Back to another story. Read it for your pleasure. 

  

    Lazy Jack

Once upon a time there lived in a little cottage an old woman and her son Jack. Every day the old woman sat in the corner and worked at her spinning, and every day her son sat by the fire and did nothing at all. So all the neighbors called him Lazy Jack. One morning his mother could stand his idleness no longer, and she told Lazy Jack that he must work for his bowl of ridge. So off he went to work  a day for a farmer who lived near by.At the end of the day , the farmer paid him a penny.  But Lazy Jack lost the penny in the brook on his way  home and had nothing  to show for his work. The next time , said  his mother, put what you earn in your pocket. The next day Jack worked as a cowherd for a dairyman who lived over the hill, and  at the end of the day , the farmer  paid him a jug of milk. Remembering what  his mother had  said, Jack tried  to put  the jug in his pocket. Of course he spilled all the milk and had only an empty jug when he got home. Next time, said his mother , you should  carry it on your head. Then you won’t spill it. The next morning Lazy Jack went once more to work for the dairy farmer.This time, when  the day was over , the man gave him some cream cheese. Remembering what his mother had said, Lazy Jack put the cheese on his head and started  home. But the cheese melted and ran down all over  his head, and Jack had nothing to show for his day’s work but a dirty face. Next time, said his mother patiently, you should wrap it in green leaves and carry it in your hands. At the end of the  next day’s work all Lazy Jack got was a tomcat.  He did  just as he had been told; he tried  to wrap it in green leaves and hold it in his hands. The cat did not like this at all and finally got away  from Jack who arrived home with nothing to show but scratched  hands. Stupid, said his mother , who still had to spin for their living. You should  have tied it to a string and pulled it behind you. So the next afternoon , when Lazy Jack  was given a ham as payment for his work, he carefully tied a string around it and dragged it home along the dusty road.  Oh , you strawhead, cried his mother when she saw the dusty, battered remains of what had been a fine ham. Why didn’t you carry it on your shoulder? So next day, when Jack was given a donkey for his work, he obediently hoisted it to his shoulder and started home. Now on his way Jack passed the handsome home of a wealthy man who had one daughter. The poor girl was both deaf and dumb, and  doctors said the only cure would be for her to laugh. But, try as he might, the father could find nothing that would make his daughter laugh. On this afternoon she was  sitting at the window gazing sadly at the road. Suddenly around a bend came  the strangest sight she had ever seen Lazy Jack struggling along with the donkey on his shoulder. The donkey’s four feet were waving in the air, and it was braying loudly. First she looked. Then she stared. And then , wonder of wonders, she burst out laughing. Father, she called at last. Father, look. My daughter , the old man exclaimed. Is that really your voice I hear? It was, of course and the girl was completely cured. Overjoyed, her father rushed out to the road. Drop your donkey, he cried to Lazy Jack.  You have given my daughter back her voice and her hearing , and no one but you shall be her husband. So Jack, who was called Lazy Jack no longer, and the daughter were married. They lived in  a fine new house and Jack’s mother came often to live with them. The old  man came often to visit them and as you can  well imagine , they all lived happily ever after.