up against a little old woman who was gathering sticks. He was too
much out of breath to beg pardon, but the woman was good-natured, and
she said he seemed to be a likely lad, so she would take him to be her
servant, and would pay him well. He agreed, for he was very hungry,
and she brought him to her house in the wood, where he served her for
a twelvemonths and a day.

When the year had passed, she called him to her, and said she had good
wages for him. So she presented him with an ass out of the stable, and
he had but to pull Neddy's ears to make him begin at once to ee--aw!
And when he brayed there dropped from his mouth silver sixpences, and
half crowns, and golden guineas.

The lad was well pleased with the wage he had received, and away he
rode till he reached an inn. There he ordered the best of everything,
and when the innkeeper refused to serve him without being paid
beforehand, the boy went off to the stable, pulled the ass's ears and
obtained his pocket full of money. The host had watched all this
through a crack in the door, and when night came on he put an ass of
his own for the precious Neddy of the poor youth. So Jack without
knowing that any change had been made, rode away next morning to his
father's house.

Now, I must tell you that near his home dwelt a poor widow with an
only daughter. The lad and the maiden were fast friends and true
loves; but when Jack asked his father's leave to marry the girl,
"Never till you have the money to keep her," was the reply. "I have
that, father," said the lad, and going to the ass he pulled its long
ears; well, he pulled, and he pulled, till one of them came off in his
hands; but Neddy, though he hee-hawed and he hee-hawed let fall no