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264 But Boots would not give way, and so at last he had leave to go.

His brothers were not for letting him have a morsel of food with him; but his mother gave him a cheese rind and a bone with very little meat on it, and with them he toddled away from the cottage. As he went he took his time. "You'll be there soon enough," he said to himself. "You have all the day before you, and afterwards the moon will rise, if you have any luck." So he put his best foot foremost, and puffed up the hills, and all the while looked about him on the road.



After a long, long way he met the old wife, who lay by the roadside.

"The poor old cripple," said Boots; "I'll be bound you are starving."

"Yes, she was," said the old wife.

"Are you? then I'll go shares with you," said Osborn Boots, and as he said that he gave her the rind of cheese.

"You're freezing, too," he said, as he saw how her teeth chattered. "You must take this old jacket of mine. It's not good in the arms, and thin in the back, but once on a time, when it was new, it was a good wrap."