and roof shook, and groaned, and creaked; then up jumped the lad, and
took to his heels as fast as ever he could; nor dared he once look
round till he reached home; and as for the hay, why it was eaten up
this year just as it had been twice before.

The next St John's night, the man said again, it would never do to
lose all the grass in the outlying field year after year in this way,
so one of his sons must just trudge off to watch it, and watch it
well too. Well, the next oldest son was ready to try his luck, so he
set off, and lay down to sleep in the barn as his brother had done
before him; but as the night wore on, there came on a rumbling and
quaking of the earth, worse even than on the last St John's night,
and when the lad heard it, he got frightened, and took to his heels
as though he were running a race.

Next year the turn came to Boots; but when he made ready to go, the
other two began to laugh and to make game of him, saying,

'You're just the man to watch the hay, that you are; you, who have
done nothing all your life but sit in the ashes and toast yourself by
the fire.'

But Boots did not care a pin for their chattering, and stumped away
as evening drew on, up the hill-side to the outlying field. There he
went inside the barn and lay down; but in about an hour's time the
barn began to groan and creak, so that it was dreadful to hear.

'Well', said Boots to himself, 'if it isn't worse than this, I can
stand it well enough.'