“Now,” says the mare, “he cannot reach us until he drinks his way through the lough, and very likely he will drink until he bursts, and then we shall be rid of him altogether.”
Jack thanked God, and on he went. It was not long now until he reached the borders of Scotland, and there he saw a great wood.
“Now,” says the mare and the bear, “this wood must be our hiding-place.”
“And what about me?” says Jack.
“For you, Jack,” says the mare, “you must push on and look for employment. The castle of the King of Scotland is near by, and I think you will be likely to get employment there; but first I must change you into an ugly little hookedy-crookedy fellow, because the King of Scotland has three beautiful daughters, and he won’t take into his service a handsome fellow as you, for fear his daughters would fall in love with you.”
Then the mare put her nostrils to Jack’s breast and blew her breath over him, and Jack was turned into an ugly little hookedy-crookedy fellow.
“Jack,” says the mare, “before you go, look into my left ear, and take what you see there.”
Out of the mare’s left ear Jack took a little cap.
“Jack,” says she, “that is a wishing-cap, and every time you put it on and wish to have anything done, it will be done. Whenever you are in any trouble,” the mare says, “come back to me, and I will do what I can for you, and now good-bye.”
So Jack said good-bye to the mare and to the bear, and set off. When he got out of the wood, he soon saw a castle, and walked up to it and went in by the kitchen. A servant was employed scouring knives. He told her he wanted employment. She said the King of Scotland would employ no man in his house, so he might as well push on. But Jack insisted that the King would employ him, and at length the girl consented to go and let the King know.
When the girl had gone away, Jack put on his wishing-cap and wished the knives and forks scoured, and all at once the knives and forks, that were piled in a stack ten yards high, were scoured as brightly as new pins; and though the King of Scotland did not want to employ him, when he found how quickly Jack had scoured all the big stack of knives and forks, he agreed to keep him. But first he brought down his three daughters to see Jack, so that he could observe what impression Jack made upon them. When they came into the kitchen and saw the ugly little fellow, every one of the three fainted and had to be carried out.
“It is all right,” says the King; “we will surely keep you,” and Jack was employed, and sent out into the garden to work there.
Now at this time the King of the East declared war on the King of Scotland. The King of the East had a mighty army entirely, and he threatened to wipe the King of Scotland off the face of the earth.
The King of Scotland was very much troubled and he consulted with his Grand Adviser what was best to be done, and his Grand Adviser counseled that he should at once give his three daughters in marriage to sons of kings, and in that way get great help for the war. The King said this was a grand idea.
So he sent out messengers to all parts of the world to say that his three beautiful daughters were open for marriage. In a very short time the son of the King of Spain came and married the eldest daughter, and the son of the King of France came and married the second, and a whole lot of princes came looking for the youngest, who was the most beautiful of the three and whose name was Yellow Rose; but she would not take one of them, and for this the King ordered her never to come into his sight, nor into company, again.
Yellow Rose got very downhearted, and spent almost all her time now wandering in the garden, where the Hookedy-Crookedy was looking after the flowers, and she used to come around again and again, chatting to Hookedy-Crookedy. And so it was not long until Hookedy-Crookedy saw that the Yellow Rose was in love with him, and he got just as deeply in love with her, for she was a beautiful and charming girl.
The next thing the Grand Adviser counseled the King was that he should send his two new sons-in-law, the Prince of Spain and the Prince of France, to the Well of the World’s End for bottles of loca to take to battle with them, that they might cure the wounded and dead men. Loca was a liquid that cured all wounds and restored the dead to life. So the King ordered his sons-in-law to go to the Well of the World’s End and bring him back two bottles of loca.
The Yellow Rose told Hookedy-Crookedy all about this, and when he had turned it over in his mind, he said to himself, “I will go and have a chat with the mare and the bear about this.”
So off to the woods he went, and right glad the mare and the bear were to see him. He told them all that had happened, and then he told them how the King’s two sons-in-law were to start to the Well of the World’s End the next day, and asked the mare’s advice about it.
“Well, Jack,” says the mare, “I want you to go with them. Take an old hunter in the King’s stable, an old bony, skinny animal that is past all work, and put an old straw saddle on him, and dress yourself in the most ragged dress you can get, and join the two men on the road, and say that you are going with them. They will be heartily ashamed of you, Jack, and your old horse, and they will do everything to get rid of you. When you come to the cross-roads, one of them will propose to go in and have a drink; and while you are chatting over your drink, they will propose that the three of you separate and every one take a road by himself to go to the Well of the World’s End, and that all three shall meet at the cross-roads again, and whoever is back first with the bottle of water is to be the greatest hero of them all. You agree to this. When they start on their roads, they will not go many miles till they fill their bottles from spring wells by the roadside and hurry back to the meeting-place, and then continue on home to the King of Scotland and give him these bottles as bottles of loca from the Well of the World’s End. But you will be before them. After you have set out on the road, and when you have gone around the first bend, put on your wishing-cap and wish for two bottles of loca from the Well of the World’s End, and at once you will have them.” And then the mare directed Jack fully all that he was to do after.
Jack thanked the mare, and bade goodby to her, and went away.
The next day, when the King’s two sons-in-law set out on their grand steeds to go to the Well of the World’s End, they had not gone far when Jack, in a ragged old suit and sitting on a straw saddle on an old white skinny horse, joined them and told them he too was going with them for a bottle of loca. Right heartily ashamed were they of Jack and ready to do anything to get rid of him.
By and by, when they came to where the road divided into three, they proposed to have a drink, and as they set off to drink they proposed that each take a road for himself, and whoever got back first with a bottle of loca would be the greatest hero. All agreed, and each chose his own road and set out.
When Jack had got around the first bend, he put on his wishing-cap and wished for two bottles of loca from the Well of the World’s End, and no sooner had he wished than he had them; and back again he came, and when the other two came riding up, surprised the were to find Jack there before them. They said that Jack had not been to the Well of the World’s End and it was no loca he had with him, but some water from the roadside.
Said Jack, “Take care that is not your own story. Just test them; when the servant comes in, you cut off his head and then cure him with water from your bottles.”
But both refused to do this, for they knew the water in their bottles could not cure anything, and they defied Jack to do it.
“Very soon I will do it,” said Jack.
So when the servant came in with the bottles of loca, Jack drew his sword and whipped his head off him, and in a minute’s time, with two drops from one of his bottles, he had the head on again.
Says they to Hookedy-Crookedy, “What will you take for your two bottles?”
Says Jack, “I will take the golden balls of your marriage pledge, and also you shall allow me to write something on your backs.”
And they agreed to this. They handed over to Jack the two golden balls that were their marriage tokens, and they let Jack write on their bare backs; and what Jack wrote on each of them was, “This is an unlawfully married man.” Then he gave them the bottles of loca, and they brought them to the King, and Jack returned to his garden again.
He did not tell the Yellow Rose where he had been and what doing, only said he was away on a message for her father. As soon as the King got the bottles of loca, he gave orders that his army should move to battle the next day.
The next morning early Jack was over to the wood to consult the mare. He told her what was going to happen that day. Says the mare, “Look in my left ear, Jack, and see what you will see.”
Jack looked in the mare’s left ear, and took out of it a grand soldier’s dress. The mare told him to put it on and get on her back. On he put the dress, and at once Hookedy-Crookedy was transformed into a very handsome, dashing young fellow, and off went Jack and the mare and the bear, the three of them, away to the war. Every one saw them, and they admired Jack very much, he was such a handsome, clever-looking fellow, and word was passed on to the King about the great Prince who was riding to the war -- himself, the mare, and the bear. The King came to see him, too, and asked him on which side he was going to fight.
“I will strike no stroke this day,” says Jack, “except on the side of the King of Scotland.”
The King thanked him very heartily, and said he was sure they would win. So they went into the battle with Jack at their head, and Jack struck east and west and in all directions, and at every blow of his sword the wind of his stroke tossed houses on the other side of the world, and in a very short time the King of the East ran off, with all his army that were still left alive. Then the King of Scotland invited Jack to come home with him, as he was going to give a great feast in his honor; but Jack said no, he could not go.
“They don’t know at home,” said Jack, “where I am at all” -- and neither they did -- “so I must be off to them as quickly as possible.”
“Then,” says the King, “the least I can do is to give you a present. Here is a table-cloth,” says he, “and every time you spread it out you will have it covered with eating and drinking of all sorts.”
Jack took it, and thanked him, and rode away. He left the mare and the bear in their own wood, and became Hookedy-Crookedy again, and ran back to his garden. The Yellow Rose told him of the brave soldier that had won her father’s battle that day.
“Well, well,” says Jack, says he, “he must have been a grand fellow entirely. It is a pity I was not there, but I had to go on a message for the King.”
“Poor Hookedy-Crookedy,” says she, “what could you do if you were there yourself?”
Jack went to the wood again next morning, and consulted with the mare.
“Jack,” said the mare, “look in the inside of my left ear, and see what you will see,” and Jack took out of her left ear a soldier’s suit, done off with silver, the grandest ever seen, and at the mare’s advice he put the suit on, and mounted on her back, and the three of them went off to the battle. Every one was admiring the beautiful, dashing fellow that was riding to the battle this day, and word came to the King, and the King came to speak to him and welcomed him heartily.
He said, “Your brother came with us the last day we went into the battle. Your brother is a very handsome, fine-looking fellow. What side are you going to fight on?”
Says Jack, “I will strike no stroke on any side but yours this day.”
The King thanked him very heartily, and into the battle they went with Jack at their head, and Jack struck east and west and in all directions, and the wind of the strokes blew down forests in the other end of the world, and very soon the King of the East, with all his army that were still alive, drew off from the battle.
Then the King thanked Jack and invited him to his castle, where he would give a feast in his honor. But Jack said he could not go, for they did not know at home where he was, and they would be uneasy about him until he reached home again.
“Then,” says the King, “the least I can do for you is to give you a present. Here is a purse, and no matter how often and how much you pay out of it, it will never be empty.”
Jack took it, and thanked him, and rode away. In the wood he left the mare and the bear, and was again changed into Hookedy-Crookedy, and went home to his garden. The Yellow Rose came out, and told him about the great victory a brave and beautiful soldier, brother to the fine fellow of the day before, had won for her father.
“Well, well,” says Jack, says he, “that was very wonderful entirely. I am sorry I was not there, but I had to be away on a message for your father.”
“But, my poor Hookedy-Crookedy,” says she, “it was better so, for what could you do?”
Three days after that the King of the East took courage to come to battle again. The morning of the battle Jack went to the wood to consult the mare.
“Look into my left ear, Jack, and see what you will see,” and from the mare’s left ear Jack drew out a most gorgeous soldier’s suit, done off with gold braiding and ornaments of every sort. By the mare’s advice he put it on, and himself, the mare, and the bear went off to the war.
The King soon heard of the wonderfully grand fellow that was riding to the war to-day with the mare and the bear, and he came to Jack and welcomed him and told him how his two brothers had won the last two victories for him. He asked Jack on what side he was going to fight.
“I will strike no stroke this day,” says Jack, “only on the King of Scotland’s side.”
The King thanked him heartily, and said, “We will surely win the victory,” and then into the battle they rode with Jack at their head, and Jack struck east and west and in all directions, and the wind of the strokes tumbled mountains at the other end of the world, and very soon the King of the East with all his army that were left alive took to their heels and never stopped running until they went as far as the world would let them.
Then the King came to Jack and thanked him over and over again, and said he would never be able to repay him. He then invited him to come to his castle, where he would give a little feast in his honor, but Jack said they didn’t know at home where he was and they would be uneasy about him, and so he could not go with the King.
“But,” says he, “I and my brothers will come to feast with you at any other time.”
“What day will the three of you come?” said the King.
“Only one of us can leave home in one day,” said Jack. “I will come to feast with you tomorrow, and my second brother the day after, and my third brother the day after that.”
The King agreed to this and thanked him. “And now,” said the King, “let me give you a present,” and he gave him a comb, such that every time he combed his hair with it he would comb out of it bushels of gold and silver, and it would transform the ugliest man that ever was into the nicest and handsomest. Jack took it and thanked the King and rode away.
On this day, as on the other two days after the battle, they cured the dead and the wounded with the bottles of loca, and all were well again. When Jack went to the wood, he left the mare and the bear in it and became Hookedy-Crookedy again, and went home and to his garden. The Yellow Rose came to him and had wonderful news for him this day about the terrible grand fellow entirely, who had won the battle for her father that day; brother to the two brave fellows who had won the battles on the other two days.