|
Jack and the Bull
Part IV.
And the strop tied her and the horns beat her till she says, "Let me
up, Jack, and I'll give ye a poke full of gold and silver."
Jack let her up, and that evenin' there set a sack in the middle of
the straw pile. Jack looked in it and it was full of twenty-dollar gold
pieces and big silver dollars.
But next day the old woman came right back.
"Hard gripes or sharp shins?"
Hard gripes," says Jack --
"Tic, strop, tic! Beat, horns, beat.!"
And the strop switched around that old witch-woman and the horns knocked
her down and beat her around first one way and then another all over that
pasture. She kept on a-hollerin', but Jack let her have it that time.
"What I want," Jack told her, "is a fine horse and a good new saddle
and a shiny bridle."
The old woman said Yes, she'd give him anything he wanted; so Jack fin'ly
let her up. She went back down that hill just as hard as she could tear.
And next mornin' Jack looked out and ere was a pretty little mare standin'
at the gate. So he put on so fine suit of clothes and tied that poke of
money on behind the saddle and rode on off.
He rode on and rode on and eat at the cafes and stayed at hotels and
directly his money was about to give out. And so one day he stopped by
a farmhouse to see could he get some work.
The man hired Jack right off, says, "Yes, I'll hire ye. I need boy to
shake off apples for my hogs, and I want 'em watched, too. There's somethin'
gain' with my hogs. I been a-rosin' one ever' night here for about a week.
If I don't find out what's gettin' 'em, I'll soon not have no hogs left."
So Jack shook off apples all day and kept a-watchin'. Eat his supper
and went right on back; cloomb up in a tree and started in whistlin' and
shakin' off apples. The hogs was all down there under Jack and next thing
he knowed here came an old giant woman, went to feelin' under the hogs'
bellies to see which'uns was fat; found two that was fat enough for her,
picked 'em up and carted on off with the pigs a-squealin' and a-kickin'.
Jack stopped whistlin' and hollered at her, "Hold on there, old lady!
Where you gain' with our pigs? You wait there till I come down."
The old giant woman thronged down her hogs and grabbed up two big rocks,
commenced grindin' 'em together.
"Oh yes, you little whiplin' devil!" she says. "If you come down from
there, I'll grind ye to pieces in a minute." And she ground on them rocks
till the sand just flew.
"Tic, strop, tic! Beat, horns, beat!"
hollered Jack. That strop had the old giant lady tied hand and foot
in half a minute, and the horns went to work on her and hooked her and
beat her, and the pigs trampled her and bit her legs, and Jack got him
a hickory and whipped her, and she hollered so loud that the farmer came
runnin' up there to see what it was. He got the axe and chopped her head
off. Then he thanked Jack and filled up his poke with money, and the next
mornin' Jack rode on off again.
Jack decided to go home after that and save his money instead of spendin'
it like he done before; and that's where he is right now, as far as I know.
The Jack Tales, edited by Richard Chase. copyright 1971.
|