s which he had promised to look after.

[Illustration]

Having reached the forest he made the cock fly up to the top of a very
tall tree with him, and there he sat looking after his pigs and donkeys,
and he sat on and on for several years till he had quite a big herd; but
all this time his father knew nothing about him.

As he sat up in his tree he played away on his pipes and drew the
loveliest music from them. As he was playing one day a King, who had
lost his way, happened to pass close by, and hearing the music he was
much surprised, and sent one of his servants to find out where it came
from. The man peered about, but he could see nothing but a little
creature which looked like a cock with a hedgehog sitting on it, perched
up in a tree. The King desired the servant to ask the strange creature
why it sat there, and if it knew the shortest way to his kingdom.

On this Jack my Hedgehog stepped down from his tree and said he would
undertake to show the King his way home if the King on his part would
give him his written promise to let him have whatever first met him on
his return.

The King thought to himself, 'That's easy enough to promise. The
creature won't understand a word about it, so I can just write what I
choose.'

[Illustration]

So he took pen and ink and wrote something, and when he had done Jack my
Hedgehog pointed out the way and the King got safely home.

Now when the King's daughter saw her father returning in the distance
she was so delighted that she ran to meet him and threw herself into his
arms. Then the King remembered Jack my Hedgehog, and he told his
daughter how he had been obliged to give a written promise to bestow
whatever he first met when he got home on an extraordinary creature
which had shown him the way. The creature, said he, rode on a cock as
though it had been a horse, and it made lovely music, but as it
certainly could not read he had just written that he would _not_ give it
anything at all. At this the Princess was quite pleased, and said how
cleverly her father had managed, for that of course nothing would induce
her to have gone off with Jack my Hedgehog.

Meantime Jack minded his asses and pigs, sat aloft in his tree, played
his bagpipes, and was always merry and cheery. After a time it so
happened that another King, having lost his way, passed by with his
servants and escort, wondering how he could find his way home, for the
forest was very vast. He too heard the mus