I2 PROLOGUE
the plough and ranting at his brother Abel, or Pilate shouting
^gnd raging as he had done the last time the plays had come. On
the other hand, John recalled the affecting scenes in which the
players had presented to them many of the poignant moments of
the Gospel story, and he and his mates discussed with zest the
scenes they would like to see again.
When he left this group he was stopped by two neighbours
who wanted him to join with them in some work waiting to be
done on their strips which lay side by side in the yrwit east field,
This he promised to do towards the end of the week when he
had carried his hay; and, with a parting look at the sundial, he
moved from the churchyard, and caught up his wile and daughter
near their home. Agnes was full of news she had gleaned from
her gossips: Cicely Wode was to marry John I'Yeman of the
neighbouring town, and she and her old mother were to leave the
manor as soon as the marriage could take place. Matilda, the
reeve's daughter, was in trouble, and would be accused at the
next Manor Court of incontinency. Agnes Atwater had scalded
her legs badly by overturning a vat of boiling water in her brew-
house—and so on.
They soon reached their cottage; and, while the women-folk
went indoors to prepare the n?idday meal John went behind the
house and down to the bottom of the close where the pig was
' kept. He emptied into the trough the remainder of a bucket
containing some sour milk and scraps of household waste, and
pulled up a few rank-growing weeds and threw them into the
trough. Then he turned to his garden and worked at thin and
that, for he had a good conscience, and his brother-in-law, Sir
William, took a reasonable view of the Fourth Commandment*
At last Roger came to call him in to dinner. Meanwhile, Agnes
and her daughter had been busy in the house. The fire had been
made up, and the large pot, in which the soup of peas and beans
had been prepared on the previous day, was hung over it and
heated. The trestle-table was now standing in the middle of the
room, aiid the beechen bowls and spoons arranged on it. A few