Jack was born on a farm.  His station in life was such that he was bound to the land much as the livestock and the house he lived in with his parents.  During his early years, the lad was so busy doing the chores he was told to do he had no occasion to exercise his own will.  He was a very ordinary boy of the middle ages.

 One of the most terrible events of his youth happened when he decided to gain the favor of the lord of the manor.  Jack saddled the horse which his lordship was about to ride.  No one had told him to do this job.

When the landowner mounted, the cinch strap slipped and he tumbled off the side of the horse, saddle and all.  With only his dignity injured to any degree, his lordship had Jack given a whipping for his carelessness.  The lad remembered that whipping as he carried some scars all the days of his life.

"It's quite simple me boy." His mother consoled, "You's a contrary lad.  Long as you do what folk tell you to do there will be no trouble.  When you goes your own way is when the contrary happens.  I saw it in you when you was a babe."

Over the next few years Jack discovered ways to put his curse to positive use.  He used it as a talent. 

When his older brother needed boots to replace the old ones that were falling apart, Jack tossed his brother's boots in the river.  This caused some immediate consternation but within the hour a pair of good sturdy boots was brought down from the house.  They were used, of course, but they fit better than the old shabby ones jack had destroyed.

His sister remained upset for some time after he burned her old dress to get her a better one.  Although he explained his curse and his intention to do her a favor, the girl only remembered the anguish of seeing the gown go up the chimney. 

After several years had passed, Jack was quite weighted down with the distrust and suspicion of neighbors and family he had only tried to help.  His dear mother understood but suggested only that if he would never exercise his own will or intent, he could avoid the problems of being contrary. 

 Jack believed his mother was correct but the oppression he felt worked on him until he simply had to run away.  He left in the middle of the night because the landowner would have never let him go. 

The boy decided to go to a place where there were few people and his problem might go undetected.  Because of his contrary quality, he soon found himself in a large city surrounded with a bustling population.
 Fortunately, a stranger offered him a penny to do some hard work all day.  Once Jack had the penny, he gave it to the first person he met.  The man insisted that Jack take a shilling from his own purse.  With this clever ruse the lad managed to live reasonably well in the city for over a year and a day.

According to the law and custom of the day, Jack became a free man by living in a free city for that time.  His owner would no longer have any claim on him.  It was good that the lad had not intended to become a freeman; else he most certainly would have been taken to the Jail. 

In time Jack became homesick and decided to visit the old estate to see his family and the place where he had spent his boyhood.  Perhaps nostalgia blinded him to the pitfalls of making decisions and acting on them.

He saddled his horse and road from the town toward his old home.  Somehow he got lost and after wandering rather aimlessly for a three days, found himself in Oxford by the University.  Exhausted, he sat down on a bench to rest.  He decided not to talk with people so that he might avoid his unique problem.

No sooner than his decision was made, a scholarly looking gentleman walked up to him and asked a question.  Playing the fool in an attempt to discourage further questions, Jack simply babbled nonsense at the fellow.   A look of great surprise illuminated the questioners face.  "What wisdom!" he gasped.  Then he asked another question.

For most of an hour the conversation continued.  Jack enjoying the playing of the fool and the scholar fastening on each morsel of wisdom presented.  Soon a group of twenty students and school men had gathered to ask questions of this most wonderful authority on knowledge revealed and hidden.  Jack enjoyed himself and made no objection to those who took him into their homes and fed him the best they had.

One evening while attending a party Jack met a lady who was beautiful, elegant and quite wealthy.  Still shy and inexperienced, the young man chose to ignore the woman.  Naturally, in a contrary way, she fell deeply in love with him and insisted that they be married. 

He did not object and allowed himself nothing to do with the planning for the wedding or their life together.  She wanted children and they had four.  He simply babbled at rooms filled with students and was reputed to be one of the greatest lecturers of his day.

For many years Jack enjoyed his good fortune and good times.  Indeed there were times in his dotage when he forgot about the trials of being a contrary man. 

One day, when he was really quite old, jack was sitting in his cozy parlor surrounded by his family.  He smiled at his wife who had aged more gracefully than he.

While she was standing by him, Jack grinned broadly and said, "Life is very good."  Then he died.