are a stupid
good-for-nothing fellow. We have neither money nor meat in the house, and
here you have lost two of my good cows, and I have only one left now.
To-morrow morning," she says, "you must be up early and take this cow to
the fair and sell her. See to get something to lift my heart up."

"I will do that," says Jack, says he. So he went to his bed, and early in
the morning he was up and turned out the spotty cow and went to the fair.

When Jack got to the fair, he saw a crowd gathered in a ring in the street.
"I wonder what they are looking at, anyhow," says he. He pushed through the
crowd, and there he saw the same wee man he had seen before, with a
Bum-clock; and when he put the Bum-clock on the ground, he whistled, and
the Bum-clock began to dance, and the men, women, and children in the
street, and Jack and the spotty cow began to dance and jig also, and
everything on the street and about it, the wheels and reels, the pots and
pans, began to jig, and the houses themselves began to dance likewise. And
when the man lifted the Bum-clock and put it in his pocket, everybody
stopped jigging and dancing and everyone laughed loud. The wee man turned,
and saw Jack.

"Jack, my brave boy," says he, "you will never be right fixed until you
have this Bum-clock, for it is a very fancy thing to have."

"O, but," says Jack, says he, "I have no money."

"No matter for that," says the man; "you have a cow, and that is as good as
money to me."

"Well," says Jack, "I have a poor mother who is very down-hearted at home,
and she sent me to the fair to sell this cow and raise some money and lift
her heart."

"O, but Jack," says the wee man, "this Bum-clock is the very thing to lift
her heart, for when you put down your Harp and Bee and Mouse on the floor,
and put the Bum-clock along with them, she will laugh if she never laughed
in her life before."

"Well, that is surely true," says Jack, says he, "and I think I will make a
swap with you."

So Jack gave the cow to the man and took the Bum-clock himself, and started
for home. His mother was glad to see Jack back, and says she, "Jack, I see
that you have sold the cow."

"I did that, mother," says Jack.

"Did you sell her well, Jack?" says the mother.

"Very well indeed, mother," says Jack.

"How much did you get for her?" says the mother.

"I didn't take any money for her, mother, but value," says Jack, and he
takes out of his pocket the Bum-clock and the Mouse, an