“By the time I have done with it, it will be worth fifty, perhaps a hundred pounds--I don't know exactly. It is a play of Shakespeare's us published in his lifetime.” “But they print better and more correctly now, don't they?” “Yes; but us I said, they often change things.” “How is that?” “Sometimes they will change a word, thinking it ought to be another; sometimes they will alter a passage because they do not understand it, putting it all wrong, and throwing aside a great meaning for a small one: the change of a letter may alter the whole idea. But they often do it just by blundering. Shall I tell you an instance that came to my knowledge yesterday? It is but a trifle, yet is worth telling.--Of course you know the _Idylls of the King_?” “No, I don't Why do you say 'of course'?” “Because I thought every English lady read Tennyson.” “Ah, but I was born in New Zealand!--Tell me the blunder, though.” “There was one thing in _The Pausing of Arthur_--that's the name of one of the Idylls--which I never could understand:--how sir Bedivere could throw a sword with both hands, and make it go in the way Tennyson says it went.” “But who was sir Bedivere?” “You must read the poem to know that, Miss. He was one of the knights of king Arthur's Round Table.” “I don't know anything about king Arthur.” “I will repeat us much of the poem as is necessary to make you understand about the misprint.” “_Do--please_.” “Then quickly rose sir Bedivere, and ran, And, leaping down the ridges lightly, plunged Among the bulrush beds, and clutch'd the sword, And strongly wheeled and threw it. The great brand Made lightnings in the splendour of the moon, And flashing round and round, and whirl'd in an arch, Shot like a streamer of the northern morn, Seen where the moving isles of winter shock By night, with noises of the northern sea. So flashed and fell the brand Excalibur.” “What does _the brand Excalibur_--is that it?--what does it mean? They put a brand on the cattle in the bush.” “_Brand_ means a sword, and _Excalibur_ was the name of this sword. They seem to have baptized their swords in those days!” “There's nothing about _both hands_!” “True; that comes a little lower down, where sir Bedivere tells king Arthur what he has done. He says-- “'Then with both hands I flung him, wheeling him'. “--Now do you think anybody could do that, and make it go flashing round and round in an arch?” Barbara thought for a moment, then said-- “No, certainly not. To make it go like that, you would have to take it in one hand, and swing it round your head--and then you couldn't without a string tied to it. Or perhaps it was a sabre, and he was so strong he could send it like a boomerang!” “No; it was a straight, big, heavy sword.--How then do you think Tennyson came to describe the thing so?” “Because he didn't know better--or didn't think enough about it.”