OCR Text |
Show SIMPLE JACK. When the Irish peasants meet by the turf fires in the winter evenings they tell strange tales of luck and adventure. adven-ture. Some of the peasants have great wisdom, and I often heard them say-that say-that one should never despise or look down upon a simple'country" youth." It is unwise to do so, and who knows. but he may attain to a position of greatness in after life? If you are. still doubtful upon this point they -will relate Lhe strange story of simple Jack, the widow's wi-dow's son. This is how they tell it: If it is a day it is a hundred years since there lived at the heel end of the Donegal mountains a widow woman and her son Jack. The woman was fond of the lad, and thought that it was upon his curly head that the sun rose and set; and it used to give her annoyance annoy-ance and pain when the neighbors would address him as "Simple Jack." So she said to herself that some foul weather, come fair she would teach him wisdom, and make him as clever as the next. With this object in view she sent him to the village to purchase a sewing needle. . He bought the needle ' well enough, for she had given him all directions di-rections for doing so, but being a simple lad, he did not know how to carry it home. j Just then he say a hay cart pass by I the way, and he said to himself that it would be a wise plan to put the needle in the middle of one of the bundles. No sooner said, than 'done, and as he strode behind the cart, he was very proud of his cleverness. But when he tried to get the needle out of the hay, he could not find it. The carter said that nobody but a fool would carry a needle in such a way, and the boy was very angry with himself. him-self. His mother cried and scolded when, she heard what had happened, and' she said he would never be good for either king or country. "And how would I carry it, mother?" said the boy. "Why, in the corner of your coat," she replied. The lad wondered why he had not thought of that before, and promised to be wiser for the future. Next day she sent him to the village to purchase a meskin of butter, and she gave him so many directions that it was the wonder of the parish when he made a mistake. When he got the butter he was at' a loss to know how to carry it home; but remembering his mother's advice on the loss of the needle, he decided that he would carry.it away in the corner of his coat. It was a sultry day in summer, sum-mer, and with the heat of the sun added : to the warmth of Jack's bodv. th'eihiit-i ter quickly melted away; and when he reached home he had nothing to show but a coat very much soiled where the butter rested. The mother' cried and regretted, the day-that she could be the mother of a lad Uiat 'could be so stupid; ' "And -how in the world could I carry it?" said the boy. "In a cabbage leaf," she replied, "for the cabbage leaf would have kept it clean and cool." Jack wondered why he had. never thought; of that, and promised to be wis3r for the future. , " Next morning she sent him to the well, forovater, and the errand bein? such -a-simple' one. she did not consider it necessary "to give him any instructions. instruc-tions. He '.traveled on till. he came to the well, ..and; then, began to. bedate with himself how he was to carry the water away Then-the memory- of the- pound of butter came to him, and he filled the1 water in a cabbage leaf. . But my share ofthe world! when he reached home he hadn't as much water as would, give a drink to a bee. His mother scolded him for his simplicity sim-plicity and said that he wasn't fit for anything she knew of, from a tailor to a king. The neighbors laughed at him more than ever after this, and whenever he went folks made merry at his folly. One day when he could stand their affronts and jeers no longer, he packed all his worldly belongings into a little parcel, and hoisting it upon his shoulders, shoul-ders, he started out to push his fjf-tune fjf-tune and learn wisdom. He had. not traveled very far when he came to where an old-fashioned marble statue, stood in the center of grove. It was the figure of an old man in a flowing robe, and, as it, was raining heavily at the time, Jack said j it was the pity of the world to see an ! old man in the rain with so little clothing. cloth-ing. The boy had never. seen anything of the kind before, and he was a good-I good-I natured lad. He opened the little parcel that he carried and took out his best coat. Then, going over to the statue, he gravely proceeded to clothe it. In doing so he slipped and had to clutch at the figure to prevent himself falling. The statue was very old and much worn by the rains, and with the weight of Jack's body it toppled over. The boy barely escaping being crushed by its fall, but judge of his surprise when h found imbedded in a hollow, at the broken part, as many, gold sovereigns sover-eigns as would buy a townlanc They had been hidden away there by an old miser in other days.' Jack knew well enough the value of his find, for his mother once had a bright gold sovereign when she sold the cow, and he said the wealth would come in mighty handy for her now. With that he turned back home, and his mother was more than glad to see him. That flight they sat .long, by -the ' " " . turf fire discussing how they could best use the money, and the woman said in her own mind that the traveling had made Jack a wiser man. , Jack "and his mother became v?ry prosperous after that, and it .vas observed ob-served by one and all that the wealth and the traveling had brought the lad great wisdom. Anyhow, it was Jack's simple good nature that was responsible responsi-ble for all his good luck. And thus it came to be a byeword in the Donegal mountains tr.at . nobody knows the luck of a simple country Iv.d. |