agined, and then Dapplegrim neighed.

'Do you hear anything? he said.

'Yes; I heard something like a foal neighing quite plainly a long, long
way off,' answered the youth.

'That's a full-grown colt,' said Dapplegrim, 'if you hear it so plainly
when it is so far away from us.'

So they travelled onwards a long time, and saw one new scene after
another once more. Then Dapplegrim neighed again.

'Do you hear anything now?' said he.

'Yes; now I heard it quite distinctly, and it neighed like a full-grown
horse,' answered the youth.

'Yes, and you will hear it again very soon,' said Dapplegrim; 'and then
you will hear what a voice it has.' So they travelled on through many
more different kinds of country, and then Dapplegrim neighed for the
third time; but before he could ask the youth if he heard anything,
there was such a neighing on the other side of the heath that the youth
thought that hills and rocks would be rent in pieces.

'Now he is here!' said Dapplegrim. 'Be quick, and fling over me the
ox-hides that have the spikes in them, throw the twelve tons of tar over
the field, and climb up into that great spruce fir tree. When he comes,
fire will spurt out of both his nostrils, and then the tar will catch
fire. Now mark what I say--if the flame ascends I conquer, and if it
sinks I fail; but if you see that I am winning, fling the bridle, which
you must take off me, over his head, and then he will become quite
gentle.'

Just as the youth had flung all the hides with the spikes over
Dapplegrim, and the tar over the field, and had got safely up into the
spruce fir, a horse came with flame spouting from his nostrils, and the
tar caught fire in a moment; and Dapplegrim and the horse began to fight
until the stones leapt up to the sky. They bit, and they fought with
their fore legs and their hind legs, and sometimes the youth looked at
them. And sometimes he looked at the tar, but at last the flames began
to rise, for wheresoever the strange horse bit or wheresoever he kicked
he hit upon the spikes in the hides, and at length he had to yield. When
the youth saw that, he was not long in getting down from the tree and
flinging the bridle over the horse's head, and then he became so tame
that he might have been led by a thin string.

This horse was dappled too, and so like Dapplegrim that no one could
distinguish the one from the other. The youth seated himself on the
dappled horse which he had captured, and rode ho