"I can but try," answered Ned bravely, and opening his knapsack, took out his Magic Axe. Standing it up, with the handle leaning against the enchanted tree, he stepped back a few feet and shouted: "Chop, chop, chop!" At once the axe began to chop, now right, now left, and up and down, and in an incredibly short time that immense tree was cut to bits. It took only a quarter of an hour, and yet there was such a monstrous heap of wood that the whole court needed nothing else to burn for a whole year. But when Ned asked the king for the three bags of gold, that stingy old monarch said, "Before I give you the reward, you must perform another task." "What is it?" asked Ned. "You must dig me a well so that I may have plenty of water," answered the king. THE MAGIC SPRING Ned mounted the little Donkey and rode away. [Illustration] THE MAGIC SPRING "I CAN but try, your Majesty," said Ned bravely, and again opening his knapsack, took out his Magic Pickaxe. Laying it carefully on the ground in the proper position, he shouted: "Pick, pick, pick!" At once the pick began to burst the granite to splinters, and in less than a quarter of an hour had dug a well more than a hundred feet deep in the solid rock. "Is the well deep enough, your Majesty?" asked Ned politely. "Certainly," answered the king, "but where is the water to come from?" And he winked at his courtiers, who smiled to themselves, for they all thought Ned would fail, after all, for as yet there wasn't a drop of water in the well. But Ned wasn't discouraged. He quietly opened his knapsack again and took out the nutshell covered with moss, and placed it on a magnificent fountain vase which, not having any water, had been filled with a beautiful bouquet of flowers. "Gush, gush, gush!" he shouted, stepping aside to avoid a wetting. At once water began to burst out among the flowers, singing with a gentle murmur, and falling down in a sparkling cascade, that was so cold it made everybody shiver. And in less than a quarter of an hour the well was filled, and a deep trench had to be dug to take away the overflow, otherwise the whole palace would have been flooded. "You have indeed earned the reward," said the king. And he ordered a little donkey saddled and bridled and the six bags of gold hung from his back, three on either side. After which Ned was invited to a great feast, and when that was over, he mounted the little donkey and rode away, with the three bags of gold hanging from each side of the saddle and a little gold ring on his finger, which the king's daughter gave him after washing her pretty face in water for the first time in many months. But before Ned rode away, he put his Magic Axe and his Magic Pickaxe back in his knapsack, "for who can tell," he said to himself, "what need I may have of these two useful tools."