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Jack and the North West Wind!
Part III.
He went on and got past that house, but he met up with the boys in the
road. First thing, they began to ask him what the old man gave him that
time, and finally Jack had to tell 'em, and they said there couldn't no
rooster lay eggs at all, let alone gold ones. Said Jack was makin' up a
whopper. So Jack set the rooster down and took his hat, says,
"Come, gold! Come!"
and the gold just came apourin' out.
Then the boys said to him, says, "Why, Jack, you've just got to stay
all night with us. You sure ought to show that trick to daddy when he comes
in." Well, they talked so good that finally Jack decided to stay.
The boys' father took on a sight when they showed him about that rooster
and he got Jack a box to keep it in that night. Jack kept hard and didn't
wake up at all when the boys slipped in his room and took his rooster out
of the box and put another one in the place of it. It was so near like
the real one that Jack didn't notice it when he took it out the next morning
and went on back in home.
When he got there, his mother said to him, says, "Well, Jack, I see
you're back, and that Wind's ablowin' right on."
"I never found the place where it comes out at, yet," says Jack.
"Saw that old man again, and he hired me to come back."
"What did he give ye this time?" Jack told her about his rooster, and
she told him, says, "Let me see now whether it will or not."
Jack set the rooster out, says, "Come, gold! Come/" but there wasn't
a single egg to come. The old rooster just jumped up on a chair and crowed
right big.
"Hit's a failure, Jack. You made a bobble this time, too."
So they killed the rooster and eat it for supper.
Jack stayed around home several days and tended to his feedin' and milkin'
and kept up a good pile of wood by the fire; and then that North West Wind
started blowin' the hardest yet. It blasted right on through the house
and whistled around the chimney and it commenced snowin' in all over everything.
Looked like a regular harricane was comin' Blew through that old open
house so hard it nearly put the fire out. Fin'ly Jack says to his a tic
tomother, says, "I'm bound to go stop that Wind." Says, "And that old man
ain't agoin' to turn me back this tinge either. We'll ded to stay.freeze
to death if that Wind ain't stopped."
Well, Jack worked hard gettin' up enough wood to do his mother night.
Jacka long time, and then he pulled out again. When he got near that old
man's place, he cut out through the woods so he wouldn't see him at all.
But he hadn't gone any piece at all hardly 'fore he came on the on old
man out there arabbit huntin', says, "Hel-lo, Jack! What in the world you
coin' back here again?"
"I'm gain' to stop that North West Wind," says Jack, "and I'm a-goin'
on this time, too!"
"What did ye do with the rooster I give ye, Jack?"
"Hit wouldn't do a thing you said. We killed it and eat it."
"Did you stop at that house again, Jack?"
"Yes," says Jack. "I stayed the night there."
"They've got your rooster. That's what's happened sure." Says, "Now,
Jack, you better just leave that North West Wind alone now and come on
home with me again. We'll have to talk this over and see what we can do.
No Sir! I'll not let you go no further this cold stormy day."
Well, Jack was pretty near give out with stumblin' through the snow,
and he was cold and hungry too, so he let the old man have his way. They
fixed up a good dinner, and Jack sat by the fire and got good and warm
and rested, and directly the old man reached up over the fireboard and
got down a little knotty-lookin' to his feedin' club, says, "If you go
back this time, Jack, I'll give ye this club.
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The Jack Tales, by Richard Chase. copyright 1971.
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