“That will I,” said Boots, looking at her with eyes that told what he would do when he had set them all free.
So at last the Giant came home, and after he had eaten and was feeling very good-natured, the Princess said to him: “I have always wondered where it is that you keep your heart, for it is evident that it is not in your body.”
“Indeed, and it is not,” said the Giant, “for if it were I should have been dead long ago. But I will tell you where it is—it is under the great doorstep at the entrance of the castle.”
The next morning, after the Giant had gone out, Boots and the Princess dug and tugged, and tugged and dug, until at last they lifted the great doorstep at the entrance of the castle. But there was no heart under it. Then the Princess piled flowers about, that it might not show where she had been digging, and when the Giant came back he laughed loudly, and said: “What sort of nonsense is this? You thought my heart was there, you silly, and have piled flowers about it. But my heart is not there. It is in the back of the big cupboard in the deepest dungeon keep.”
The next day after the Giant had gone Boots and the Princess went down to the deepest dungeon keep, and they dug and tugged, and tugged and dug, until at last they had moved the cupboard from the wall; but there was no heart there. So the Princess piled flowers about, as she had done before. That night when the Giant came home he went down into the dungeon and saw the flowers, and said: “You did, indeed, wish to pay honor to my heart, you foolish child, but it is not there.”
Then tears stood in the beautiful eyes of the Princess, and she said: “Oh, then, tell me where it is, that I may place flowers about the place.”
“That is not possible,” said the Giant, “for it is too far away from here, and you could not get to it. On a great hill in the forest stands a church, and in the church is a well, and in the well there is a duck, swimming backward and forward on the water; and in the duck is an egg, and in the egg is my heart; so you had best give up your foolish notion.”
Boots, under the bed, heard every word; and the next morning, after the Giant had set out, he, too, started, whistling to the Wolf, who came at once. Boots told him that he wished to go to the church that stood on the high hill in the forest; and the Wolf said: “I know just where the place is. Jump on my back, and we will be there in no time.”
So Boots jumped upon the Wolf’s back, and they set off through the forest, and soon came to the church on the high hill. But the great doors were locked, and it was not possible for Boots to break them down, though he tried hard enough.
“Now,” said the Wolf, “we must call the Raven.”