So Jack started, but he could not find any who would leave him the skin
and give him its price too. So he came home discouraged.

But Gobborn Seer said, "Never mind, you must take another turn at it
to-morrow."

So he tried again, and nobody wished to buy the skin on those terms.

When he came home his father said, "You must go and try your luck
to-morrow," and the third day it seemed as if it would be the same thing
over again. And he had half a mind not to go back at all, his father
would be so vexed. As he came to a bridge, like the Creek Road one
yonder, he leaned on the parapet thinking of his trouble, and that
perhaps it would be foolish to run away from home, but he could not tell
which to do; when he saw a girl washing her clothes on the bank below.
She looked up and said:

"If it may be no offence asking, what is it you feel so badly about?"

"My father has given me this skin, and I am to fetch it back and the
price of it beside."

"Is that all? Give it here, and it's easy done."

So the girl washed the skin in the stream, took the wool from it, and
paid him the value of it, and gave him the skin to carry back.

His father was well pleased, and said to Jack, "That was a witty woman;
she would make you a good wife. Do you think you could tell her again?"