Master Lewis.

"It is a very old city, is it not?" asked Wyllys.

"It is said to have been the residence of Alfred the Great, and of
King Canute. The University of Oxford was, according to tradition,
founded by Alfred the Great."

"If it be so, what a monument the good king left behind him! It was
this king, was it not, whose mother offered a beautiful manuscript to
the one of her four sons who would first learn to repeat it from
memory? Alfred, although he was a mere child and could not read,
induced an instructor to teach him the manuscript, and so secured the
prize."

[Illustration: ALFRED AND HIS MOTHER.]

"This was the king," said Tommy Toby, "who, when flying from the
Danes in disguise, was left by a rustic's wife to watch some cakes
that were baking by the fire."

"And let them burn," said Wyllys.

"The woman," said Tommy, "gave him a gentle hint, saying that if he
was too lazy to watch them, he would be glad enough to eat them when
they were cooked. I have heard my mother make very similar remarks."

[Illustration: CANUTE AND HIS COURTIERS.]

"Canute, of whom you spoke, was the king who ordered his throne to be
placed on the margin of the sea," said Wyllys to Master Lewis, "and
then commanded the sea to rise no farther."

"But the sea rose," said Master Lewis, "and the king refused to wear
again his golden crown for ever, resolving to serve only that King who
rules the sea.

"The history of Oxford covers a period of a thousand years," continued
Master Lewis. "Here Queen Matilda, or the Empress Maud, as she was
called, because she had been the wife of the German Emperor, was
besieged by King Stephen, who had usurped the throne, and thence she
fled from him one snowy day, herself and attendants dressed in white
that they might not be discovered; here the people closed the gates
against William the Conqueror; here Richard I. was born, and here
Ridley, Latimer, and Cranmer were burned. The early history of nearly
all great English scholars for many centuries is associated with the
colleges in this place."

[Illustration: FLIGHT OF EMPRESS MAUD.]

"How green are the English meadows with their hedgerows and trees!"
said Wyllys.

"And how bright are the streams that run among them! An English
landscape is more rich and varied than an American."

"I never would tell of it," said Tommy. "Grass is grass, and we have
just as good grass at home as anywhere."

"We have no buildings at home that are qui