outside the barn, so he stole again to the door chink, and peeped out,
and there stood a horse outside--far, far bigger and more beautiful than
the two he had taken before. It had a saddle on its back, a bridle on
its head, and a full suit of mail for a knight lay by its side--all of
gold, all more splendid than anything you ever saw.

[Illustration: So he caught up the steel and threw it over the horse]

"Ho, ho!" said the lad to himself, "it's you, is it, that comes here
eating up our hay? I'll soon stop that." So he caught up his steel, and
threw it over the horse's neck, and in a trice it stood as if it were
nailed to the ground, and Boots could do as he pleased with it. Then he
rode off with it to the hiding place, where he kept the other two, and
then went home. When he got home, his two brothers made game of him as
they had done before, saying, they could see he had watched the grass
well, for he looked for all the world as if he were walking in his
sleep, and many other spiteful things they said, but Boots gave no heed
to them, only asking them to go and see for themselves; and when they
went, there stood the grass as fine and deep this time as it had been
twice before.

* * * * *

Now you must know that the king of the country where Boots lived had a
daughter, whom he would only give to the man who could ride up over the
hill of glass, for there was a high, high hill, all of glass, as smooth
and slippery as ice, close by the king's palace. Upon the tip top of the
hill the king's daughter was to sit, with three golden apples in her
lap, and the man who could ride up and carry off the three golden apples
was to have half the kingdom, and the Princess to wife. This offer the