of beech trees, where the
swineherd drove his half-tame charges, or where the woodcutters plied
their toil, and loaded their rude carts or hand barrows with fuel for
the kitchen of the hall; past rookeries, where the birds made the air
lively by their noise; over brook, through the half-dry marsh, until
they came upon an old wolf; whom they followed and slew for want of
better game, not without a desperate struggle, in which Elfric, ever the
foremost, got a much worse scratch than on the preceding day.

But how enjoyable the sport was, how sweet to breathe the bright pure
air of that May day; how grand to outstrip the wind over the yielding
turf, and at last to carry home the trophies of their prowess; the scalp
of the wolf, the tusks of the boar, leaving the serfs to bring in the
succulent flesh of the latter, while the hawks and crows fed upon the
former.

And then with what appetite they sat down to their "noon meat," taken,
however, at the late hour of three, after which they wandered down to
the river and angled for the trout which abounded in the clear stream.

The youthful reader will not wonder that such attractions sufficed to
detain Edwy several days, during which he was continually hunting in the
adjacent forests, always attended by Elfric, and sometimes by Alfred. To
the elder brother he seemed to have conceived a real liking, and
expressed great reluctance to part with him.

"Could you not return with me to court," he said, "and relieve the
tedium of old Dunstan's society? You cannot think what pleasures London
affords; it is life there indeed--it is true there are no forests like
these, but then, in the winter, when the country is so dreary, the town
is the place."

"My father will never consent to my leaving home," returned Elfric, who
inwardly felt his heart was with the prince.

"We might overcome that. I am to have a page. You might be nominally my
page, really my companion; and should I ever be king, you would find you
had not served me in vain."

The idea had got such strong possession of the mind of Edwy, that he
ventilated it the same night at the supper table, but met with scant
encouragement. Still he did not despair; for, as he told Elfric, the
influence of his royal uncle, King Edred, might be hopefully exerted on
their joint behalf.

"I mean to get you to town," he said. "I shall persuade my old uncle,
who is more a monk than a king, that you are dreadfully pious, attached
to monkish