You have not forgotten, I hope, that there were seven chief kingdoms of the Angles and Saxons in England. Now, there were many and long wars between these kingdoms; and also with the Britons who were left in the land. Sometimes one king, and sometimes another, made himself more powerful than all the rest. He was then called Bretwalda, which means “Ruler over Britain”; for the English still called the whole island Britain. At last, 827 years after our Saviour’s birth, the king of Wessex (that is, of the West Saxons) got himself the power over all the other kings. He was called Egbert. He was very wise, and very brave, and very handsome; so the people loved him very much, and were very sorry when he died. His son and then three of his grandsons reigned after him, whose names you will learn another time.

While these men were kings, some very strong and cruel heathens, called Danes, came to England, in larger and better ships than the first Saxons came in, and they robbed the people, and burnt the towns, and did more mischief than I can tell you.

I do not know what would have become of England, if a very wise and good king had not begun to rule England about that time. His name was Alfred. He was the grandson of King Egbert, and was as handsome and as brave as Egbert.

But I must tell you a great deal about King Alfred, which I am sure you will like to hear.

When he was a very little boy, his mother wished him to learn to read, and she used to show him beautiful pictures in a book of Saxon poems, and to tell him what the pictures were about. Little Alfred was always pleased when the time came for seeing the book; and one day, when his mother was talking to him, she said that she would give him the book for his own, to keep, as soon as he could read it. Then he went to his teacher, and very soon learned to read the book, and his mother gave him the beautiful book. When he grew bigger he learned the old Saxon songs by heart, and sang them to his mother, who loved to hear Alfred sing, and play the harp.

But when Alfred grew up he had other things to do than reading and singing, for a long time. I told you that the Danes had done a great deal of mischief before Alfred was king; and indeed at the beginning of his reign they went on doing quite as much, and he had more than fifty battles to fight, before he could drive them away from his kingdom.

For some years after he was made king he had not one town where the people dared to obey him, for fear of the Danes; and he was obliged to disguise himself in poor clothes, and to live with one of his own neatherds, whose wife did not know the king.

This neatherd lived in a part of Somersetshire, called the Isle of Athelney. While Alfred was there, some of his best friends used to go and tell him how the country was going on, and take messages to him from other friends; and they all begged him to stay where he was till they could collect English soldiers enough to fight the Danes in that neighbourhood.

While he was staying at the neatherd’s house, I have heard that the man’s wife scolded him one day very heartily. I will tell you how it happened.

She had just made some very nice cakes for supper, and laid them on the hearth to toast, and seeing Alfred sitting in the house doing something to his bow and arrows, she desired him to look after her cakes, and to turn them when they were toasted enough on one side, that they might not be burnt. But Alfred could think of nothing but making ready his bow and arrows to fight against the Danes; he forgot all about the cakes, and they became very much burnt. When the neatherd’s wife came into the house again, she soon saw the cakes on the hearth, quite black and burnt, and began scolding Alfred very severely.

Just then her husband came in with some of Alfred’s friends, who told him that they had beaten the Danes, and driven them out of that part of the country, and the people were asking for him, and it was time to appear as their king. You may think how surprised the neatherd’s wife was, and how she asked the king’s pardon for scolding him.

He only smiled, and said, if she forgave him for burning her cakes, he would forgive her for the scolding. Then he thanked her and the neatherd heartily for letting him live so quietly with them, and went with his friends to find the Danes, with whom he had a great deal of trouble before he could drive them away. Their king Guthorm agreed to be a Christian; and Alfred divided England with him.

At last, when Alfred had overcome the Danes, and when England was at peace, he thought of the great pleasure he had in reading, and he determined to encourage all the young people in England to love learning. So he inquired for what learned men there were in England, and sent for more to come from other countries, and paid them for teaching the young men; and he built several schools.

That he might encourage all his subjects to read, he took the trouble to translate several books for them out of Latin into English; and, besides that, he wrote several himself for their instruction.

Alfred was never idle. One part of every day was spent in praying, reading, and writing; one part in seeing that justice was done to his subjects, in making good laws, and in teaching the English how to keep away the Danes from their country. He allowed himself very little time indeed for sleeping, eating, and walking about.

One of the very best things King Alfred did for England, was to build a great many ships. He wisely thought that the best means of keeping away the Danes, or any other enemy that could reach England by sea, was to have ships as good as theirs, and go and meet them on the water, and fight them there, instead of allowing them to land and do mischief, and carry away the goods, and sometimes even the children of the people on the sea-coast; so he built more than a hundred vessels, and he was the first king of England who had good ships of his own.

Besides fighting the Danes, Alfred made other good uses of his ships. He sent some to Italy and France, to get books, and many things that the English did not then know how to make at home. And other vessels he sent to distant countries, even as far as Russia, to see what the people were like, and if they had anything in their country that it would be useful to England to buy. I have read an account of one of the voyages made by a friend of Alfred’s, which the king wrote himself, after his friend had told him what he had seen, and when you are old enough to read it, I dare say it will please you as much as it pleased me.

Alfred died when he had been king twenty-nine years. He was ill for a long time before he died, but he was very patient and bore great pain without complaining.

Just before he died he spoke to his son Edward, and gave him good advice about taking care of the people when he came to be king.

But besides the words he spoke, Alfred wrote many good and true words. I will tell you some of them. Pray, remember these now; when you are a man you will love to think of them, and to recollect that they were the very words of the best and wisest king we have ever had. They are about the Supreme Good. “This blessedness is then God. He is the beginning and end of every good, and He is the highest happiness.”