Kay said, "Wake up, wake up you beast. Where have you been?"
"I shan't tell you."
"If you don't tell me I shall kill you."
"You will not, then."
"I will."
The Wart turned over on his other side.
"Beast," said Kay. He took a fold of the Wart's arm between the nails of first finger and thumb, and pinched for all he was worth. Wart kicked like a salmon which has been suddenly hooked, and hit him wildly in the eye. In a trice they were out of bed, pale and indignant, looking rather like skinned rabbits -for in those days, nobody wore clothes in bed- and whirling their arma like windmills in the effort to do each other a mischief.
Kay was older and bigger than the Wart, so that he was bound to win in the end, but he was more nervous and imaginative. He could imagine the effect of each blow that was aimed at him, and this weakened his defence. Wart was only an infuriated hurricane.
"Leave me alone, can't you?" And all the while he did not leave Kay alone, but with head down and swinging arms made it impossible to do as he was bid. They punched entirely at each other's faces.
........
"Look at your poor eye, I do declare. It's enough to baffle the college of sturgeons."
"It is all right," said the Wart.
"No, that it isn't, my poppet," cried his nurse, getting crosser. "Come now, how did you do it, before I have you whipped?"
"I knocked it on the bedpost," said the Wart sullenly.
The old nurse immediately folded him to her broad bosom, patted him on the back, and said, "There, there, my dowsabel. It's the same story Sir Ector told me when I caught him with a blue eye, gone forty years. Nothing like a good family for sticking to a good lie...."
T.H. White, "The Once And Future King"
Dedicated to Chas and Michael.
"I shan't tell you."
"If you don't tell me I shall kill you."
"You will not, then."
"I will."
The Wart turned over on his other side.
"Beast," said Kay. He took a fold of the Wart's arm between the nails of first finger and thumb, and pinched for all he was worth. Wart kicked like a salmon which has been suddenly hooked, and hit him wildly in the eye. In a trice they were out of bed, pale and indignant, looking rather like skinned rabbits -for in those days, nobody wore clothes in bed- and whirling their arma like windmills in the effort to do each other a mischief.
Kay was older and bigger than the Wart, so that he was bound to win in the end, but he was more nervous and imaginative. He could imagine the effect of each blow that was aimed at him, and this weakened his defence. Wart was only an infuriated hurricane.
"Leave me alone, can't you?" And all the while he did not leave Kay alone, but with head down and swinging arms made it impossible to do as he was bid. They punched entirely at each other's faces.
........
"Look at your poor eye, I do declare. It's enough to baffle the college of sturgeons."
"It is all right," said the Wart.
"No, that it isn't, my poppet," cried his nurse, getting crosser. "Come now, how did you do it, before I have you whipped?"
"I knocked it on the bedpost," said the Wart sullenly.
The old nurse immediately folded him to her broad bosom, patted him on the back, and said, "There, there, my dowsabel. It's the same story Sir Ector told me when I caught him with a blue eye, gone forty years. Nothing like a good family for sticking to a good lie...."
T.H. White, "The Once And Future King"
Dedicated to Chas and Michael.
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