jg PROLOGUE
vants brought in the cauldrons, and a mess of thick pease pot-
tage was served out, to which had been added a little meat for
' flavouring. This, and a draught of ale, took the sharp edge off
their hunger, and they awaited with pleasurable anticipation the
next course. The winter had been a hard one, and few of them
had been able to buy flesh, or to expect more than a bit of boiled
bacon from time to time. Some could afford to keep but few
chickens or geese, and had to exist as best they might on their
scanty produce, and on cheese and curds, with oatmeal cake or
thick oatmeal pottage to satisfy their ever-hungry children. This
and a sour bread of peas and beans had been the lot of many for
several months, so that the entry of the servants with great dishes
of roast meat caused a hum of satisfaction to go up around the
room. Each group tackled the portion set down before them
with eagerness, and with many a call to a friend here and a joke
with a neighbour at another table, the meal wore on. Ale flowed
liberally, and there was "cheese at call" for those who were still
hungry. When some of the women showed signs of wishing to
leave, the hayward blew his horn for silence, and the reeve
announced that if the weather remained fine there would be two
more boons on the Wednesday and the following Monday, and
by then he hoped all the hay would be cut and carried into the
great manor courtyard. Little by little the company dispersed,
most of them ready enough to get home and do whatever was
necessary about the house before they went to bed. John ami his
family walked back together, and saw as they passed their own
meadow that Agnes had been at work during the day. The hay
that was dry had been raked up into small cocks, and she had
turned most of that which had only been cut the previous
morning.
Much of their time in the next few days was spent by the
peasants either on the lord's hayfield or on their own. John had
but little more to cut on his allotted portion, and all was done by
the Wednesday evening. The following Friday he and his boys
spent the afternoon in loading it onto a wagon they borrowed