and found himself pretty comfortable, for the water, after the sting of the bees and the heat he had been put into by the race with the bull, was quite cool and refreshing.

“ At all events,” thought Jack, “if it had not been for the bull, I should have been watched by the dog, and then thrashed by the farmer ; but then again, if it had not been for the bull, I should not have tumbled among the bees ; and if it had not been for the bees, I should not have tumbled into the well ; and if it had not been for the chain, I should have been drowned. Such has been the chain of events, all because I wanted to eat an apple.

“ However, I have got rid of the farmer, and the dog, and the bull, and the bees—all’s well that ends well ; but how the devil am I to get out of the well ?—All creation appear to have conspired against the rights of man. As my father said, this is an iron age, and here I am swinging to an iron chain.”

We have given the whole of Jack’s soliloquy, as it will prove that Jack was no fool, although he was a bit of a philosopher ; and a man who could reason so well upon the cause and effect, at the bottom of a well up to his neck in water, showed a good deal of presence of mind. But if Jack’s mind had been a little twisted by his father’s philosophy, it had still sufficient strength and elasticity to recover itself in due time. Had Jack been a common personage, we should never have selected him for our hero.