Boots looked and wondered and wondered and looked. “Well it is,” he said, “that I left you here a year longer. But now you must go with me, for with such a horse as you to ride upon, the king of the country himself will be glad to take me into his service.”
“Nay, Master,” answered the foal, “the time is not yet. Let me run free for still another year, but take the seven mares and their foals to market, and sell them for what you can get. With the money buy fodder and place it where you did before, and if you do this thing you will never regret it.”
Well, Boots was willing to do that too. He drove the mares and their foals to market, and sold them and bought fodder with the money. Then he went away to the city again and took service for another twelve months.
At the end of the year, to a day, Boots came back to the hill to look at his dappled colt, but before he reached there he saw a light in the sky and heard a sound as of thunder. The sound drew nearer and nearer, and then Boots saw the colt coming to meet him, and the noise was made by its hoofs, for it was so huge that the earth trembled under it as it came; and if its coat had been like satin before, now it shone like glass, so that the light was reflected all about it, and that was what Boots had seen.
“By my faith,” cried Boots, “never have I beheld such a horse before. The King himself hath not another like it.”
“That is true,” answered the steed. “And now, Master, the time has come for you to ride me out into the world, and together we will make your fortune.”
Then Boots tried to mount, but Dapplegrim (for so Boots named the horse) was so huge that he was obliged to lie down before his master could get upon his back.
Once Boots was up, away the horse went, so fast that the wind whistled past their ears, and they never stopped nor stayed until they came to the castle of the King of the country.
Here Boots knocked at the door and asked the King if he might take service with him, and the King could have jumped for joy at the thought of having him. For never in his life before had he seen such a horse as Dapplegrim; and as for Boots, the King was sure that only a hero could be the master of such a steed.