ff to the woods he went, and right glad the mare and the bear were
to see him. He told them all that had happened, and then he told them
how the King's two sons-in-law were to start to the Well of the
World's End the next day, and asked the mare's advice about it.

"Well, Jack," says the mare, "I want you to go with them. Take an old
hunter in the King's stable, an old bony, skinny animal that is past
all work, and put an old straw saddle on him, and dress yourself in
the most ragged dress you can get, and join the two men on the road,
and say that you are going with them. They will be heartily ashamed of
you, Jack, and your old horse, and they will do everything to get rid
of you. When you come to the crossroads, one of them will propose to
go in and have a drink; and while you are chatting over your drink,
they will propose that the three of you separate and every one take a
road by himself to go to the Well of the World's End, and that all
three shall meet at the crossroads again, and whoever is back first
with the bottle of water is to be the greatest hero of them all. You
agree to this. When they start on their roads, they will not go many
miles till they fill their bottles from spring wells by the roadside
and hurry back to the meeting-place, and then continue on home to the
King of Scotland and give him these bottles as bottles of Ioca from
the Well of the World's End. But you will be before them. After you
have set out on the road, and when you have gone around the first
bend, put on your wishing-cap and wish for two bottles of Ioca from
the Well of the World's End, and at once you will have them." And then
the mare directed Jack fully all that he was to do after.

Jack thanked the mare, and bade good-bye to her, and went away.

The next day, when the King's two sons-in-law set out on their grand
steeds to go to the Well of the World's End, they had not gone far
when Jack, in a ragged old suit and sitting on a straw saddle on an
old white skinny horse, joined them and told them he too was going
with them for a bottle of Ioca. Right heartily ashamed were they of
Jack and ready to do anything to get rid of him.

By and by, when they came to where the road divided into three, they
proposed to have a drink, and as they set off to drink they proposed
that each take a road for himself, and whoever got back first with a
bottle of Ioca would be the greatest hero. All agreed, and each chose
his own road and set out.