"Mother," he said, "will you let me see that beautiful book again?"

His mother unlocked her cabinet and took the precious volume from its
place of safe keeping.

Alfred opened it with careful fingers. Then he began with the first
word on the first page and read the first story aloud without making
one mistake.

"O my child, how did you learn to do that?" cried his mother.

"I asked the monk, Brother Felix, to teach me," said Alfred. "And every
day since you showed me the book, he has given me a lesson. It was no
easy thing to learn these letters and how they are put together to
make words. Now, Brother Felix says I can read almost as well as
he."

"How wonderful!" said his mother.

"How foolish!" said Ethelbald.

[Illustration]

"You will be a good monk when you grow up," said Ethelred, with a
sneer.

But his mother kissed him and gave him the beautiful book. "The prize
is yours, Alfred," she said. "I am sure that whether you grow up to
be a monk or a king, you will be a wise and noble man."