The One About Jack’s Cow

Once upon a time, a boy named Jack sold the family cow for a handful of magic beans. The story of Jack and his beanstalk is well known, but what became of the cow?

The cow was sold to a nihilistic charlatan from a faraway land, a man who had no actual interest in owning a cow. Once he’d hoodwinked poor Jack, the charlatan set the cow loose in the countryside and scampered off to parts unknown to enact his next scheme.

The Sister Goddesses took pity on the poor thing and granted her magical boons to ensure that her life would be easier and more meaningful from then on.

From that day until this day, the cow has wandered the hilly country of The Highlands.

When she comes across a village or town, she stays there for three days and three nights—no more, and no less. She allows herself to be milked by any and all comers until it’s time to leave, but runs away if anyone tries to tie her up or cage her. And what the nice folk who follow her rules soon learn is that: her supply of milk is inexhaustible; one glassful cures any and all of the drinker’s ailments; and this cow’s milk is the sweetest they have ever tasted.

In 179, during the Second Age of Eden, a sixteen-year-old Neverlander called Jack Spriggins sold a cow to one Peter Pan in exchange for beans which Pan purported to be magic. These beans, as part of a tragic accident involving Jack’s father Colin, would go on to create the infamous Beanstalk. As for the cow’s whereabouts after the sale, sworn affidavits from several Lost Boys indicate that Pan arrived back home on the Island of Pirates that evening with no cow in tow.

Sightings of cows answering to the name of Elspeth have been reported throughout The Highlands in the centuries since. And though these cows do seem to have seemingly inexhaustible supplies of milk, there is no conclusive evidence that they are the same cow made seemingly immortal by the goddesses.