go with them, for if they were seen with such a dirty, changeling, all
begrimed with smut from cleaning their shoes and sifting cinders in
the dust-hole, they said folk would make game of them.

'Very well', said Boots, 'it's all one to me. I can go alone, and
stand or fall by myself.'

Now when the two brothers came to the hill of glass, the knights and
princes were all hard at it, riding their horses till they were all
in a foam; but it was no good, by my troth; for as soon as ever the
horses set foot on the hill, down they slipped, and there wasn't one
who could get a yard or two up; and no wonder, for the hill was as
smooth as a sheet of glass, and as steep as a house-wall. But all
were eager to have the Princess and half the kingdom. So they rode
and slipped, and slipped and rode, and still it was the same story
over again. At last all their horses were so weary that they could
scarce lift a leg, and in such a sweat that the lather dripped from
them, and so the knights had to give up trying any more. So the king
was just thinking that he would proclaim a new trial for the next
day, to see if they would have better luck, when all at once a knight
came riding up on so brave a steed, that no one had ever seen the
like of it in his born days, and the knight had mail of brass, and
the horse a brass bit in his mouth, so bright that the sunbeams shone
from it. Then all the others called out to him he might just as well
spare himself the trouble of riding at the hill, for it would lead to
no good; but he gave no heed to them, and put his horse at the hill,
and went up it like nothing for a good way, about a third of the
height; and when he had got so far, he turned his horse round and
rode down again. So lovely a knight the Princess thought she had
never yet seen; and while he was riding, she sat and thought to