There once was a lad, named Jack, who ran away from home
because he couldn’t deal with his abusive father anymore. He hated to leave his
true love, the widow’s daughter from down the road, but he promised that one
day he would return as a rich man and they would finally marry.
Jack ran and ran until he ran into an old lady in the woods.
She thought he looked like a nice young man and offered him a nice salary if he
would be her servant which Jack agreed to because he was very hungry. He served
the old lady for twelve months and a day, and when the year was up, she brought
Jack an ass from her stable. She told him to pull its ear and when Jack did,
the ass brayed, and then dropped money out of it’s mouth and into Jack’s hand.
Jack thanked the old woman for the ass and rode off into the sunset.
Jack thought about returning home but he felt that he didn’t
have enough to take care of his true love, so he began to search for another
job. A carpenter thought he would make a good assistant, so he told Jack that
if he served him for a year and a day he would pay him well. After the year was
up, the carpenter presented Jack with a table that if told “Table, be covered,”
would fill up with plenty of food and drinks. Jack thanked the carpenter for the
table, put it on the back of the donkey, and rode off into the sunset.
Jack felt that he could return home to his true love now,
but since it was dark he decided to stay at an inn for the night and continue his
journey in the morning. Jack thought no one saw him pull the donkey’s ear to
get money for the room or cover the table, so he and the donkey could eat, but
the innkeeper saw it all. That night the innkeeper stole the table and the donkey.
When Jack awoke the next morning, he asked the innkeeper to fetch him his
donkey and table, but the innkeeper told him that they were his now and threw
him out the door into the river.
A man picked him up from the river and asked if Jack would help
him build a bridge across it. Jack agreed and the two used a tree to create the
bridge. Once the work was done, the man tore off a branch of the tree, whittled
it into a club, and told Jack that when it was told “Up stick and bang him,”
the club would beat up anyone who angered him. Then the man gave the club to
Jack as payment for his help.
Jack immediately went to the inn and commanded the stick to
beat the innkeeper until he gave him back his table and donkey. Once he had all
three of his magical items, he rode back as fast as he could to his true love!
They got married later that summer, serving all their friends and family with
their magical table and then riding off into the sunset on their magical
donkey.
The End
Author’s Note: This is based of The Ass, the Table, and the
Stick by Joseph Jacobs from the English Fairy Tales Unit. In the original story,
the beginning is similar but instead of searching for another job, Jack heads
back to his father’s house and stops at an inn for the night. The innkeeper won’t
let him in without payment first, so Jack shows him the cool trick his donkey can
do. That night the innkeeper switches out Jack’s magic donkey with a regular
one and Jack rides away the next day with no clue as to what just happened.
When he gets home, Jack asks his dad if he can marry the maiden and his dad says
only if he can provide for her. Jack says he can and pulls on the donkey’s ear,
but nothing happens so his dad beats him and causes Jack to leave again. Jack goes
through the same cycle: works, gets a magical table, shows the innkeeper, there’s
a secret switch, humiliates himself in front of dad, gets beaten, runs away,
works, and finally gets a magical stick. Jack beats the innkeeper up with the
stick until he gets the ass and table back and when he returns home he finds
his father dead. He is now very rich and wants to marry someone, so he has all
the maidens in the town come with all their money in their aprons. His love has
no money but comes anyways and when Jack sees her he tells her to stand aside
because she has nothing. She begins to cry diamonds, so Jack tells the stick to
beat all the other girls causing them to drop their money and run away. Jack
then gives the maiden the dropped money and tells her she is now the richest
girl in town, so he will marry her.
You can see why I
changed a lot of the story because Jack was a real jerk in the original. Like
he kept causing his own downfall and then he gets to come out on top? No sir!
So I made him much nicer and made his main motivation providing for the maiden.
Bibliography. The Ass, the Table, and the Stick by Joseph
Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1890). Link to reading
