"'Alas!' he cried; 'why do my father and brother kneel before me?'
"'I am not your father, nor is Kaye your brother,' replied Sir Ector.
"'Then who am I?' cried Arthur, in great distress.
"'That I know not,' returned Sir Ector, 'save that you are our King. You were brought to me by Merlin to care for when you were an infant, and from that day to this you have been treated as my son. Whose child you are I do not know, nor have I ever known—nor has any one known except Merlin.'"
"Didn't Sir Ector know who paid his board?" asked Jack. "Who'd he send his bill to?"
The Story-teller smiled. "I don't believe Sir Ector charged anything for his services," he said. "He was a true Knight, and was willing to perform a knightly service for another without charging anything for it or asking too many questions."
"You couldn't get anybody to do that nowadays, I imagine," said Mollie, thoughtfully. "I think very likely they'd ha' sent him to an orphan asylum if he'd lived now."
"I am not at all sure that you are not right about that," said her father; "but whether you are or not, the fact remains that Sir Ector took Arthur in, and without knowing whence he came or who or what he was, was as good to him as he was to Kaye, his own little boy; and when Arthur learned that Ector was not his father, it pained him deeply, and he heartily wished he had never seen the sword in the stone which had made known the secret of his high position to the world."
SIR ECTOR TOOK ARTHUR TO THE ARCHBISHOP AND TOLD HIM ALL.