Page:The child's pictorial history of England; (IA childspictorialh00corn).pdf/55

 many of the towns, to defend them in case the Danes should come again; for, although so many of them were living quietly in the country, those who did not live here were still enemies, and the resident Danes were always ready to join their countrymen.

2. But they could not do much mischief while Edward was king, or in the reign of his brave son Athelstan, who was almost as great a prince as Alfred himself.

3. He knew that commerce was one of the best things in the world for any country, so he had more ships built, and sent them to trade with foreign countries; and he said that, when any man had made three voyages in a vessel of his own, he should be made a Thane; which was the same as knighting a gentleman in these days.

4. There were no stores in England at this time, but the people bought every thing they wanted at markets and fairs; and they used to salt a great deal of their meat and fish, that it might keep a long time.

5. In buying and selling, they sometimes used slaves and cattle, instead of money, a man slave being worth a pound of silver, and an ox worth a quarter of a pound, which was called five shillings, as a shilling was the twentieth part of a pound in weight.