fell in a golden flicker on their
ruddy, sunburnt faces. Fifteen pairs of eyes were fixed on Akela. You
couldn't hear a straw rustle. Only the faint "Swish-sh-sh--_Sha-a-a-ah_"
of the "white horses" breaking on the shore broke the stillness.

"Now we are going back, back, back into a thousand years ago," began
Akela, and the Cubs gave a wriggle of satisfaction, and prepared to take
that mighty journey with the greatest ease.

THE STORY OF ST. EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR.

Now we are going back, back, back into a thousand years ago, and more.
We shall stay in England, but it is a strange, wild England, covered
with deep, mysterious green forests, where speckled deer roam about, and
on moonlight nights you can hear the wolves howling. The Englishmen of
these days are nearly as fierce as the wolves. If you met one coming
down a forest path I believe you'd be a bit afraid of him, with his
fierce eyes and shaggy head of hair, his round shield and sharp spear. A
good many of these Englishmen are still heathens. But St. Benedict's
monks have been hard at work for the last few hundred years turning the
wild country into the beautiful England we know, and the fierce, cruel
Saxons into brave Christian knights, with kindly, noble hearts as well
as fearless spirits.

Well, in a part of the country called East Anglia there lived an old
King called Offa. He was a Christian, and descended from a line of brave
and noble Kings called the Uffings. Poor old Offa was very sad, because
he felt he was getting old, and he thought that when he died the royal
line of Uffings would end, for he had no son to succeed him.

As a matter of fact he _had_ got a son, but many years before God had
called this boy to give up all thoughts of worldly glory and become a
holy hermit, giving up his life to prayer. When God calls a man to serve
Him and Him alone, He does not let the world suffer by his loss. God had
a plan of His own for replacing Offa's hermit son by one of the most
glorious Kings that ever reigned in England, and it is the wonderful
story of how he was found, and of his thrilling adventures as the young
King of East Anglia, that I'm going to tell you to-night.

Well, something--perhaps it was a whisper from the Holy Spirit--made old
King Offa feel that if he prayed very hard he might in some wonderful
way obtain an heir to his throne.

In those days, when people wanted to pray very hard and show God they
_really_ wanted a thing, and rea