up
to leave the room.

"Well," says Jack, says he, "I admire your spirit very much and," says
he, "I would like to make you a little present. Here is a comb," he
said, "and it will comb out of your hair a bushel of gold and a bushel
of silver every time you comb with it, and, besides," says he, "it
will make handsome the ugliest man that ever was."

When the other sisters heard this they rushed to snatch the comb from
her, but Jack threw them backwards so very roughly that their husbands
sprang at him. With a back switch of his two hands Jack knocked the
husbands down senseless. The King flew into a rage, and said, "How
dare you do that to the two finest and bravest men of this world?"

"Fine and brave, indeed!" said Jack. "One and the other are worthless
creatures, and not even your lawful sons-in-law."

"How dare you say that?" says the King.

"Strip their backs where they lie and see for yourself." And there the
King saw written, "An unlawfully married man."

"What is the meaning of this?" says the King. "They were lawfully
married to my two daughters, and they have the golden tokens of the
marriage."

Jack drew out from his pocket the golden balls and handed them to the
King, and said, "It is I who have the tokens."

The Yellow Rose had gone off to the garden in the middle of all this.
Jack made the King sit down, and told him all his story, and how he
came by the golden balls. He told him how he was Hookedy-Crookedy, and
that it reflected a great deal of honour on his youngest daughter that
she whom the King thought so worthless should refuse to give up
Hookedy-Crookedy for the one she thought a wealthy prince. The King,
you may be sure, was now highly delighted to grant him all he desired.
A couple of drops of Ioca brought the King's two sons-in-law to their
senses again, and at Jack's request, they were ordered to go and live
elsewhere. Jack went off, left his mare in the wood, and came into the
garden as Hookedy-Crookedy. He told the Yellow Rose he had been
gathering bilberries.

"Oh," says she, "I have something grand for you. Let me comb your hair
with this comb."

Hookedy-Crookedy put his head in her lap, and she combed out a bushel
of gold and silver; and when he stood up again, she saw
Hookedy-Crookedy no more, but instead the beautiful prince that had
been trying to win her in her father's drawing-room for the last three
days; and then and there to her Jack told his whole story, and it's
Yell