JACK SELLS THE COW

ONCE upon a time there was a poor widow who lived in a little
cottage with her only son Jack.

Jack was a giddy, thoughtless boy, but very kind-hearted and
affectionate. There had been a hard winter, and after it the poor
woman had suffered from fever and ague. Jack did no work as yet,
and by degrees they grew dreadfully poor. The widow saw that
there was no means of keeping Jack and herself from starvation
but by selling her cow; so one morning she said to her son, `I am
too weak to go myself, Jack, so you must take the cow to market
for me, and sell her.'

Jack liked going to market to sell the cow very much; but as
he was on the way, he met a butcher who had some beautiful
beans in his hand. Jack stopped to look at them, and the butcher
told the boy that they were of great value, and persuaded the silly
lad to sell the cow for these beans.

When he brought them home to his mother instead of the money
she expected for her nice cow, she was very vexed and shed many
tears, scolding Jack for his folly. He was very sorry, and mother
and son went to bed very sadly that night; their last hope seemed
gone.

At daybreak Jack rose and went out into the garden.

`At least,' he thought, `I will sow the wonderful beans. Mother
says that they are just common scarlet-runners, and nothing else;
but I may as well sow them.'

So he took a piece of stick, and made some holes in the ground,
and put in the beans.

That day they had very little dinner, and went sadly to bed,
knowing that for the next day there would be none and Jack,
unable to sleep from grief and vexation, got up at day-dawn and

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