at the top of the rock.”
“Ah, you’re always so clever with your wonderings”, said Peter and Paul again, “as if you’d never heard a woodpecker hacking and pecking at a hollow tree.”
“Well, well”, said Jack, “I think it would be a piece of fun just to see what it really is.”
And so off he set to climb the rock, while the others laughed and made game of him. But he didn’t care a bit for that; up he clomb, and when he got near the top, what do you think he saw? Why, a spade that stood there digging and delving.
“Good day!” said Jack. “So you stand here all alone, and dig and delve!”