s to hold water for the
whole year; for all his neighbors had wells, but he hadn't any, and that
he thought a shame. So the King said he would give any one who could dig
him such a well as would hold water for a whole year round, both money
and goods; but no one could do it, for the King's palace lay high, high
up on a hill, and they hadn't dug a few inches before they came upon the
living rock.

But as the King had set his heart on having these two things done, he
had it given out far and wide, in all the churches of his kingdom, that
he who could fell the big oak in the king's court-yard, and get him a
well that would hold water the whole year round, should have the
Princess and half the kingdom. Well! you may easily know there was many
a man who came to try his luck; but for all their hacking and hewing,
and all their digging and delving, it was no good. The oak got bigger
and stouter at every stroke, and the rock didn't get softer either. So
one day those three brothers thought they'd set off and try too, and
their father hadn't a word against it; for even if they didn't get the
Princess and half the kingdom, it might happen they might get a place
somewhere with a good master; and that was all he wanted. So when the
brothers said they thought of going to the palace, their father said
"yes" at once. So Peter, Paul, and Jack went off from their home.

Well! they hadn't gone far before they came to a fir wood, and up along
one side of it rose a steep hillside, and as they went, they heard
something hewing and hacking away up on the hill among the trees.

"I wonder now what it is that is hewing away up yonder?" said Jack.

"You're always so clever with your wonderings," said Peter and Paul both
at once. "What wonder is it, pray, that a woodcutter should stand and
hack up on a hillside?"

"Still, I'd like to see what it is, after all," said Jack; and up he
went.

"Oh, if you're such a child, 'twill do you good to go and take a
lesson," bawled out his brothers after him.

But Jack didn't care for what they said; he climbed the steep hillside
towards where the noise came, and when he reached the place, what do you
think he saw? Why, an axe that stood there hacking and hewing, all of
itself, at the trunk of a fir.

"Good day!" said Jack. "So you stand here all alone and hew, do you?"

"Yes; here I've stood and hewed and hacked a long, long time, waiting
for you," said the Axe.

"Well, here I am at last," said Ja