"Somehow," Jack explained to the former Fairy Slave, "she was my favorite."
"Then you will have to let her sit on your knee, master, sometimes," she explained; "and you must take special care of her, for she cannot now take the same care of herself that others can. The love of a mortal works changes indeed to the life of a fairy."
"I don't want to have a slave," said Jack to the little lady. "Can't you find some way to be wholly free again?"
"Yes, master, I can be free if you can think of anything that you really like better than the half-crown that you paid for me."
"I would like going up this river to Fairy-land much better," said Jack. So suddenly the river became full of thousands of little people coming down the stream in rafts. They had come to take the Fairy Woman away with them.
"What gift may I give you before I go?" she asked.
"I should like," said Jack, "to have a little tiny bit of that purple gown of yours with the gold border."
So she told Jack to lend her his knife, and with it she cut off a very small piece of the skirt of her robe and gave it to him. "Now I advise you," she said, "never to stretch this unless you want to make something particular out of it."
"Will ye step aboard, my dearest?" sang the Fairy Woman as she sailed away.
"Will ye step aboard, my dearest? for the high seas lie before us. So I sailed adown the river in those days without alloy. We are launched! But when, I wonder, shall a sweeter sound float o'er us Than yon 'pull'e haul'e, pull'e haul'e, yoy! heave, hoy!'"
All Jack had to do to make his magic boat go wherever he wished was to give it a command, so he ordered it to float up the river to Fairy-land.
It was not long before the towers of the castle of the Queen of Fairy-land could be seen in the distance; and soon the castle, with its beautiful gardens, was close beside them along the river bank. But Jack did not dare to enter the castle until he was sure of a shelter of his own. So he pulled and pulled at the piece of purple silk, until it became large enough to make a splendid canopy like a tent. It roofed in all the after-part of the boat, so now he had a delightful little home of his own, and there was no fear of its being blown away, for no wind ever blows in Fairy-land.