my fair son."

"then i am right glad that there were none who knew of it. the

black death is the best friend that ever the common folk had in

england."

"how that then?" asked hordle john.

"why, friend, it is easy to see that you have not worked with

your hands or you would not need to ask. when half the folk in

the country were dead it was then that the other half could pick

and choose who they would work for, and for what wage. that is

why i say that the murrain was the best friend that the borel

folk ever had."

"true, jenkin," said another workman; "but it is not all good

that is brought by it either. we well know that through it corn-

land has been turned into pasture, so that flocks of sheep with

perchance a single shepherd wander now where once a hundred men

had work and wage."

"there is no great harm in that," remarked the tooth-drawer, "for

the sheep give many folk their living. there is not only the

herd, but the shearer and brander, and then the dresser, the

curer, the dyer, the fuller, the webster, the merchant, and a

score of others."

"if it come to that." said one of the foresters, "the tough meat

of them will wear folks teeth out, and there is a trade for the

man who can draw them."

a general laugh followed this sally at the dentist's expense, in

the midst of which the gleeman placed his battered harp upon his

knee, and began to pick out a melody upon the frayed strings,

"elbow room for floyting will!" cried the woodmen. "twang us a

merry lilt."

"aye, aye, the 'lasses of lancaster,' " one suggested.

"or 'st. simeon and the devil.' "

"or the 'jest of hendy tobias.' "

to all these suggestions the jongleur made no response, but sat

with his eye fixed abstractedly upon the ceiling, as one who

calls words to his mind. then, with a sudden sweep across the

strings, he broke out into a song so gross and so foul that ere

he had finished a verse the pure-minded lad sprang to his feet

with the blood tingling in his face.

"how can you sing such things?" he cried. "you, too, an old man

who should be an example to others."

the wayfarers all gazed in the utmost astonishment at the

interruption.

"by the holy dicon of hampole! our silent clerk has found his

tongue," said one of the woodmen. "what is amiss with the song

then? how has it offended your babyship?"

"a milder and better mannered song hath never been heard within

these walls," cried another. "what sort of talk is this for a

public inn?"

"shall it be a litany, my good clerk?" shouted a third; "or would

a hymn be good enough to serve?"

the jongleur had put down his harp in high dudgeon. "am i to be

preached to by a child?" he cried, staring across at alleyne with

an inflamed and angry countenance. "is a hairless infant to

raise his tongue against me, when i have sung in every fair from

tweed to trent, and have twice been named aloud by the high court

of the minstrels at beverley? i shall sing no more to-night."

"nay, but you will so," said one of the laborers. "hi, dame

eliza, bring a stoup of your best to will to clear his throat.

go forward with thy song, and if our girl-faced clerk does not

love it he can take to the road and go whence he came."

"nay, but not too last," broke in hordle john. "there are two

words in this matter. it may be that my little comrade has been

over quick in reproof, he having gone early into the cloisters

and seen little of the rough ways and words of the world. yet

there is truth in what he says, for, as you know well, the song

was not of the cleanest. i shall stand by him, therefore, and he

shall neither be put out on the road, nor shall his ears be

offended indoors."

"indeed, your high and mighty grace," sneered one of the yeomen,

"have you in sooth so ordained?"

"by the virgin!" said a second, "i think that you may both chance

to find yourselves upon the road before long."

"and so belabored as to be scarce able to crawl along it," cried

a third.

"nay, i shall go! i shall go!" said alleyne hurriedly, as hordle

john began to slowly roll up his sleeve, and bare an arm like a

leg of mutton. "i would not have you brawl about me."

"hush! lad," he whispered, "i count them not a fly. they may

find they have more tow on their distaff than they know how to

spin. stand thou clear and give me space."

both the foresters and the laborers had risen from their bench,

and dame eliza and the travelling doctor had flung themselves

between the two parties with soft words and soothing gestures,

when the door of the "pied merlin" was flung violently open, and

the attention of the company was drawn from their own quarrel to

the new-comer who had burst so unceremoniously upon them.

chapter vi.

how samkin aylward wagered his feather-bed.

he was a middle-sized