She said: “It would be a sorry thing to give you such a wretched horse in return for such good service; I will give you the best horse.”
He answered: “I won’t take any horse but the lean one.”
She asked him why he wanted the leanest one. He replied: “Because I am sorry for him, for he always gets the worst beating. I will have that one, and no other.”
So she said: “Well, I will give him to you, if you must have him, but I will give you this fat one too. You can ride on his back home and lead the lean one with you.”
He mounted the fat horse and rode off. But when they were drawing near to the gate, the lean horse said: “Get down from that horse and mount me, or you will be the worse for it.”
So he jumped down from the fat horse and mounted the lean one.
The fat horse growled: “It’s the Devil gave you that advice.”
And the lean horse said: “If you had gone under the gate on that horse’s back, he would have dashed you against the vault of the gate, so that your head would have been knocked off, and you would have been killed.”
So they came safely home. When the princesses saw him come back they were delighted.
The other horse said: “Now, brother, let us go. The dragon is away from home, and the princess will be ours.” So they went and carried off the princess.