"I don't want him to be killed," cried Bald. "Of course not. But if he
should be killed I shall become King directly, and I shall order
everybody to do what I like, and no one will dare to say a word. The
first thing I shall do," he continued, with a laugh, "will be to send
old Swythe away, so that there will be no more learning Latin, boys, and
no crabbing fingers up to hold tens."

The three brothers said something with a shout which in those days
answered to "Hooray!" and then Alfred, who had shouted the loudest,
being the youngest and ready to think brother Bald's words very brave
and fine, suddenly began to feel uncomfortable; for he had a certain
amount of fear of the monk his master, and felt a kind of shrinking from
rebelling against his authority. He glanced sidewise at Father Swythe
and saw that his eyes glimmered in a peculiar way as if water was rising
in them. Directly afterwards his heart felt a little sore, and a sense
of shame began to trouble him, for there was no mistake: Father Swythe's
eyes were wet and his voice sounded hoarse and strange as he said sadly:

"You would not send me away, Ethelbald? I have always tried to do my
duty to the young sons of my lord the King and have tried to make them
grow into scholarly princes fit to rule the land."

"Bah! We do not want to be scholarly!" cried Bald scornfully. "We want
to learn to be brave soldiers, so that we can go forth and beat the
Danes."

"Yes," said the monk sadly; "but, my boys, the warrior who's a scholar
as well is more brave and noble and merciful, and his name is one that
lives longer in the land. Ah, well, you have made me very sad. I had
hoped that I had done something to make the sons of my dear lady the
Queen love me; but if they do not it would be better perhaps that I
should go back to my cell at the old abbey, where I could be happy with
my parchments and my pens."

The old monk sighed and turned away; he appeared to have received a
shock which had broken his heart.

The three elder boys were laughing and joking about the matter, and
suddenly Ethelbald cried out:

"Come along, boys! Bows and arrows. I saw a roebuck feeding outside
the oak wood. Here, we'll take spears with us too to-day. Let old
Swythe teach the swineherds' boys to read Latin instead of minding the
little pigs hunting for acorns."

"No spears left!" said Bert.

"The men took them all when they went away!" said Red.

"Then let's go without