"But I should like to know the story which this book tells," said
Alfred.
II
A few weeks passed by. Then, one morning, Alfred went into his mother's room with a smiling, joyous face.
"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.