“For as for setting the Princess free, that’s downright stuff.”
“Oh! but it might be done, perhaps,” said Dapplegrim. “I’ll help you
through; but you must first have me well shod. You must go and ask for
ten pound of iron and twelve pound of steel for the shoes, and one smith
to hammer and another to hold.”
Yes, the lad did that, and got for answer “Yes!” He got both the iron
and the steel, and the smiths, and so Dapplegrim was shod both strong
and well, and off went the lad from the court-yard in a cloud of dust.
But when he came to the hill into which the Princess had been carried,
the pinch was how to get up the steep wall of rock where the Troll’s
cave was, in which the Princess had been hid. For you must know the hill
stood straight up and down right on end, as upright as a house-wall, and
as smooth as a sheet of glass.
The first time the lad went at it he got a little way up; but then
Dapple’s forelegs slipped, and down they went again, with a sound like
thunder on the hill.
The second time he rode at it he got some way further up; but then one
foreleg slipped, and down they went with a crash like a landslip.