ou think he saw? Why, a spade that
stood there digging and delving.

"Good-day!" said Jack. "So you stand here all alone, and dig and
delve!"

"Yes, that's what I do," said the Spade, "and that's what I've done
this many a long day, waiting for you."

"Well, here I am," said Jack again, as he took the spade and knocked
it off its handle, and put it into his wallet, and then down again to
his brothers.

"Well, what was it, so rare and strange," said Peter and Paul, "that
you saw up there at the top of the rock?"

"Oh," said Jack, "nothing more than a spade; that was what we heard."

So they went on again a good bit, till they came to a brook. They were
thirsty, all three, after their long walk, and so they lay down beside
the brook to have a drink.

"I wonder now," said Jack, "where all this water comes from."

"I wonder if you're right in your head," said Peter and Paul in one
breath. "If you're not mad already, you'll go mad very soon, with your
wonderings. Where the brook comes from, indeed! Have you never heard
how water rises from a spring in the earth?"

"Yes; but still I've a great fancy to see where this brook comes
from," said Jack.

So up alongside the brook he went, in spite of all that his brothers
bawled after him. Nothing could stop him. On he went. So, as he went
up and up, the brook got smaller and smaller, and at last, a little
way farther on, what do you think he saw? Why, a great walnut, and out
of that the water trickled.

"Good-day!" said Jack again; "So you lie here, and trickle and run
down all alone?"

"Yes, I do," said the Walnut; "and here have I trickled and run this
many a long day, waiting for you."

"Well, here I am," said Jack, as he took up a lump of moss, and
plugged up the hole, that the water mightn't run out. Then he put the
walnut into his wallet, and ran down to his brothers.

"Well, now," said Peter and Paul, "have you found out where the water
comes from? A rare sight it must have been!"

"Oh, after all, it was only a hole it ran out of," said Jack; and so
the others laughed and made game of him again, but Jack didn't mind
that a bit.

"After all, I had the fun of seeing it," said he.

So when they had gone a bit farther they came to the King's palace;
but as every one in the kingdom had heard how they might win the
Princess and half the realm, if they could only fell the big oak and
dig the King's well, so many had come to try their luck that the oak
was no