e no hand at it, seeing that he could pull any
two of us round if he took an oar, and being as likely as not to break
that moreover. Nor could he bear the quiet of the long waiting at the
drift nets, when hour after hour of the night goes by in silence before
the herring shoal comes in a river of blue and silver and the buoys sink
with its weight; rather would he be at the weapon play with the sons of
Witlaf, our friend, who loved him.

But though the fishing was not for him, after a while he would not be
idle, saying, when my father tried to persuade him to trouble not at all
about our work, that it was no shame for a man to work, but, rather,
that he should not do so. So one day he went to the old Welsh basket
maker who served us, and bade him make a great basket after his own
pattern, the like of which the old man had never so much as thought of.

"Indeed, master," he said, when it was done, "you will never be able to
carry so great a load of fish as that will hold."

"Let us see," quoth Havelok, laughing; and with that he put him gently
into it, and lifted him into the air, and on to his mighty shoulder,
carrying him easily, and setting him down in safety.

The basket maker was cross at first, but none was able to be angry with
Havelok long, and he too began to smile.

"It is 'curan' that you are, master," he said; "not even Arthur himself
could have done that."

"Many times have I heard your folk call me that. I would learn what it
means," said Havelok.

But the old man could hardly find the English word for the name, which
means "a wonder," and nothing more. Nevertheless the marsh folk were
wont to call their friend "Hablok Curan" in their talk, for a wonder he
was to all who knew him.

So he came home with his great basket, and said, "Here sit I by the
fire, eating more than my share, and helping to win it not at all. Now
will I make amends, for I will go the fisher's rounds through the
marshlands with my basket, and I think that I shall do well."

Now my father tried to prevent him doing this, because, as I know now,
it was not work for a king's son. But Havelok would not be denied.

"Fat and idle am I, and my muscles need hardening," he said. "Let me go,
father, for I was restless at home."

So from that time he went out into the marshland far and wide, and the
people grew to know and love him well. Always he came back with his fish
sold, and gave money and full account to my father, and mostly the