!" said Jack again. "So you lie here, and trickle and run down
all alone?"

"Yes, I do," said the Walnut, "and here have I trickled and run this
many a long day, waiting for you."

"Well, here I am," said Jack, as he took up a lump of moss, and plugged
up the hole, that the water mightn't run out. Then he put the walnut
into his wallet, and ran down to his brothers.

"Well, now," said Peter and Paul, "have you found out where the water
comes from? A rare sight it must have been!"

"Oh, after all, it was only a hole it ran out of," said Jack; and so the
others laughed and made game of him again, but Jack didn't mind that a
bit.

"After all, I had the fun of seeing it," said he.

So when they had gone a bit farther, they came to the King's palace; but
as every one in the kingdom had heard how they might win the Princess
and half the realm, if they could only fell the big oak and dig the
King's well, so many had come to try their luck that the oak was now
twice as stout and big as it had been at first, for two chips grew for
every one they hewed out with their axes, as I dare say you all bear in
mind. So the King had now laid it down as a punishment, that if any one
tried and couldn't fell the oak, he should be put on a barren island,
and both his ears were to be clipped off. But the two brothers didn't
let themselves be scared by that; they were quite sure they could fell
the oak, and Peter, as he was eldest, was to try his hand first; but it
went with him as with all the rest who had hewn at the oak; for every
chip he cut out, two grew in its place. So the King's men seized him,
and clipped off both his ears, and put him out on the island.

Now Paul, he was to try his luck, but he fared just the same; when he
had hewn two or three strokes, they began to see the oak grow, and so
the King's men seized him too, and clipped his ears, and put him out on
the island; and his ears they clipped closer, because they said he ought
to have taken a lesson from his brother.

So now Jack was to try.

"If you _will_ look like a marked sheep, we're quite ready to clip your
ears at once, and then you'll save yourself some bother," said the King,
for he was angry with him for his brothers' sake.

"Well, I'd like just to try first," said Jack, and so he got leave. Then
he took his axe out of his wallet and fitted it to its haft.

"Hew away!" said he to his axe; and away it hewed, making the chips fly
again, so that it wasn't lo