Page:The book of wonder voyages (1919).djvu/114

 like him for running or putting the stone; he and his horse outraced all his comrades.

On a day of days the youths of the court were making merry, contending in feats of strength and skill. Still Maelduin bore off the palm, so that at last an envious comrade burst out angrily: "To think that thou, whose clan and kindred, whose father and mother no man knows, should beat us at every sport, be it on land or water, or in moving the ivory men on the playing board!"

Maelduin stood silent a while, for never until then had he thought himself other than the son of the King and Queen of the land. So he came to his foster-mother and said, "I will neither eat nor drink till thou tellest me the name of my father and my mother."

"Why dost thou ask that?" said she. "Heed not the jealous mutterings of thy companions. Am I not a mother to thee? Is there among the people of this land a mother whose love for her son is greater than the love I bear to thee?"

"That is so," said he; "but nevertheless I pray thee to make known to me the names of my parents."

So his foster-mother told him concerning his mother and delivered him into her hands. And he entreated her to tell him who his father was.

But she rebuked him, saying, "My son, it will make thee no happier to know who he was, nor will it in any way profit thee. He has been dead for many and many a year."