The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1925-10-30
Z n a small, lonely island am

~ Sflldll, lOHcly lSldIu dhAANl
| the swamps of Wessex, in
southwestern England, King
AlfreG-"the wisest, best, and great
est king that ever reigned in Eng
laid"-had sought refuge from his
enemies, the Danes. who for a num-
Der of years had been plundering the
land and overrunning the kingdoms.
One day, so the story goes, Alfred
was sheltered in a herdsman's hut.
and the housewife, having to leave
the hut for a few moments, babe
her guest watch the cakes baking
before the fire. This Alfred readily
promised to do: but his mind soon
turned to affairs of state and to
plans for defeating the Danes; so
when the woman returned she found
her cakes burned to a cinder. An
old English song represents her as
scolding the king, whom she did not
know, saying:
Can't you mind the cakes, man?
And don't you see them burn?
I'm bound you'll eat them fast
enough,
AS soon as tbs the turn.
Another story tells how Alfred
went into the Danish camp disguised
as a minstrel or wandering singer in
order to spy out the strength of the
enemy. The Danes were so pleased
with his singing that he had diff
ficulty in getting away again. lie
then summoned his warriors from
their homes. to which they had scat
tered Mt the end of the preceding
campaign to care for their families
and prepare their crops. With this
newly formed army he then defeated
the Danes in battle and drove them
back into their fortified camp, where
he besieged them for fourteen days.
Since they were now separated from
their ships and cut off from their
supplies, the Danish leader Guthrum
made a treaty, in which he agreed
to leave .Alfred's kingdom and to
accept Christianity. Later a new
treaty was made which fixed the
Thames river and the old Roman
road called Waiting Street as the
boundary between Alfred's king
dom and the Danish lands north
of It..
This treaty brought peace to the
land and allowed Alfl ed to turn his
attention to other pursuits than war
One of the things in which he was
greatly interested was the encour'
agement of learning.
One day when he was only a
young boy his mother had said to
him and to his brothers: do you
see this little book with it's clear
black writing and the beautiful let
ter at the beginning, painted in red
blue and gold? 1t shall belong to
the one who first learns it's songs. ="
Mother" said Alfred. will you
really give that beautiful book to me
if | learn it first?" Yes" was her
reply Il really Will" Alfred then
took the book to his teacher anu
soon learned to repeat the verses.
Now that he was king (S71S99)
Alfred invited learned men from
other countries to his kingdom to
instruct his people. He established
d school similar to the Palace
School of Charlemagne, and he
translated a number of books from
Latin into English, so that the peo-
pie might read them. Under his
direction was begun. also, the AN
glo-Saxon Chronicle" This is n rec
ord of events, year by year, kept by
the monks. and from it we get most
of our knowledge of that early time.
But not all of Alfred's time was
devoted TO books. He rebuilt London
which had been partially destroyed
by the Danes. He improved the army
so that his kingdom might never
suffer as it had from these
Mortimer. He saw that England
needed a navy as well as an army,
and so he began to build ships; for