id not add
at all to the good opinions they had of themselves, except in so far as
these honorable prefixes to their names showed that they were members in
good standing of a flourishing organization.

Who the original Knights of the Round Table were and what they had done
they did not know, but they set about finding out as soon as they
received their membership cards, for, as Jack said, "What's the use of
going into a thing without finding out all about it?" And Mollie, as
usual, agreed that that was the thing to do.

So they asked their father about it, and it turned out that he knew very
little more about the Knights of the original Round Table than they did.
He did know that at the head of the table had sat a certain King of
England, Arthur by name, who was a Knight of great prowess, but beyond
this he was quite ignorant on the subject. He said, however, that he
would look the matter up when he had time, and let them know whatever he
might discover. And he did so, and whenever he discovered anything which
he thought would interest the children, he would tell them about it.

"Arthur's father, according to the legends," said their father, "was
King of England, and his name was Uther Pendragon."

"What a terrible name," said Mollie.

"It was indeed," said the story-teller. "It was meant to be, for the
title Pendragon signified in those days that he who bore it was the
chief leader in war, which is a terrible thing. Uther Pendragon, the
King, married Ingraine, who was beautiful and good, and Arthur was their
son, but for some reason or other it was thought well that the boy
should be brought up in ignorance of who his parents were, and on the
advice of Merlin he was sent away to a certain lord of Uther's land, one
of the noblest and most faithful of his day, who would look carefully
after the bringing up of the child, and see to it that he should become
well fitted in every way for the position he was some day to occupy.
Merlin had looked into the future, and had seen that Arthur would grow
to be a better man if he were kept away from his father's court, where
in all probability every one would have flattered and spoiled him, and
lead him to believe that he was a much finer fellow than he really was.
So Arthur was sent to Sir Ector, who brought him up as his own son, and
no one but the King and Queen and Merlin really knew that he was a
Prince, and would some day become King of England."

"I'm glad they don't do