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296 "Oh," said the ass, "don't say so; just throw it a score or so of beeves, and beg it to bore a hole and break a way for us through the hill."

So Boots did as he was told; and when the unicorn had eaten his fill, they said they would give him a score or two of pigs' carcasses if he would go before them and bore a hole in the hill, so that they might get through it. So when he heard that, he set to work and bored the hole, and broke a way so fast, that they had hard work to keep up with him, and when he had done his work they threw him two score of pigs.

So when they had got well out of that they travelled far away, until they passed again through woods and fields, and across fells and wide wastes.

"Do you see anything now?" asked the ass.

"Now I see naught but the bare sky and wild fells," said Boots.

So they travelled on far and farther than far, and the higher up they came the fell got smoother and flatter, so that they could see farther about them.

"Do you see anything now?" said the ass.

"Yes, I see something far, far away," said Boots, "and it gleams and twinkles like a little star."

"It's not so very little, for all that," said the ass.

So when they had gone on farther and farther than far again, the ass asked again—

"Do you see anything now?"

"Yes," said Boots, "I see something a long way off that shines like a moon."

"It is no moon," said the ass, "but the silver castle we are bound for. Now, when we get there you will see three dragons lying on the watch before the gate. They have not been awakened for hundreds of years, and so the moss has grown over their eyes."