"Good-day!" said Jack. "So you stand here all alone and hew, do you?"
"Yes; here I've stood and hewed and hacked a long, long time, waiting
for you," said the Axe.
"Well, here I am at last," said Jack, as he took the axe, pulled it
off its handle, and stuffed both head and handle into his wallet.
So when he got down again to his brothers, they began to jeer and
laugh at him.
"And now, what funny thing was it you saw up yonder on the hillside?"
they said.
"Oh, it was only an axe we heard," said Jack.
So when they had gone a bit farther, they came under a steep spur of
rock, and up there they heard something digging and shoveling.
"I wonder now," said Jack, "what it is digging and shoveling up yonder
at the top of the rock."
"Ah, you're always so clever with your wonderings," said Peter and
Paul again; "as if you'd never heard a woodpecker hacking and pecking
at a hollow tree."
"Well, well," said Jack, "I think it would be a piece of fun just to
see what it really is."
And so off he set to climb the rock, while the others laughed and made
game of him. But he didn't care a bit for that; up he climbed, and
when he got near the top, what do you think he saw? Why, a spade that
stood there digging and delving.
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