e stalks of the plants in the meadow, he instantly saw one that
glistened. That was the one he wanted! That was iron-wort!

Among the robbers was a one-eyed man, who had been locked up in the
imperial dungeons and escaped loaded with fetters. The chains had
afterward been filed off, but the handcuffs were made of a special
kind of iron which fire did not melt and the file did not scratch.
Jack touched the handcuff with the plant, and "klirr!" it fell
rattling to the ground.

"Aha, may you be lucky, my son, you have freed me from an annoyance,"
said the delighted robber.

But when the captain took the plant from Jack's hand to remove the
second handcuff, he labored in vain, the iron would not obey him. The
witch had not told them that the herb would obey no one except the
person appointed by fate to find it.

So the robbers saw that the iron-wort would do them no good, and
perceiving this they became very angry and sharpened their knives and
swords to kill Jack.

"Stop," cried the one-eyed brigand. "You have said that you would not
murder him if he could find the plant for us. He has found it. As men
of our word, we must not kill him."

And they did not, for robbers are men of their word; whether it is
good or evil, what they have promised they perform. Yet, fearing Jack
might give them up to justice, they found another way to get rid of
him.

What did they do? They seized Jack and put him in an open cask, then
closed it, drove iron bands around it, and went away. It was an evil
deed.

So Jack went from good to bad, and from bad to worse, till at last we
see him fastened up in a wine-cask. What was to become of him! just
think, inside of a cask--that's the end of every thing! Jack began to
cry, howl, and shriek till the hungry wolves heard him and came
running up, thinking they could devour him. But they could do nothing
but lick their chops. Jack was shut up in the cask. As soon as he
discovered that the wolves were near, he looked through the bung-hole
and kept perfectly still.

The wolves then fell upon the remains of the ox and fought greedily
over the bones. One, the largest and fiercest, seized a bone and
crouched down with it close by Jack's cask--Jack hardly dared to
breathe.

Suddenly he saw the wolf's hairy tail come through the bung-hole. Jack
was terribly frightened. The tail came further and further in, and
Jack grew more and more alarmed. At last the wolf shook itself and
leaned further back,