was cropping the grass outside the barn door, so he stole to the door,
and peeped through a chink; and what do you think he saw? Why, another
horse standing right up against the wall, and chewing and champing with
might and main. It was far larger and finer than that which came the
year before, and it had a saddle on its back, and a bridle on its head,
and a full suit of mail for a knight lay by its side, all of silver, and
as splendid as you would wish to see.

"Ho, ho!" said Boots to himself; "it's you that gobbles up our hay, is
it?" And with that he took the steel out of his tinder box, and threw it
over the horse's crest; then it stood as still as a lamb. Well, the lad
rode this horse, too, to the hiding place where he kept the other one,
and after that, he went home.

"I suppose you'll tell us," said one of his brothers, "there's a fine
crop this year too, up in the hay field."

"Well, so there is," said Boots; and off ran the others to see, and
there stood the grass thick and deep, as it was the year before; but
they didn't give Boots softer words for all that.

Now, when the third St. John's eve came, the two elder still hadn't the
heart to sit out in the barn and watch the grass, for they had got so
scared at heart the night they sat there before, that they couldn't get
over the fright. But Boots dared to go; and the very same thing happened
this time that had happened twice before. Three earthquakes came, one
after the other, each worse than the one which went before, and when the
last came, the lad danced about with the shock from one barn wall to the
other; and after that, all at once, it was still as death. Now, when he
had sat a little while, he heard something cropping away at the grass