eld to
watch the crop; but _Boots_, he had the heart to go, and everything
happened just as it had happened 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 as 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
finer and fatter than that which came the year before, and it had a
saddle on its back, and a bridle on its neck, and a full suit of mail
for a knight lay by its side, all of silver, and as grand as you would
wish to see.

"Ho, ho!" said _Boots_ to himself; "it's you that gobbles up our hay,
is it? I'll soon put a spoke in your wheel;" and with that he took the
steel out of his tinder-box, and threw it over the horse's crest,
which 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 hayfield."

"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 brothers still
hadn't the heart to lie out in the barn and watch the grass, for they
had got so scared at heart the nights they lay there before, that they
couldn't get over the fright; but _Boots_, he dared to go; and, to
make a very long story short, the very same thing happened this time
as 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 laid a little while, he heard something tugging away at the grass
outside the barn, so he stole again to the door-chink, and peeped out,
and there stood a horse close outside--far, far bigger and fatter than
the two he had taken before.

"Ho, ho!" said the lad to himself, "it's you, is it, that comes here
eating up our hay?