"So when they had sailed a bit farther, they met a man who stood holding his throat.
"'What sort of a chap are you?' asked Boots, 'and why in the world do you stand here holding your throat?'
"'Oh!' said he, 'you must know I have got seven summers and fifteen winters inside me, so I've good need to hold my gullet, for if they all slipped out at once they'd freeze the whole world in a trice.' That was what he said, and so he begged leave to be with them.
"'If you care to come, step in,' said Boots. Yes, he was willing enough, and so he too stepped on board the ship to the rest.
"So when they had sailed a good bit farther, they came to the king's grange. Then Boots strode straight into the king, and said, that the ship was ready out in the courtyard, and now he was come to claim the princess, as the king had given his word.
"But the king wouldn't hear of it, for Boots did not look very nice; he was grimy and sooty, and the king was loath to give his daughter to such a fellow. So he said he must wait a little, he couldn't have the princess until they cleared a barn which the king had with three hundred casks of salt meat in it.
"'All the same,' said the king, 'if you can do it by this time to-morrow you shall have her.'
"'I can but try,' said Boots; 'I may have leave, perhaps, to take one of my crew with me?'
"'Yes, he might have leave to do that, even if he took them all six,' said the king, for he thought it quite beyond his power though he had six hundred to help him.
"But Boots only took with him the man who ate granite, and was always so sharp set; and so when they came next morning and unlocked the barn, if he hadn't eaten all the casks, so that there was nothing left but half a dozen spare-ribs, and that was only one for each of his other comrades. So Boots strode into the king, and said, now the barn was empty, and now he might have the princess.