Once Upon a Time

There lived a boy named John, Jack to his friends and family.

Jack lived with his mother but not his father because his father was dead.

Jack and his mother were poor.
Very poor.

They lived in a tiny cottage with
A three-legged stool
And a tiny table for furnishing.

The other furniture they had burned to keep warm the past winter.
Now it was just becoming spring,

And all the food was gone.
And all the wood to cook it with.
Furthermore, they had no hay for their cow,
The only thing left to sell.

They slept on the floor
Covered by rags
They had not burned.
They were very, very poor.

Jack was too small to take up the hard tasks his father had done around the farm.
Nor did they have a horse, having sold that to pay the taxes.

They were in a very, very bad way.

And so upon a day
Jack’s mother sent Jack and the cow
To the village.

“Sell the cow, Jack,”
Jack’s mother said,
“And bring us back
What little money she will bring.”

“But poor, departed father loved that cow!”said Jack.

“We can’t feed it.
Nor can we feed ourselves.
Sell the cow. After that,
Who can tell our fate?”


Jack always tried his best to do what he could,
And so off he went, leading the cow with a rope.

But not before he grabbed his constant companion,
A small wool cap his father had given him.

Jack called the cap his Considering Cap.