(Naturally he had no friends.) Hence the other boys supposed that he had been selected for the wicked Mordred as a reward of virtue.

He declaimed serenely: "I hight Sir Mordred the Child, and I teach Lessons of selfishest evil, and reach Out into darkness.

Thoughtless, unkind, And ruthless is Mordred, and unrefined." The Child Mordred was properly rebuked and denied the accolade, though, like the others, he seemed to have assumed the title already.

He made a plotter's exit.

Whereupon Maurice Levy rose, bowed, announced that he highted the Child Sir Galahad, and continued with perfect sang-froid: "I am the purest of the pure.
I have but kindest thoughts each day.
I give my riches to the poor, And follow in the Master's way." This elicited tokens of approval from the Child King Arthur, and he bade Maurice "stand forth" and come near the throne, a command obeyed with the easy grace of conscious merit.
It was Penrod's turn.