erhaps, and then Dapplegrim neighed the third time; but before he
could ask the lad if he heard anything, something gave such a neigh
across the heathery hillside, the lad thought hill and rock would
surely be rent asunder.

"Now he's here!" said Dapplegrim; "make haste, now, and throw the
ox-hides, with the spikes in them, over me, and throw down the
tar-barrel on the plain; then climb up into that great spruce-fir
yonder. When it comes, fire will flash out of both nostrils, and then
the tar-barrel will catch fire. Now, mind what I say. If the flame
rises, I win; if it falls, I lose; but if you see me winning, take and
cast the bridle--you must take it off me--over its head, and then it
will be tame enough."

So just as the lad had done throwing the ox-hides, with the spikes,
over Dapplegrim, and had cast down the tar-barrel on the plain, and
had got well up into the spruce-fir, up galloped a horse, with fire
flashing out of its nostrils, and the flame caught the tar-barrel at
once. Then Dapplegrim and the strange horse began to fight till the
stones flew heaven-high. They fought and bit and kicked, both with
fore feet and hind feet, and sometimes the lad could see them, and
sometimes he couldn't; but at last the flame began to rise; for
wherever the strange horse kicked or bit, he met the spiked hides, and
at last he had to yield.

When the lad saw that, he wasn't long getting down from the tree and
in throwing the bridle over its head, and then it was so tame you
could hold it with a pack-thread.

And what do you think--that horse was dappled, too, and so like
Dapplegrim, you couldn't tell which was which. Then the lad bestrode
the new Dapple he had won, and rode home to the palace, and old
Dapplegrim ran loose by his side. So when he got home, there stood the
king out in the yard.

"Can you tell me, now," said the lad, "which is the horse I have
caught and broken, and which is the one I had before? If you can't, I
think your daughter is fairly mine."

Then the king went and looked at both Dapples, high and low, before
and behind, but there wasn't a hair on one which wasn't on the other
as well.

"No," said the king, "that I can't; and since you've got my daughter
such a grand horse for her wedding, you shall have her with all my
heart. But still we'll have one trial more, just to see whether you're
fated to have her. First, she shall hide herself twice, and then you
shall hide yourself twice. If you can fi