! What a sight! The fold burned down, the sheep of the
imperial breed one and all roasted, so that one might have supposed
they were nothing but overripe melons. That was a bad job, really a
very bad job! Jack had done a great deal of mischief, and might be
thankful to escape with a flogging. And so it happened. The farmer,
enraged, nay, fairly furious, seized the cunning shepherd and beat
him, beat him so that he would have nearly killed him had not Jack
luckily escaped from his hands. But after he got away Jack took to his
heels and ran with all his might, so that he did not look round until
he was in the woods.

What was to be done then? That's the way a person fares when he has
no sense! If he had behaved himself, he would have been sitting
quietly in the house eating barley-sugar and milk.

Jack walked on and on through the forest, turning to the right and
left, forward and backward, hither and thither, on and on he went,
poor boy, trying to find some path that led home. He was so hungry and
thirsty that he sucked the dew from the leaves and ate the oak-apples
and acorns he found on the ground; then he grew tired and cross and
frightened. Woe betide any one who loses the way in a forest!

Night came on, and darkness surprised him in the terrible woods. His
hair stood on end and he was so terrified that a chill ran through
every vein when he heard the wolves, bears, and all sorts of wild
beasts howling and panting in the forest. There was no escape now.
Then he saw a large tree with a hole in its trunk big enough to
shelter him. Nearing it he noticed that this hole had been hollowed
out. That was all right. He would hide in it to keep from being
devoured by the wild beasts, and was so delighted to find himself safe
that he no longer felt sorrowful or hungry. When we have escaped a
great danger, we no longer think of small annoyances. Jack fell asleep
from fatigue, and was just dreaming that he was at home eating millet
and milk, when suddenly, piff, paff, puff, he heard a shot and started
up in terror.

What had happened? Only a few paces from him twelve big, horrible
robbers, foot-pads, had assembled with their captain, made a fire,
roasted an ox, and were just tapping a cask of good wine; they were
going to have a carouse. When Jack saw the ox on the spit he began to
feel almost famished. Dear me! he was so hungry that he would gladly
have turned into a wood-worm and gnawed the tree. The poor lad, in his
inex