Thus the Christmas eve Sir Cleges and the Lady Clarys spent quietly in their humble cottage, and found such pleasure in the innocent joys and playfulness of their happy children that they had no longing for the noisy revelry of the courtiers in the castle of Cardiff.
The next day was Christmas day, and, with good will in their hearts for all men, Sir Cleges and the Lady Clarys went to the church to give thanks for their many blessings. Now after the church was over, Sir Cleges walked in his garden; and after a time he knelt down to pray beneath a cherry-tree that stood in the midst of the garden. As Sir Cleges knelt, praying, he suddenly felt a bough of the tree striking him on the head, and, seizing hold of it and springing to his feet, lo, what was his astonishment to see the bough covered with green leaves and full of cherries—red, ripe, and luscious! Picking one of the cherries, Sir Cleges put it into his mouth, and it seemed to him he had never tasted anything so delicious. Gathering more of the fruit, he ran into the house and cried out, “Behold, Dame Clarys, what a marvel is here!” And when the Lady Clarys had come she could hardly believe her eyes. “Cherries at Christmas-time!” she exclaimed. “How can such a thing be!” And when Sir Cleges had told her how he had been praying beneath the tree, how he had felt a bough striking him on the head, and how, when he took hold of it, he had found it filled with green leaves and ripe fruit, then the Lady Clarys believed that the cherries were real, and great was her wonder at the marvel which had happened in their little garden.
“Now hast thou indeed,” she said, “a present fit for a king! No longer grieve that thou hast no Christmas offering for the good King Uther, for cherries such as these I doubt he has ever seen.”
And then the Lady Clarys counseled Sir Cleges to gather the cherries and to put them in a basket and bear them straightway as a present to the king. And Sir Cleges, glad at heart that even in his poverty he could do something to add to the joy of the king’s Christmas feasting, readily consented so to do.
To Cardiff Castle Sir Cleges took his way, and on his arm he bore the basket of the wonderful fruit. It was just dinner-time when Sir Cleges reached the castle gate, and all the court were about to sit down to meat. But when the porter at the gate saw the poverty-stricken man with a basket on his arm approaching to enter, he drove him away with scorn and reviling.
“Begone, old beggar,” he said, “with thy rags and thy tatters! What have such as thou to do entering kings’ castles? Let me see the last of thee, or thou shalt not soon forget where thou belongest.”
“Pray let me through the gate, good porter,” answered Sir Cleges, to this greeting. “I have here in this basket a Christmas present for the king.”
“Thou a Christmas present for the king! A likely story, in sooth! Show me what thou hast in thy basket that thou thinkest worthy a king.”
And then, when Sir Cleges lifted the cover of the basket and showed him the cherries, he was surprised almost beyond speech. “Heaven defend us!” he exclaimed; “cherries at Christmas-time! How can such a thing be? Certainly this is a present worthy a king. But listen, old man,” said he, greedily, “thou shalt not pass through this gate unless thou dost promise to give me a third of the reward which the king shall give for the present thou bringest.” And Sir Cleges, seeing no other way of passing the gate, promised the porter that one third of the reward should be his.
Now after Sir Cleges had passed by the porter, he thought all would be well; but no sooner had he reached the door of the hall than he was met by the usher, who forbade him to go in.