Page:Cuthbert Bede - The White Wife.djvu/183

160 from being a Captain, and to restore him to his former position of a simple soldier.

"What is all this for?" said the Duke; "are you not happy?"

"No," replied the young Soldier; "for the other Captains are for ever taking their fun of me. At dinner I cannot handle my knife and fork, and I am made unhappy."

"That can easily be cured," said the Duke. So the next day, when the army was paraded and all the Captains were assembled, the Duke walked up to the young soldier, and took his arm, and walked with him arm in arm up and down in front of the army. And when the other Captains saw the great respect that was paid by the Duke to the young man, they took heed not to ridicule him for the future; and in a short time he was as able to handle his knife and fork as anyone of them; while as for his sword no one of them could handle it better.