thinking and thinking over this, and he forgot all
about the cakes, and when the farmer's wife came in she found them burnt
black as coal.

[Illustration]

"Oh, you silly, greedy fellow," she said, "you can eat cakes fast
enough; but you can't even take the trouble to bake them when other
people take the trouble to make them for you."

And I have heard that she even slapped his face. He bore it all very
patiently.

"I am very sorry," he said, "but I was thinking of other things."

Just at that moment her husband came in followed by several strangers,
and, to the good woman's astonishment, they all fell on their knees and
greeted her husband's labourer as their King.

"We have beaten the Danes," they said, "and everyone is asking where is
King Alfred? You must come back with us."

"Forgive me," cried the woman. "I didn't think of your being the King."

"Forgive me," said Alfred, kindly. "I didn't think of your cakes being
burnt."

[Illustration: "THERE WERE NO CLOCKS IN THOSE DAYS BUT HE MADE A CLOCK
OUT OF A CANDLE."]

The Danes had many more fighting men than Alfred; so he was obliged to
be very cautious and wise, or he could never have beaten them at all. In
those days very few people could read; and the evenings used to seem
very long sometimes, so that anybody who could tell a story or sing a
song was made much of, and some people made it their trade to go about
singing songs and telling stories and making jokes to amuse people who
could not sing songs or tell stories or make jokes themselves. These
were called gleemen, and wherever they went they were always welcomed
and put at a good place at table, and treated with respect and kindness;
and in time of war no one ever killed a gleeman, so they could always
feel quite safe whatever was going on.

Now Alfred once wanted to know how many Danes there were in a certain
Danish camp, and whether they were too strong for him to beat. So he
disguised himself as a gleeman and took a harp, for his mother had
taught him to sing and play very prettily, and he went and sang songs to
the Danes and told stories to them. But all the time he kept his eyes
open, and found out all he wanted to know. And he saw that the Danes
were not expecting to be attacked by the English people, so that,
instead of keeping watch, they were feasting and drinking and playing
all their time. Then he went back to his own soldiers, and they crept up
to the Danish camp and fell upon it whi