ng merrily, for he loved the
green fields and the animals. He doubted the dinner his stepmother had
put up for him, wrapped in a kitchen clout; yet he sang merrily as he
went in search of the sheep:

_'Green gravel! Green gravel!
Thy grass is so green.
'Tis the fairies' green gravel
With the daisies between.'_

Then, when he had found them:

_'Snowy sheepie-woolsides,
Save your wool for me;
Then in snowy yuletides
Snug and warm I'll be.'_

Then, later, when he began to get hungry, it was:

_'Sheepie, wander, wander
All the fields about;
Grass is growing under,
Clover budding out.
My mother does not squander
Cakes on me, I doubt;
What is here, I wonder,
In this kitchen clout?'_

And, sitting down on a mossy bank, he opened the clout in which his
stepmother had wrapped his dinner. Lo and behold, it was dry bread, with
a very thick layer of dripping scraped off from it back into the pot. He
ate very little, thinking that surely his father would give him
something nicer to eat when he got home.

In the afternoon he sat on the hillside watching the sheep and singing
merrily, when he saw an aged man with a staff making his way towards
him.

'God bless you, son,' said the aged one.

'Good-morrow, father,' replied the boy. 'You are weary. Rest a while on
this mossy bank.'

'Ay, I will,' said the old man, sitting down beside the boy. 'You speak
truly: I am weary, and hungry, and thirsty too. Have you any food? And
would your young legs take you to the stream to bring me back a draught
of water?'

'I have food, such as it is,' replied Jack readily; and he offered him
the dry bread and scrape that his stepmother had given him. 'As for
water, I have a pannikin, and I'll soon fill it at the stream.' And with
that he hurried off to fetch the water.

When he returned, and the old man had eaten and drank, he thanked the
boy. 'God love you, child,' he said; 'you have been kind to me. And now,
in return, I am minded to grant you three wishes of your heart. Think
well, and then name them; and it shall be as I say.'

Jack thought and thought; but all he could decide on to begin with was a
bow and arrow. So he asked for that.

'Certainly!' said the old man; and, rising, he went behind the bank, and
presently returned with the bow and arrow, which he gave to the boy.

'This will last you all your life,' he said; 'and it will never break