West Irish folk-tales and romances/7
JACK.
Narrator, P. Minahan, of Malinmore, Glencolumkille, co. Donegal.
There was a master, and he went to look for a servant boy. He fell in with Jack. He
hired him. He took him home. On the morning of the morrow the master was leaving home. Jack asked him what he should do that day.
“Go threshing in the barn,” said the master.
“Shall I thresh anything but what is there?”
“Do not,” said the master. “If you thresh all that's there, thresh no more.”
“What'll I go to do then?” said Jack.
“Don't do a turn till night.”
The master went away then, and Jack went to the barn and began threshing. The chaff began flying about, and he slashed through the barn, and there was not a grain of it left in an hour by the watch. Jack cleared the barn. He shook the straw. He cleaned up the barn. He went into the house and sat down by the fire. The mistress bade him bring in a basket of turf. He said he would not. “You won't be there,” said the mistress, “unless you do some work.”
“I won't do one turn till night.”
“Musha, you won't be there,” said the mistress.
The two quarrelled. She put him out of the house. He went out and stayed about the place till night.
When Jack went out a neighbour came in. The mistress got dinner for him. When he was going, she went with him part of the way. They came to an old lime-kiln. They went into it. He kissed the mistress. Jack was watching them always. “If I knew,” said she, “where you would be working to-morrow, I would bring you your dinner.”
“I'll be at work ploughing at the east end of the village. I'll have a white horse and a black horse.”
When night came, Jack went into the byre. The master came home. He asked where the boy was.
“I don't know where he is,” said the mistress. “He came in here and sat down by the fire. I bade him bring in a cleeve of turf. He said he wouldn't. I said he shouldn't be there if he didn't work. He said he wouldn't do a turn till night. We had a quarrel. I haven't set eyes on him since then.”
They went to bed. They heard a noise in the byre. “The cattle have broken loose,” said the mistress. “They are goring one another.” The master called to the servant-girl to go out and look into the byre; that the cattle were broken loose. The girl got up and went out. She was a while outside. She couldn't catch the cattle. The master got up himself and went out. The girl was in the byre before him. He kissed the girl. They came in. The master said two of the cattle were broken loose. Jack was in the byre all the time watching them, and when they went to bed he came into the house and went to bed. He got up on the morrow morning. “I never saw the work I'd rather do than ploughing,” said he. “It's time to turn the soil up. Let us go ploughing to-day.”
“I don't care,” said the master. They got the breakfast ready. They took the beasts with them to go ploughing. The two beasts were black. “I never saw anything I disliked more than a black beast.” Jack went in and brought out a white sheet. He put it on one of the beasts. He then had a black beast and a white beast. They went ploughing the land that was nearest to them. When the middle of the day came, Jack raised his head, and he ploughing. He looked before him. He saw the woman coming near them, with a bundle in her hand. “I don't know,” said he, “who that woman over there is.” The master looked.
“It is my wife,” said he, “coming with our dinner.
“What a right sort of woman!” said Jack.
“When the mistress came to them she was ashamed to go past. They sat down and went to take their dinner. They had a good dinner. There were a great many eggs.
“It's a pity,” said the master, “the man over there hasn't some dinner.”
“Musha,” said Jack, “I'll go and bring him some.”
“Do,” said the mistress.
Jack got up, and said he, “I'll take some eggs to be eating on the way.” He took a handful of eggs. When he was gone a little way from them he let one of the eggs fall on the ground. He was dropping the eggs on the road. When he got as far as the man he sat down and began chatting.
Said the mistress, “He won't come over till the dinner's good for nothing.”
“I'll go over myself,” said the master. He got up and he went over, but he wasn't gone far when he came on an egg. He stooped and picked it up. He was gathering the eggs on the road.
“What's the man beyond gathering?” said the other man to Jack.
“He's gathering white stones to kill you for being with his wife yesterday in the lime-kiln.”
“Did he hear of that?”
“He heard,” said Jack.
“I'll stay here no longer,” said the man.
He got up and went running away as fast as he could. The master began to call after him. He wouldn't turn back. The master kept running after him. When Jack saw the two of them travelling he went back to the dinner.
“Where is he gone to?” said the mistress.
“He's after that man for his doings with you in the lime-kiln yesterday.”
The master came back to his dinner. When the mistress saw him coming she got up and took to her heels. When the master saw that, he asked where was she going?
“She's going to drown herself,” said Jack, “for your kissing the servant girl in the byre last night.”
“Did she hear of that?” said the master. He went running after her. “Come back,” said he, “and I'll never do it again.”
“Oh, don't kill me,” said she, “and I'll never do it again.”
She returned then and they took their dinner, but it was good for nothing. They ploughed till night-time. Jack was a good servant-boy. He put in his time.
When he left his master he went to the big town. He went tailoring. His master had twelve boys before he came. Jack wasn't long with him when he was a great hand at the sewing. His time was nearly up. His master thought he would keep no one but Jack. The times were hard. He dismissed them every one but Jack. He kept him. They were tailoring one day. The master said to Jack it was a bad year.
“Don't be afraid,” said Jack. “Do you see that field full of cattle over there?”
When night came Jack and his master went out. They went to the field. Jack took one of the bullocks. He skinned the skin off it. He cut the flesh off the bones. He sewed the skin on the bullock again. They went home, and two loads of meat with them. They had enough that time. To make a long story short, they didn't leave a bullock in the field but they did the same to. When the last of the cattle was eaten, they began with the sheep. They played the same trick on the sheep.
When the king thought it was time to kill a bullock he went to the butcher. They went to the field. When they went to look at a bullock, the bullock was barely able to walk. They were all like that. The king couldn't tell what happened them. They went to the field where the sheep were. They were in bad condition. There wasn't a sheep or a head of cattle that Jack and the tailor hadn't eaten the flesh off.
The king went home, and he didn't know what to do. He went to the old man who was in the town to tell him what happened to them.
“There's some neighbour of yours that's smart.”
“I don't know how I can get hold of him.”
“I know,” said the old man. “The first fine day that comes take some gold and silver, spread it out, and leave it outside till the dark comes. Whoever is playing the tricks on you will spy it. He'll try for it. When night comes, take in the money and put out a barrel of pitch.”
The king did so. Jack looked out at the window. He saw the king spread out the money. “Do you see,” said he, “ what the man is doing yonder?” Jack was watching the money all day. Night was coming on, and nobody was going near the money. “He has forgotten it,” said Jack; “no one will come near it till morning.”
When night came Jack and his master went drawing near the money, to take home the full of a bag with them. They went to the place where the money was. There was a barrel of pitch there. “Which will you do, stoop into the barrel, or watch?” The tailor said he would stoop. He stooped into the barrel; he stretched his two hands down to get a handful. The two hands stuck in the pitch. He was caught then. He could not stir. He called to Jack to draw him out of the barrel. Jack went to draw him. He failed to draw him. He placed his two hands on his body and shoved him down on the crown of his head. He left him there.
The king came in the morning. He found the thief caught in the barrel. He couldn't tell then who he was, he was so black with pitch. He was as bad as ever. He went to the old man again. He said the thief was caught by him, but he didn't know who he was.
“Do you know what you'll do? Take a beast and tie him to the beast's tail. Whoever it is that has lost her husband, when she sees him she will go crying.”
He tied a rope on the man. He put him behind the beast. He went through the big town with him. He did not go far till he came to the house of the tailor. When the tailor's wife saw him she gave a roar of lamentation out of her. Jack caught hold of the scissors and cut the tip of his finger. The king came in. He said she was caught. The tailor (i.e., Jack) looked round. “What ails you?” said Jack.
“It is your wife who has lost the man and is crying there.”
“It was I cut my finger,” said Jack, “and she thought I was killed, and that's what she was crying for. You may go off with yourself. There's nothing for you to get here.”
The king went away. He was up and he was down. If he were to be walking till now he wouldn't get one to go crying. He had nothing for it but to go home. The tailor's wife and Jack were married then.
