before you come into a clean kitchen. I've
been all the afternoon tidying up for the good Friar's visit this
evening, and now you----'

'Hang the good Friar!' said Jack under his breath, for he was sick and
tired of his stepmother's sour tongue, and more than sick and tired of
the good Friar, who, he knew, was only 'good' when he was not feeling
well. Taking a fairy-tale book from the shelf he went and sat in the
inglenook, thus sheltering himself from a further storm of abuse from
his stepmother.

The fact of the matter was, that thrice upon a time his father had
married. Jack, a merry-hearted boy, and lovable for all his mischief,
was his son by his first wife. The other two had no children, and the
stepmother now living seemed to resent the fact of Jack's existence. His
father loved him dearly, but, when the father was away, Jack had a sore
time with his sour-tempered stepmother. No wonder he only came home to
meals; no wonder he preferred his fairy-tale book to her venomous
tongue.

When supper-time came, Jack was always summoned to his food well in time
for it to be cleared away before his father came in; and the reason for
this was that his father should not see how he was stinted.

But one day the father got to know about these things, and taxed his
wife on her treatment of the boy.

'Look here, sir,' said she, 'I wish to goodness you would take your
wretched son away and put him in a school for saints, since you think he
is so good. As for me, he plagues my life out, and, if you keep him here
with his ne'er-do-well ways, you'll come home some evening to find me
gone.'

Instead of beating his wife for these words--as some men do when their
wives so beseech them--the goodman put his hand on her shoulder and
said, 'Nay, nay, my dear; the boy is only a boy; let him stay with us
another year until he can fend for himself. Now, I'll tell you what: let
the man who looks after the sheep come in here and do the work about the
house, and Jack will take his place in the field. The man can have
Jack's bed, and Jack will be delighted to sleep in the outhouse. What
say you?'

The wife could not object to this, for, at least, the man would be more
useful and less troublesome about the house than Jack could ever be. So
she agreed to her husband's proposal.

The next day the plan was put into operation.

The man was set to work about the house, and Jack was sent out into the
fields to mind the sheep. As he went he sa