"Ask," replied Arthur, "and you shall have your asking."
"Sir, this is my petition for this feast: that you will give me meat and drink enough for this twelvemonth, and at that day I will ask mine other two gifts."
"My fair son," said Arthur, "ask better. This is but simple asking."
But the young man would ask no more. And when the King, who had taken a great liking to him, asked him for his name, the young man said that he could not tell him.
The King took him to Sir Kay, the steward, and charged him to give the young man the best of all the meats and drinks and to treat him as a lord's son.
But Sir Kay was angry, and said: "An he had come of gentlemen, he would have asked of you horse and armor, but such as he is, so he asketh. And since he hath no name, I shall give him a name that shall be Beaumains, that is Fair-hands, and into the kitchen shall I bring him, and there he shall have fat brose every day, that he shall be as fat by the twelvemonth's end as a pork hog."
And Sir Kay scorned him and mocked at him. On hearing this both Sir Launcelot, the greatest of the Knights of the Round Table, and Sir Gawaine were wroth and bade Sir Kay leave his mocking.
"I dare lay my head," said Sir Launcelot, "he shall prove a man of great worship."
"It may not be by no reason," replied Sir Kay, "for as he is so hath he asked."
Beaumains, or Fair-hands, was put into the kitchen, and lay there nightly as the boys of the kitchen did. The old book says: "He endured all that twelvemonth, and never displeased man nor child, but always he was meek and mild. But ever when he saw any jousting of knights, that would he see an he might."