King Alfred and the Cakes

by James Baldwin

　　

---

Many years ago there lived in Eng-land a wise and good king whose namewas Al-fred. No other man ever did so much for his country as he; andpeople now, all over the world, speak of him as Alfred the Great.In those days a king did not have a very easy life. There was waralmost all the time, and no one else could lead his army into battleso well as he. And so, between ruling and fighting, he had a busy timeof it indeed.A fierce, rude people, called the Danes, had come from over the sea,and were fighting the Eng-lish. There were so many of them, and theywere so bold and strong, that for a long time they gained everybattle. If they kept on, they would soon be the masters of the wholecountry.At last, after a great battle, the English army was broken up andscat-tered. Every man had to save himself in the best way he could.King Alfred fled alone, in great haste, through the woods and swamps.Late in the day the king came to the hut of a wood-cut-ter. He wasvery tired and hungry, and he begged the wood-cut-ter's wife to givehim something to eat and a place to sleep in her hut.The wom-an was baking some cakes upon the hearth, and she looked withpity upon the poor, ragged fellow who seemed so hungry. She had nothought that he was the king."Yes," she said, "I will give you some supper if you will watch thesecakes. I want to go out and milk the cow; and you must see that theydo not burn while I am gone."King Alfred was very willing to watch the cakes, but he had fargreater things to think about. How was he going to get his armyto-geth-er again? And how was he going to drive the fierce Danes outof the land? He forgot his hunger; he forgot the cakes; he forgot thathe was in the woodcutter's hut. His mind was busy making plans forto-mor-row.In a little while the wom-an came back. The cakes were smoking on thehearth. They were burned to a crisp. Ah, how angry she was!"You lazy fellow!" she cried. "See what you have done! You wantsome-thing to eat, but you do not want to work!"I have been told that she even struck the king with a stick; but I canhardly be-lieve that she was so ill-na-tured.The king must have laughed to himself at the thought of being scoldedin this way; and he was so hungry that he did not mind the woman'sangry words half so much as the loss of the cakes.I do not know whether he had any-thing to eat that night, or whetherhe had to go to bed without his supper. But it was not many daysuntil he had gath-ered his men to-geth-er again, and had beaten theDanes in a great battle.

---

---