But Nimble Jim heeded her not.  This night also he could not close his eyes, and in the early morning he hastened to tell his mother their good fortune.  She looked grave, and said: 

“Ah, my lad!  I’d rather you minded the cobbler’s bench, nor trafficked with fairies.  I fear me they’re uncanny folks to deal with.”

“Never fear, mother; we’ll be rich yet, and I’ll make you a queen yourself, and then you need spin no more,” said Jim, wild with hope and excitement.

“I don’t mind the spinnin’, my boy.  I’d rather be——­“.

Jim heard no more, for he dashed off at once to the garden to plant his precious seeds just at sunrise.  With furious energy, he tore up all his old vines, flung them over the fence, and, after that, spaded up the melon-bed with the greatest care.  Then he opened the paper and poured the magical seeds into his hand.

There were only four—­four wee seeds, each no bigger than a pin’s head!  His first impulse was to fling them away in wrath, for he thought such little things couldn’t possibly make as big a fortune as he wanted.  But then he reflected, “Fairies are little, so I suppose their seeds are little, too.  I’ll try them, anyhow.”  And with that he put them in the ground and carefully covered them.

In an instant, the ground burst open in four places, and up shot four sturdy melon-vines, that grew east, west, north, south!

Grew?  No! they raced, they tore, they dashed through the country far and wide!  In no time, before Nimble Jim could get back to the house door, the whole yard was full of melon-vine, and one great big melon, bigger than the cottage itself, blocked the door-way.

[Illustration:  THE MAGIC MELON OVERRUNS THE COUNTRY.]

“Oh! oh! oh!” roared Jim.  “What have I done?  What shall I do?” And with his spade he cut a hole through the melon.  It took him a whole hour, and when he got into the house he found that his poor mother had fainted from fright.

And all the time the vine and melons kept growing—­east, west, north, south.

Nimble Jim was frantic!

But the vines didn’t mind Jim.  On they went, growing like mad, a mile a minute, faster than any railroad train.  The big arms filled up the main roads; the smaller ones crammed themselves into the lanes and by-paths, while the tendrils embraced the tall trees, the houses, and the church steeples, and snarled up everything.  The leaves grew so large, thick and green that they covered the whole face of the country, shutting out the sun from the fields so the crops couldn’t grow; and the whole kingdom became so dark from the awful shade of Nimble Jim’s magic melon-vine, that the people had to burn candles day and night.