Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: KING ARTHUR . . . No man knew from whence he came, But after tempest, when the long wave broke All down the thundering shores of Bude and Bos, There came a day as still as Heaven, and then They found a naked child upon the sands Of dark Tintagil by the Cornish sea; And that was Arthur; and they fostered him; Till he by miracle was approven king; And that his grave should be a mystery From all men like his birth. Tennyson—Idylls of the King: Guinevere. ARTHUR MADE KING ARTHUR was a famous king of England. He lived such a long time ago that we know, really, very little about him. This king had such strange adventures, and did such wonderful things, that people have never tired of writing and reading about him and his famous Knights of the Round Table. It was not until Arthur had grown to young manhood, that he knew he was of royal blood. When this little prince was born, his father, KingUther, bade his attendants take the child, wrapped in cloth of gold, and give him to any poor man they met at the castle gate. It happened that the babe was given to Merlin, who was supposed to know all things. Merlin took him to Sir Ector, who brought the child up as his own son, and Sir Ector's wife cared for him, and they called him Arthur. When King Uther died, every lord in England wanted to be king. The wise Merlin had promised that it should be made known to them, by a wonderful sign, who should be king. He called, therefore, all the lords together in a great church in London, on Christmas morning, to see if the sign would be given. After the first prayers were said, there was discovered in the churchyard a great stone having four sides, with an anvil of steel in the middle of it, in which was a sword. About the sword, written in letters of gold, were these words: "...