Then he got
on its back, and rode off with it to a place which no one knew of, and
there he put up the horse. When he got home, his brothers laughed, and
asked how he had fared.
"You didn't sit long in the barn, even if you had the heart to go as far
as the field."
"Well," said Boots, "all I can say is, I sat in the barn till the sun
rose."
"A pretty story," said his brothers; "but we'll soon see how you have
watched the meadow;" so they set off; but when they reached it, there
stood the grass as deep and thick as it had been over night.
Well, the next St. John's eve it was the same story over again; neither
of the elder brothers dared to go out to the outlying field to watch the
crop; but Boots, he had the heart to go, and everything happened just as
it had the year before. First a clatter and an earthquake, then a
greater clatter and another earthquake, and so on a third time; only
this year the earthquakes were far worse than the year before. Then all
at once everything was still as death, and the lad heard how something
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.
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