pickaxe from his other pocket. He set it down on the
spot that had been pointed out.

"Now, Mr Pickaxe, dig! dig!" he cried.

You should have seen how the rocks flew.

In fifteen minutes a well a hundred feet deep was dug.

"What do you think of that?" asked Jack.

"It is a fine well," said the King, "but it has no water in it."

Jack felt in his cap for his walnut shell. He took it out and dropped
it softly to the bottom of the well. As he did so he shouted, "Now, Mr
Spring, spout! spout!"

The water spouted out of the walnut shell in a great stream. It filled
the well. It ran over into the King's garden.

All the people shouted, and the Princess clapped her hands.

With his cap in his hands Jack went and kneeled down before the King.
"Sire," he said, "do you think that I have won the prize?"

"Most certainly I do," answered the King; and he bade his servants
bring the three bags of gold and pour the coins out at Jack's feet.

"But, father," said the Princess, "have you forgotten the other part
of the prize?" and she blushed very red.

"Oh no," said the King; "but you both are very young. When you are a
few years older, we shall have a pretty wedding in the palace. Are you
willing to wait, young man?"

"I am willing to obey you in everything," answered Jack; "but I wonder
if I might not ask you for one other little favour?"

"Say on; and be careful not to ask too much," answered the King.

"May it please you, then," said Jack, "to pardon my two brothers?"

The King nodded, and in a short time Peter and Paul were brought
around into the courtyard.

"Well, brothers," said Jack kindly, "I wonder if I was very foolish
when I wanted to know all about things."

"You have certainly been lucky," said Paul; "and I am glad of it."

"You have saved our ears," said Peter, "and we are all lucky."

_The Feast of Lanterns_[10]

_Wang Chih watches a Game of Chess_

Wang Chih was only a poor man, but he had a wife and children to love,
and they made him so happy that he would not have changed places with
the Emperor himself.

[Footnote 10: The story of a Chinese Rip Van Winkle. From Stead's
_Books for the Bairns_, No. 52, _Fairy Tales from China_. By
permission.]

He worked in the fields all day, and at night his wife always had a
bowl of rice ready for his supper. And sometimes, for a treat, she
made him some bean soup, or gave him a little dish of fried pork.

But they could not afford pork very