“Ah, but I was born in New Zealand!—Tell me the blunder, though.”
“There was one thing in The Pausing of Arthur—that's the name of one of the Idylls—which I never could understand:—how sir Bedivere could throw a sword with both hands, and make it go in the way Tennyson says it went.”
“But who was sir Bedivere?”
“You must read the poem to know that, Miss. He was one of the knights of king Arthur's Round Table.”
“I don't know anything about king Arthur.”
“I will repeat us much of the poem as is necessary to make you understand about the misprint.”
“Do—please.”
“Then quickly rose sir Bedivere, and ran,
And, leaping down the ridges lightly, plunged
Among the bulrush beds, and clutch'd the sword,
And strongly wheeled and threw it. The great brand
Made lightnings in the splendour of the moon,
And flashing round and round, and whirl'd in an arch,
Shot like a streamer of the northern morn,
Seen where the moving isles of winter shock
By night, with noises of the northern sea.
So flashed and fell the brand Excalibur.”
“What does the brand Excalibur—is that it?—what does it mean? They put a brand on the cattle in the bush.”
“Brand means a sword, and Excalibur was the name of this sword. They seem to have baptized their swords in those days!”