ry badly," he said, "and shoe my nag still
worse."

Said the Lad, "You'll learn in time."

"Not before dinner-time, I hope," said the King, "for I am very hungry."

"You look hungry," said the Lad. "It's a bargain then."

The King held out his hand, but the Lad suddenly whipped his behind his
back. "It's so dirty, sir," he said.

"Give it me all the same," said the King; and they clasped hands.

The rest of that morning the King spent in blowing the bellows, and by
dinner-time not so much as the first of Pepper's hoofs was shod. For a
great deal of business came into the forge, and there was no time for a
lesson. So the King and the Lad took their meal together, and the King
was by this time nearly as black as his master. He would have washed
himself, but the Lad said it was no matter, he himself having no time
to wash from week's end to week's end. In the afternoon they changed
places, and the King stood at the anvil and the Lad at the bellows. He
was a good teacher, but the King made a poor job of it. By nightfall he
had produced shoes resembling all the letters of the alphabet excepting
U, and when at last he submitted to the Lad a shoe like nothing so much
as a drunken S, his master shrugged and said:

"Zeal is praiseworthy within its limits, but the best of smiths does
not attempt to make two shoes at once. Let us sup."

They supped; and afterwards the Lad showed the King a small bedroom as
neat as a new pin.

"I shall sully the sheets," said William, "and you will excuse me if I
fetch the kettle, which is on the boil."

"As you please," said the Lad, and took himself off.

In the morning the King came clean to breakfast, but the Lad was as
black as he had been.

Tuesday passed as Monday had passed; now William took the bellows,
marveling at his youthful master's deftness, and now the Lad blew,
groaning at his pupil's clumsiness. By nightfall, however, he had
achieved a shoe faintly recognizable as such. For a second time the
King washed himself and slept again in the little trim chamber, but the
Lad in the morning resembled midnight. In this way the week went by,
the King's heart beating a little faster each morning as Saturday
approached, and he wondered by what ruse he could explain his absence
without creating suspicion or breaking his pledge.

On Saturday morning the Lad said to the King: "This is a half-day. You
must make your shoe this morning or not at all. It is my custom at one
o'clock to