brothers thought they'd set off and
try too, and their father hadn't a word against it; for even if they
didn't get the Princess and half the kingdom, it might happen they
might get a place somewhere with a good master; and that was all he
wanted. So when the brothers said they thought of going to the palace,
their father said "yes" at once. So Peter, Paul, and Jack went off
from their home.

Well, they hadn't gone far before they came to a fir-wood, and up
along one side of it rose a steep hillside, and as they went, they
heard something hewing and hacking away up on the hill among the
trees.

"I wonder, now, what it is that is hewing away up yonder," said Jack.

"You're always so clever with your wonderings," said Peter and Paul
both at once. "What wonder is it, pray, that a woodcutter should stand
and hack up on a hillside?"

"Still, I'd like to see what it is, after all," said Jack; and up he
went.

"Oh, if you're such a child, 'twill do you good to go and take a
lesson," bawled out his brothers after him.

But Jack didn't care for what they said; he climbed the steep hillside
towards where the noise came, and when he reached the place, what do
you think he saw? Why, an axe that stood there hacking and hewing, all
of itself, at the trunk of a fir.

"Good-day!" said Jack. "So you stand here all alone and hew, do you?"

"Yes; here I've stood and hewed and hacked a long, long time, waiting
for you," said the Axe.

"Well, here I am at last," said Jack, as he took the axe, pulled it
off its handle, and stuffed both head and handle into his wallet.

So when he got down again to his brothers, they began to jeer and
laugh at him.

"And now, what funny thing was it you saw up yonder on the hillside?"
they said.

"Oh, it was only an axe we heard," said Jack.

So when they had gone a bit farther, they came under a steep spur of
rock, and up there they heard something digging and shoveling.

"I wonder now," said Jack, "what it is digging and shoveling up yonder
at the top of the rock."

"Ah, you're always so clever with your wonderings," said Peter and
Paul again; "as if you'd never heard a woodpecker hacking and pecking
at a hollow tree."

"Well, well," said Jack, "I think it would be a piece of fun just to
see what it really is."

And so off he set to climb the rock, while the others laughed and made
game of him. But he didn't care a bit for that; up he climbed, and
when he got near the top, what do y