The boy made a hearty and satisfying meal, and was greatly refreshed and gladdened by it.  It was a meal which was distinguished by this curious feature, that rank was waived on both sides; yet neither recipient of the favour was aware that it had been extended.  The goodwife had intended to feed this young tramp with broken victuals in a corner, like any other tramp or like a dog; but she was so remorseful for the scolding she had given him, that she did what she could to atone for it by allowing him to sit at the family table and eat with his betters, on ostensible terms of equality with them; and the King, on his side, was so remorseful for having broken his trust, after the family had been so kind to him, that he forced himself to atone for it by humbling himself to the family level, instead of requiring the woman and her children to stand and wait upon him, while he occupied their table in the solitary state due to his birth and dignity.  It does us all good to unbend sometimes.  This good woman was made happy all the day long by the applauses which she got out of herself for her magnanimous condescension to a tramp; and the King was just as self-complacent over his gracious humility toward a humble peasant woman.

When breakfast was over, the housewife told the King to wash up the dishes.  This command was a staggerer, for a moment, and the King came near rebelling; but then he said to himself, “Alfred the Great watched the cakes; doubtless he would have washed the dishes too—­therefore will I essay it.”

He made a sufficiently poor job of it; and to his surprise too, for the cleaning of wooden spoons and trenchers had seemed an easy thing to do.  It was a tedious and troublesome piece of work, but he finished it at last.  He was becoming impatient to get away on his journey now; however, he was not to lose this thrifty dame’s society so easily.  She furnished him some little odds and ends of employment, which he got through with after a fair fashion and with some credit.  Then she set him and the little girls to paring some winter apples; but he was so awkward at this service that she retired him from it and gave him a butcher knife to grind.  Afterwards she kept him carding wool until he began to think he had laid the good King Alfred about far enough in the shade for the present in the matter of showy menial heroisms that would read picturesquely in story-books and histories, and so he was half-minded to resign.  And when, just after the noonday dinner, the goodwife gave him a basket of kittens to drown, he did resign.  At least he was just going to resign—­for he felt that he must draw the line somewhere, and it seemed to him that to draw it at kitten-drowning was about the right thing—­when there was an interruption.  The interruption was John Canty—­with a peddler’s pack on his back—­and Hugo.

The King discovered these rascals approaching the front gate before they had had a chance to see him; so he said nothing about drawing the line, but took up his basket of kittens and stepped quietly out the back way, without a word.  He left the creatures in an out-house, and hurried on, into a narrow lane at the rear.