Chase, Richard. "Cat 'n Mouse!" The Jack Tales. Boston: Houghton, 1943, pp. 127-34. With one full-page drawing by Berkeley Williams, Jr. of Jack and his wife in a buggy. Jack's brothers take his money after their father gives each one a hundred dollars to go out and make the best of their money. Jack saves a girl who has been changed into a cat by a witch; her sister has been changed into a mouse. Jack destroys the witch in the fire, thereby winning the girl and a farm. With his pretty wife and riches, Jack upstages his brothers and their wives in the relatively long ending of the tale. Chase notes that this seems to be tale type 401, The Princess Transformed into Deer, and the three frightful nights in a castle are part of type 400. He also observes that the function of the talking fox is not clear and some parts of the oral tale may have been lost. It is interesting that Jack defeats the witch by following the cat's advice to refuse her help with tasks, whereas he must allow the magic old woman disguised as a king to help him do chores in "Something Old, Something New" (told by Donald Davis), in order to get help that his brothers don't get. Also, Jack in this tale follows the cat's advice effectively, but he has to be reminded each time by the girl to follow her advice in the Davis tale. Ward, Marshall. "Cat 'n Mouse" (1944). In McGowan, Thomas, ed. "Four Beech Mountain Jack Tales." North Carolina Folklore Journal 49.2 (Fall/Winter 2002): 69-115. Reprinted in honor of Thomas McGowan from vol. 26.2 (1978). Jack and his brothers get fifty cents in this version of the tale, and Jack sews his in his sleeve for luck after his brothers buy clothes with theirs. His brothers, who don't want him to follow them in his ragged clothes while they seek their fortunes, beat him and then try to kill him. But he revives and takes a fork in the road that leads to a castle, where he saves the cat girl by killing the witch and killing all kinds of animals that approach him in the night. In the end he pretends to be poor and dirty again, returning home like the Prodigal Son with his fifty cents, before he reveals that he has a rich wife in a carriage, while his brothers have each made thirty dollars and married ordinary wives. Jack forgives his murderous brothers and helps them live well. McGowan thinks Ward's claim that his ancestor Council Harmon got this tale from the Indians is probably an exaggeration. This article also includes Ward's "Jack and the Heifer Hide," with an introduction by Ward about his family's storytelling traditions (both collected 1977); and Ray Hicks' "Jack and the Three Steers" (1963) and "Whickity Whack" (composite of tellings from 1973 and 1974). Ward comments on his preference for telling stories to groups of children. McGowan gives notes on parallel versions, sources, and sound recordings of the tales. Related Appalachian Tales: The Hainted House and Jack and the Hainted House Jack's contest with a witch in Hardy Hardhead and with witches in the form of cats in Jack and the Sop Doll Noteworthy Girls in Jack Tales for other tales in which smart girls help Jack or aid in their own rescue Mutsmag for comparisons of the hero's relationship with mean siblings "The Snake Princess" in Campbell's Tales from the Cloud Walking Country (1958; rpt. Athens: U of George Press, 2000) and "The Bewitched Princess" in Ruth Ann Musick's Green Hills of Magic (1970; rpt. Parsons, WV: McClain, 1989) are about men marrying snakes that are enchanted princesses. In Whitebear Whittington and The Frog King, the heroines go to live in mysterious houses with husbands who have been turned into animals. "Jack and the Witch," an award-winning tale by a fourth grader, in Students Write Jack Tales. The witch helps Jack get a wife. Compare with: Cat and Mouse in Company, 1994. A new translation by Gary V. Hartman (C. G. Jung Institute Zürich), with interpretive notes. An online sample from The Loose-Leaf Fairy Tale Book, Hartman's work in progress translating Grimm tales. In spite of the similarity in titles, this is a completely different, quite cynical animal tale in which a cat pretends to be friends with a mouse but tricks it when they try to live together, and finally eats it. Many other tales depict a father (often king) sending three brothers out to compete for making their fortune or finding the best wife. When Jack has to fight off wild animals at night to save an enchanted lover, the tale is reminiscent of the Celtic ballad "Tam Lin." This
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