reat marvel or adventure.

Sir Gawaine stood looking from a window in the bower where the king sat
with the queen, and suddenly he turned with a laugh, and said:

'Sir, go to your meat, for here, I think, cometh a strange adventure.'

And even as the king took his seat on the high dais in the hall, and
his knights sat at the Round Table, through the great door of the hall
came two men, well beseen and richly dressed, and, leaning on their
shoulders, was a tall, fair, young man, as goodly to strength and
breadth as ever was seen, with hands large and fair. But he was either
lazy or ill-conditioned, for he leaned upon his fellows as if he were
unable to stand upright. And the three of them marched through the
hall, speaking no word, and they came to the foot of the dais, while
men sat silent and marvelling. Then the young man raised himself
upright, and it was seen that he was a foot and a half taller than
those beside him.

'God bless you, O king!' said the young man, 'and all your fair
fellowship, and in especial the fellowship of the Round Table. I come
to crave of your kindness three gifts, and they are such as ye may
worshipfully and honourably grant unto me. And the first I will ask
now, and the others will I ask at the same day twelvemonths,
wheresoever ye hold your feast of Pentecost.'

'Ask,' said the king, 'and ye shall be granted your petition.'

'The first is this,' said he, 'that ye give me meat and drink and
lodging here for a year.'

'Willingly,' said the king, 'but what is your name and whence come you?
Ye have the bearing of good lineage.'

'That is as may be,' was the reply, 'but I may tell you naught, if it
please you, lord.'

Then King Arthur called Sir Kay, his steward, and bade him tend the
young man for a year as if he were a lord's son.

'There is no need that he should have such care,' sneered Sir Kay, who
was a man of a sour mind. 'I dare swear that he is but a villein born.
If he were of good blood he would have craved a horse and harness. And
since he hath no name I will dub him Beaumains, or Fair Hands, for see
how soft are his hands! And he shall live in the kitchen, and become as
fat as any pig!'

But Sir Lancelot and Sir Gawaine reproached Sir Kay for his mocking of
the young man, 'for,' said Sir Lancelot, 'I dare lay my head he hath
the making of a man of great worship.'

'That cannot be,' said Sir Kay; 'he has asked as his nature prompted
him. He will make naught but fat, f