HOW A PRINCE LEARNED TO READ

I



A thousand years ago boys and girls did not learn to read. Books were
very scarce and very precious, and only a few men could read them.

Each book was written with a pen or a brush. The pictures were painted
by hand, and some of them were very beautiful. A good book would
sometimes cost as much as a good house.

In those times there were even some kings who could not read. They
thought more of hunting and fighting than of learning.

There was one such king who had four sons, Ethelbald, Ethelbert,
Ethelred, and Alfred.[Footnote: Eth'el bald, Eth'el bert, Eth'el red,
Al'fred.] The three older boys were sturdy, half-grown lads; the
youngest, Alfred, was a slender, fair-haired child.

One day when they were with their mother, she showed them a wonderful
book that some rich friend had given her. She turned the leaves and
showed them the strange letters. She showed them the beautiful
pictures, and told them how they had been drawn and painted.