d to listen, he caught the words,

"My strength is as the strength of ten,
Because my heart is pure,"

and the great knight wished he were a boy again, and could sing that
song too.

[Illustration: SIR GALAHAD.]

Twelve nuns lived in the quiet abbey, and they had taught Galahad
lovingly and carefully, ever since he had come to them as a beautiful
little child. And the boy had dwelt happily with them there in the
still old abbey, and he would be sorry to leave them, but he was a
knight now. He would fight for the King he reverenced so greatly, and
for the country he loved so well.

Yet when Sir Lancelot left the abbey the next day, Galahad did not go
with him. He would stay in his old home a little longer, he thought.
He would not grieve the nuns by a hurried farewell.

Sir Lancelot left the abbey alone, but as he rode along he met two
knights, and together they reached Camelot, where the King was holding
a great festival.

King Arthur welcomed Sir Lancelot and the two knights. "Now all the
seats at our table will be filled," he said gladly. For it pleased the
King when the circle of his knights was unbroken.

Then all the King's household went to service at the minster, and when
they came back to the palace they saw a strange sight.

In the dining-hall the Round Table at which the King and his knights
always sat seemed strangely bright.

The King looked more closely, and saw that at one place on this
Round Table were large letters. And he read, "This is the seat of
Sir Galahad, the Pure-hearted." But only Sir Lancelot knew that Sir
Galahad was the boy-knight he had left behind him in the quiet old
abbey.

"We will cover the letters till the Knight of the Pure Heart comes,"
said Sir Lancelot; and he took silk and laid it over the glittering
letters.

Then as they sat down to table they were disturbed by Sir Kay, the
steward of the King's kitchen.

"You do not sit down to eat at this festival," Sir Kay reminded the
King, "till you have seen or heard some great adventure." And the
King told his steward that the writing in gold had made him forget his
usual custom.

As they waited a squire came hastily into the hall. "I have a strange
tale to tell," he said. "As I walked along the bank of the river I saw
a great stone, and it floated on the top of the water, and into the
stone there has been thrust a sword."

Then the King and all his knights went down to the river, and they
saw the stone, and it w