ith
much earnestness, and concluded that the only way to joust was to
joust, and that Valentine should act as marshal of the occasion, for a
marshal at a tourney, they discovered, was a prime necessity. As for
coursers, barbs, destriers, or whatever name their noble steeds might
bear, they had no choice. There were but a couple of clumsy farm mares
available to them, and these the knights secured, their only equipments
being headstalls abstracted from the harness in the barn, while the
course fixed upon was a meadow well out of sight from the houses and
the eyes of the elders. Valentine was instructed in his duties,
particularly in the manner of giving the word of command. _Laissez
aller_, as found in "Ivanhoe," Grant did not understand, but a passage
from "The Lady of the Lake":

"Now, gallants! for your ladies' sake,
Upon them with the lance!"

seemed to answer every purpose, and Valentine was instructed to commit
it to memory, as the event proved, with but indifferent success. He
comprehended, in a vague way, that the warriors were to do battle for
the honor of their true loves, but, at the critical moment, the lines
escaped him and he had to improvise. The lances were rake-handles,
and, as this was not to be a fray _a l'outrance_, about the end of each
formidable weapon was wadded and tied an empty flour bag.

The unwilling, lumbering mares were brought upon the ground, and
Valentine held the headstall reins while a preliminary ceremony was
performed, for your perfect knight omits no courteous detail. Gloves
were unknown about the farm, but Grant drew from his pocket a buckskin
mitten, and with it slapped Alf suddenly in the face. It was to be
regretted that the aggressor had somewhat exaggerated the mediaeval
glove idea, and had not previously explained to Alf that to fling one's
glove in a foeman's face was one proper form of deadly insult preceding
mortal combat, for, ignoring lances, steeds and all about them, the
assailed personage immediately "clinched," and the boys rolled over in
a struggle, earnest, certainly, but altogether commonplace. It was
with the greatest difficulty, while defending himself, that Grant was
enabled to explain that his act was one rendered necessary by the laws
of chivalry and a part of the preliminaries of the occasion, instead of
an attack in cold blood upon an unwarned adversary. Alf accepted the
apology gloweringly, and manifested great anxiety to secure his lance,