f his servants to find out where it
came from. The man peered about, but he could see nothing but a little
creature which looked like a cock with a hedgehog sitting on it, perched
up in a tree. The King desired the servant to ask the strange creature
why it sat there, and if it knew the shortest way to his kingdom.

On this Jack my Hedgehog stepped down from his tree and said he would
undertake to show the King his way home if the King on his part would
give him his written promise to let him have whatever first met him on
his return.

The King thought to himself, 'That's easy enough to promise. The
creature won't understand a word about it, so I can just write what I
choose.'

So he took pen and ink and wrote something, and when he had done Jack my
Hedgehog pointed out the way and the King got safely home.

Now when the King's daughter saw her father returning in the distance
she was so delighted that she ran to meet him and threw herself into
his arms. Then the King remembered Jack my Hedgehog, and he told his
daughter how he had been obliged to give a written promise to bestow
whatever he first met when he got home on an extraordinary creature
which had shown him the way. The creature, said he, rode on a cock
as though it had been a horse, and it made lovely music, but as it
certainly could not read he had just written that he would _not_ give
it anything at all. At this the Princess was quite pleased, and said how
cleverly her father had managed, for that of course nothing would induce
her to have gone off with Jack my Hedgehog.

Meantime Jack minded his asses and pigs, sat aloft in his tree, played
his bagpipes, and was always merry and cheery. After a time it so
happened that another King, having lost his way, passed by with his
servants and escort, wondering how he could find his way home, for the
forest was very vast. He too heard the music, and told one of his men to
find out whence it came. The man came under the tree, and looking up to
the top there he saw Jack my Hedgehog astride on the cock.

The servant asked Jack what he was doing up there. 'I'm minding my pigs
and donkeys; but what do you want?' was the reply. Then the servant told
him they had lost their way, and wanted some one to show it them. Down
came Jack my Hedgehog with his cock, and told the old King he would show
him the right way if he would solemnly promise to give him the first
thing he met in front of his royal castle.

The King sai