“Yes, I do,” said the Walnut; “and here have I trickled and run this many a long day, waiting for you.”
“Well, here I am”, said Jack, as he took up a lump of moss and plugged up the hole, that the water mightn’t run out. Then he put the walnut into his wallet, and ran down to his brothers.
“Well now”, said Peter and Paul, “have you found out where the water comes from? A rare sight it must have been!”
“Oh, after all, it was only a hole it ran out of”, said Jack; and so the others laughed and made game of him again, but Jack didn’t mind that a bit.
“After all, I had the fun of seeing it”, said he. So when they had gone a bit farther, they came to the king’s palace; but as every one in the kingdom had heard how they might win the Princess and half the realm, if they could only fell the big oak and dig the king’s well, so many had come to try their luck that the oak was now twice as stout and big as it had been at first, for two chips grew for every one they hewed out with their axes, as I daresay you all bear in mind. So the King had now laid it down as a punishment, that if any one tried and couldn’t fell the oak, he should be put on a barren island, and both his ears were to be clipped off. But the two brothers didn’t let themselves be scared by that; they were quite sure they could fell the oak, and Peter, as he was eldest, was to try his hand first; but it went with him as with all the rest who had hewn at the oak; for every chip he cut out, two grew in its place. So the king’s men seized him, and clipped off both his ears, and put him out on the island.
Now Paul, he was to try his luck, but he fared just the same; when he had hewn two or three strokes, they began to see the oak grow, and so the king’s men seized him too, and clipped his ears, and put him out on the island; and his ears they clipped closer, because they said he ought to have taken a lesson from his brother.
So now Jack was to try.
“If you will look like a marked sheep, we’re quite ready to clip your ears at once, and then you’ll save yourself some bother”, said the King; for he was angry with him for his brothers’ sake.
“Well, I’d like just to try first”, said Jack, and so he got leave. Then he took his axe out of his wallet and fitted it to its haft.
“Hew away!” said he to his axe; and away it hewed, making the chips fly again, so that it wasn’t long before down came the oak.