“Fighting the Paynims,” broke in Di.
“Exactly,” said Phoena, “and we should all be left on oath to defend the honour of the Round Table.”
“Yes, and couldn’t we make it this way?” suggested Fay; “that the King was to bestow golden spurs on the knight who could show the noblest record on his return?”
“The knights always had golden spurs, I think,” said Phoena, “I don’t think they were regular knights without them. But we might fix a certain trial time during which every knight must do his best to distinguish himself, and when the time is up we’ll appoint a special day and invest him with a grand Order of Merit and—”
“And have a big banquet,” put in Phil.
“Yes, a real stuff-and-sit-down jollification,” added Jack, “infants and all.”
“Yes, yes, infants and all,” chimed in those young parties.
“But please, how soon will that grand day be?” enquired Marygold.
“Ah! that will have to be settled,” said Faith.
“I was coming to that,” said Phoena; “you see we must allow the knights fair opportunity to win their laurels, so as we are here for at least a month, shall we say that the investiture—”