"ho, ho!" said the lad to himself, "it's you, is it, that comes here eating up our hay? i'll soon stop that i'll soon put a spoke in your wheel." so he caught up his steel and threw it over his 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.