to give up trying any more.

The king was just thinking that he would proclaim a new trial for the
next day, to see if they would have better luck, when all at once a
knight came riding up on so brave a steed, that no one had ever seen the
like of it in his born days, and the knight had a mail of brass, and the
horse a brass bit in his mouth, so bright that the sunbeams shone from
it. Then all the others called out to him that he might just as well
spare himself the trouble of riding at the hill, for it would lead to no
good; but he gave no heed to them, and put his horse at the hill, and
went up it for a good way, about a third of the height; and when he had
got so far, he turned his horse round and rode down again. So lovely a
knight the Princess thought she had never yet seen; and while he was
riding, she sat and thought to herself,--

"Ah, how I wish that he might come up and go down the other side."

And when she saw him turning back, she threw down one of the golden
apples after him, and it rolled down into his shoe. But when he got to
the bottom of the hill he rode off so fast that no one could tell what
had become of him. That evening all the knights and princes were to go
before the king, that he who had ridden so far up the hill might show
the apple which the Princess had thrown, but there was no one who had
anything to show. One after the other they all came, but not a man of
them could show the apple.

The next day, all the princes and knights began to ride again, and you
may fancy they had taken care to shoe their horses well; but it was no
use,--they rode and slipped, and slipped and rode, just as they had done
the day before; and there was not one who could get so far as a yard up