He
could not step across. Perhaps he could jump over it.
As he was thinking what he should do, he happened to look up. Who was
it coming down the street, on the other side of the puddle?
It was E-liz-a-beth, the Queen of England, with her train of
gen-tle-wom-en and waiting maids. She saw the dirty puddle in the
street. She saw the handsome young man with the scar-let cloak,
stand-ing by the side of it. How was she to get across?
Young Raleigh, when he saw who was coming, forgot about himself. He
thought only of helping the queen. There was only one thing that he
could do, and no other man would have thought of that.
He took off his scarlet cloak, and spread it across the puddle. The
queen could step on it now, as on a beautiful carpet.
She walked across. She was safely over the ugly puddle, and her feet
had not touched the mud. She paused a moment, and thanked the young
man.
As she walked onward with her train, she asked one of the
gen-tle-wom-en, "Who is that brave gen-tle-man who helped us so
handsomely?"
"His name is Walter Raleigh," said the gentle-woman.
"He shall have his reward," said the queen.
Not long after that, she sent for Raleigh to come to her pal-ace.
The young man went, but he had no scarlet cloak to wear.
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