ou. For you must know that no matter how brave and strong you
may be you cannot kill this Giant, for he does not keep his heart in his
body. It is hidden away somewhere, for he is afraid that some one will
kill him, so he keeps it no one knows where. But to-night I will ask him
where it is, and do you listen, and it may be that we can find it and
kill him, and you can set your brothers and their brides and me free."

"That will I," said Boots, looking at her with eyes that told what he
would do when he had set them all free.

So at last the Giant came home, and after he had eaten and was feeling
very good-natured, the Princess said to him: "I have always wondered
where it is that you keep your heart, for it is evident that it is not
in your body."

"Indeed, and it is not," said the Giant, "for if it were I should have
been dead long ago. But I will tell you where it is--it is under the
great doorstep at the entrance of the castle."

The next morning, after the Giant had gone out, Boots and the Princess
dug and tugged, and tugged and dug, until at last they lifted the great
doorstep at the entrance of the castle. But there was no heart under it.
Then the Princess piled flowers about, that it might not show where she
had been digging, and when the Giant came back he laughed loudly, and
said: "What sort of nonsense is this? You thought my heart was there,
you silly, and have piled flowers about it. But my heart is not there.
It is in the back of the big cupboard in the deepest dungeon keep."

The next day after the Giant had gone Boots and the Princess went down
to the deepest dungeon keep, and they dug and tugged, and tugged and
dug, until at last they had moved the cupboard from the wall; but there
was no heart there. So the Princess piled flowers about, as she had done
before. That night when the Giant came home he went down into the
dungeon and saw the flowers, and said: "You did, indeed, wish to pay
honor to my heart, you foolish child, but it is not there."

Then tears stood in the beautiful eyes of the Princess, and she said:
"Oh, then, tell me where it is, that I may place flowers about the
place."

"That is not possible," said the Giant, "for it is too far away from
here, and you could not get to it. On a great hill in the forest stands
a church, and in the church is a well, and in the well there is a duck,
swimming backward and forward on the water; and in the duck is an egg,
and in the egg is my heart; so