as he crossed a bridge, he saw the
little fishes pirouetting in the stream below.

As soon as he reached home he put the pipe away, and, going into the
house, found his father at supper.

'Father,' said he, 'I am terribly hungry after looking to the sheep all
day; and, besides, my dinner was very dry.'

'Here you are, my son,' replied his father; and, cutting a wing from the
roast capon on the table before him, he set it on a plate and pushed it
over to the boy.

At this the stepmother, grudging to see such a nice portion given to the
boy, turned upon him with a look that would have made a cow give sour
milk. Then, on the instant, she burst out laughing. Her husband stared
at her in amazement, but still she laughed, her sides shaking with her
shrill peals; and louder and louder she laughed, until the rafters shook
and she fell to the ground, still laughing as if she would die of it.

At last Jack, with his capon's wing in both hands before him, stopped
eating to cry, 'Enough, I say!' And immediately the stepmother ceased
her laughter and struggled to her feet, looking more dead than alive.

Now, the next day, when Jack was minding the sheep, the good Friar
called at the house, and the stepmother told him what a naughty boy Jack
was, and how he had made her laugh till she had nearly died, and then
mocked her.

'Go you, now,' she said; 'go and find him in the fields and give him a
sound beating for my sake. It will do him good--and me too.'

So the Friar went out into the fields and at last found the boy, with
his bow and arrow in his hands.

'Young man,' said the Friar, 'tell me at once what you have done to your
stepmother that she is so angered with you. Tell me at once, I say, or I
will give you a sound beating.'

'What's the matter with you?' replied Jack. 'If my stepmother wants me
beaten, let her do it herself. See that bird?' He pointed to a very
plump bird flying overhead. 'If you fetch it when it drops, you can have
it.'

With this he let fly an arrow and pierced the bird, which fell to earth
a little way off in a bramble patch. As the Friar darted forward to get
it--for it was indeed a plump bird--Jack drew forth his pipe and began
to play.

It is said that he who hops among thorns is either chasing a snake or
being chased by one; and it looked as if either the one or the other was
the Friar's case, for he hopped high in the bramble bushes and danced as
if he had gone mad in both heels at once.