A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

rincess or other wanting help to get her out of some far-away castle where she was held in captivity by a lawless scoundrel, usually a giant. Now you would think that the first thing the

was a she one, this time-and told a tale of the usual pattern. Her mistress was a captive in a vast and gloomy castle, along with forty-four other young and beautiful girls, pretty much all of them princesses; they had been languishing in that cruel c

opportunity for adventure. Every knight of the Table jumped for the chance, and begged for it;

ht and gratitude in a steady discharge-delight in my good fortune, gratitude to the king for this splendid mark of his favo

my vexation under the surface for policy's sake, and did what I could to let on to be glad. Ind

e. In all lies there is wheat among the chaff; I must get at the wheat in this case: so I sent for the girl and she came. She was

been questioned a

id she

at as we don't know you, we must go a little slow. You may be all right, of course, and we'll hope that you are; but to take it for granted isn't business.

d of Moder,

remember hearing of it

et on live, sith it is many years th

name,

e Alisande la Carteloi

body here who ca

r lord, I being come hithe

ny documents-any proofs that yo

should I? Have I not a tongue, a

know, and somebody else's

t that be? I fear me

an't you understand a little thing like that? Can't you understand t

not, but an it wer

I'm not. Let us change the subject. Now as to this castle, with forty-five pri

ar

understand; wher

ong, and well beseen, and lieth in a

w m

the same image and tincted with the same color, one may not know the one league from its fellow, nor how to count them exc

e distance; whereabouts does the castl

hall observe that the way of the road doth yet again turn upon itself by the space of half a circle, and this marvel happing again and yet again and still again, it will grieve you that you had thought by vanities of the mind to thwart and bring to naught the will of Him that giveth not a castle a dir

liloquize, it is an old habit, an old, bad habit, and hard to get rid of when one's digestion is all disordered with eating food that was raised forever and ever before he was born; good land! a m

nbelievers have brought from over the great seas, which, bei

e, never mind, don't explain, I hate explanations; they fog a thing up so that you

ven; it was a case for dynamite. Why, she was a perfect ass; and yet the king and his knights had listened to her as if she had been a leaf out of the gospel. It kind of sizes up the whole party. And think of the simple ways of this court: this wandering wench hadn't a

; hadn't got hold of a single point that could help me to find the castle. The youth looked a little surprised, or puzzled,

't I want to find the castle? A

nswer that, I ween. She will go with thee.

th me? N

ll. She will ride with

ds with me-alone-and I as good as engaged to be marr

to secrecy and then whispered her name-"Puss Flanagan." He looked disappointed, and said he didn't rememb

ped, a little confused; then I said, "Ne

er? Would I let hi

d Yes. But I sighed; I couldn't help it. And yet there was no sense in sighing, for she was

children-but just children, that is all. And they gave me no end of points about how to scout for giants, and how to scoop them in; and they told me all sorts of charms against enchantments, and gave me salves and other rubbish to put on my wounds. But it never occurred to one of them to reflect that if I was such a wonderful necroma

ablest material in the world for a night shirt, yet plenty used it for that-tax collectors, and reformers, and one-horse kings with a defective title, and those sorts of people; then you put on your shoes-flat-boats roofed over with interleaving bands of steel-and screw your clumsy spurs into the heels. Next you buckle your greaves on your legs, and your cuisses on your thighs; then come your backplate and your breastplate, and you begin to feel crowded; then you hitch onto the breastplate the half-petticoat of broad overlapping bands of steel which hangs down in front but is scolloped out behind so y

the bottom, both before and behind, was divided, so that he could ride and let the skirts hang down on each side. He was going grailing, and it was just the outfit for it, too. I would have given a good deal for that ulster, but it was too late now to be fooling around. The sun was just up, the king and the court were all on hand to see me off and wish me luck; so it wouldn't be etiquette for me to tarry. You don't get on your horse yourself; no, if you tried it you would get disappointed. They carry you out, just as they carry a sun-struck man to the drug store, and put you on, and help get you to rights, and fix your feet in the stirrups; and all the while you do feel so strang

or helmets. And everybody we met, going down the hill and through the village w

uy!" And hove

he gray of antiquity; they sass me in the holy gloom of the Middle Ages; and I had seen them act the same way in Buchanan's administration; I remember, because I was there and helped. The pr