also, and Jack and the black
cow, and the wheels and the reels, and the pots and pans, all of them were
jigging and dancing all over the town, and the houses themselves were
jumping and hopping about, and such a place Jack or any one else never saw
before.

When the man lifted the Mouse and the Bum-clock into his pocket, they all
stopped dancing and settled down, and everybody laughed right hearty. The
man turned to Jack. "Jack," said he, "I am glad to see you; how would you
like to have these animals?"

"I should like well to have them," says Jack, says he, "only I cannot."

"Why cannot you?" says the man.

"O," says Jack, says he, "I have no money, and my poor mother is very
down-hearted. She sent me to the fair to sell this cow and bring some money
to lift her heart."

"O," says the man, says he, "if you want to lift your mother's heart I will
sell you the Mouse, and when you set the Bee to play the Harp and the Mouse
to dance to it, your mother will laugh if she never laughed in her life
before."

"But I have no money," says Jack, says he, "to buy your Mouse."

"I don't mind," says the man, says he, "I will take your cow for it."

Poor Jack was so taken with the Mouse and had his mind so set on it, that
he thought it was a grand bargain entirely, and he gave the man his cow,
and took the Mouse and started off for home, and when he got home his
mother welcomed him.

"Jack," says she, "I see you have sold the cow."

"I did that," says Jack.

"Did you sell her well?" says she.

"Very well indeed," says Jack, says he.

"How much did you get for her?"

"I didn't get money," says he, "but I got value."

"O, Jack! Jack!" says she, "what do you mean?"

"I will soon show you that, mother," says he, taking the Mouse out of his
pocket and the Harp and the Bee and setting all on the floor; and when he
began to whistle the Bee began to play, and the Mouse go up on its hind
legs and began to dance and jig, and the mother gave such a hearty laugh as
she never laughed in her life before. To dancing and jigging herself and
Jack fell, and the pots and pans and the wheels and reels began to dance
and jig over the floor, and the house jigged also. And when they were tired
of this, Jack lifted the Harp and the Mouse and the Bee and put them in
his pocket, and his mother she laughed for a long time.

But when she got over that she got very down-hearted and very angry
entirely with Jack. "And O, Jack," she says, "you