The woman was so frightened at this that she ran and made some more stew in the largest fish kettle.
“Ah,” sighed the young giant, “this is something like a meal!”
But when he had finished he still felt hungry, and said:
“Well, father, I can see I shall starve if I come here to live. I will go and seek my fortune in the wide world, if you can procure me a bar of iron so strong that I cannot break it across my knee.”
The peasant quickly harnessed his two horses to the wagon, and from the smithy in the village he fetched an iron bar so heavy that the horses could hardly drag it. This the giant tried across his knee. Snap! it cracked in half, like a twig.
Then the peasant took his wagon and four horses to the smithy and brought back as heavy a bar as they could carry. But in a second the giant had broken it into two pieces and tossed them each aside.
“Father,” he said, “I need a stronger one yet. Take the wagon and eight horses to the smithy, and fetch me back as heavy a one as they can draw.”
This the countryman did, and again the youth broke it in two as easily as if he had cracked a nut.
“Well, father, I see you cannot get me anything strong enough. I must go and try my fortune without it.”
So he turned blacksmith and journeyed for many miles, until he came to a village, where dwelt a very grasping smith, who earned a great deal of money, but who gave not a penny of it away.