efore he went, took out of his pocket the Bee, the Harp,
the Mouse, the Bum-clock, and he gave the Harp to the Bee, and he tied a
string to one and the other, and took the end of the string himself, and
marched into the castle yard before all the court, with his animals coming
on a string behind him.

When the queen and the king and the court and the princes saw poor ragged
Jack with his Bee, and Mouse, and Bum-clock hopping behind him on a string,
they set up one roar of laughter that was long and loud enough, and when
the king's daughter herself lifted her head and looked to see what they
were laughing at, and saw Jack and his paraphernalia, she opened her mouth
and she let out of her such a laugh as was never heard before.

Then Jack dropped a low courtesy, and said, "Thank you, my lady; I have one
of the three parts of you won."

Then he drew up his animals in a circle, and began to whistle, and the
minute he did, the Bee began to play the Harp, and the Mouse and the
Bum-clock stood up on their hind legs, got hold of each other, and began to
dance, and the king and the king's court and Jack himself began to dance
and jig, and everything about the king's castle, pots and pans, wheels and
reels, and the castle itself began to dance also. And the king's daughter,
when she saw this, opened her mouth again, and let out of her a laugh twice
louder than she let before, and Jack, in the middle of his jigging, drops
another courtesy, and says, "Thank you, my lady; that is two of the three
parts of you won."

[Illustration: The Mouse and the Bum-clock stood up.]

Jack and his menagerie went on playing and dancing, but Jack could not get
the third laugh out of the king's daughter, and the poor fellow saw his big
head in danger of going on the spike. Then the brave Mouse came to Jack's
help and wheeled round upon its heel, and at it did so its tail swiped into
the Bum-clock's mouth, and the Bum-clock began to cough and cough and
cough. And when the king's daughter saw this she opened her mouth again,
and she let the loudest and hardest and merriest laugh that was ever heard
before or since; and, "Thank you, my lady," says Jack, dropping another
courtesy; "I have all of you won."

Then when Jack stopped his menagerie, the king took himself and the
menagerie within the castle. He was washed and combed, and dressed in a
suit of silk and satin, with all kinds of gold and silver ornaments, and
then was led before the king's dau