Heartwarming / Prince Valiant

• Beric's Jerk with a Heart of Gold moment in strip #324 (4/25/43). Val gave a three-legged dog to a crippled boy who could not play with the other children, thinking the two could keep each other company. The boy brought some arrows he had made in thanks, but Val had already ridden on so he gave them to Beric, Val's squire. Beric takes them and says they would be better used as firewood. Tears fill the boy's eyes as Beric shoots an arrow and points out how it doesn't fly right. Beric says he'll take the arrows to Val, since he hasn't seen any better ones, but says almost angrily, "Unless you learn to choose a shaft straight and true, how can you ever hope to become arrow-maker in King Arthur's armory?" Then he gets on his horse and rides off.
  The boy never saw Beric look back from the forest edge, for his eyes are filled with the vision of a great ambition; "Arrow-maker to King Arthur", he repeats over and over again.