said to her son: ‘Jack, my dear boy, I have not
money enough to buy you a new suit of clothes,
and you are out of elbows with your jacket, have
knocked out the toes of your boots, and worked
your knees through your breeches. Nothing re-
mains for us but to part with the cow. Part with
her we must, I cannot bear to see you in rags and
disreputable.’

Jack said his mother was quite right to con-
sider his personal appearanice. i
Then the widow bade him take the cow to
market and sell her. Jack consented to do this.
As he was on his way he met with a butcher,
who asked him whither he was going with the

cow.
Jack said he was going to market to sell her.
“What do you want for her?’ asked the butcher.
‘As much as I can get,’ answered Jack.
‘That’s spoken sensibly,’ said the butcher. ‘And
now I know with whom I have to deal. It’s
always a pleasure to treat with a man of business
habits and with plenty of intelligence. With him
one knows where one is, but with a fool and a
scatterbrain—I ask—Where are you ?’
‘Exactly,’ said Jack, ‘Where are you ?’
Jack was vastly gratified at being called a man,
and aman of business to boot, and with plenty of
intelligence on top of that.
‘Come,’ said the butcher; ‘between you and me,
as business men, what will you take for the cow?’
Now, he had in his hands some curious beans of
various colours, red and violet, spotted purple and
black. Jack had never seen the like before, and
he looked curiously at them.
‘Ah!’ said the butcher, ‘I see you are a chap as
knows what is what. In one moment, without
speaking a word, them eyes of yours went into my
hand, looking at my scarlet-runners. There is no
cheating you, you know the value of a thing by the
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