"That my children's children have full bellies easeth not the wind in mine," grumbled Jack the smith.
But Meryl spoke up hotly:—
"He who works only for to-day will starve to-morrow."
And Annys felt that he had won a helpful friend.
"When dost think the whole country will be ready?" asked Rugge of Annys.
"Plenty yet to do, plenty to do," was the reply. "There are counties where they await but the word, but there are others where they are none too ready to loose hand from the plough."
"Ay, those are the counties where the plough yet yields a living somewhat better than a dog's."
"Yea, there are places in the land where the Black Death but took away enough mouths to fill those that remain. There the men have a cold heart and an unready ear, and it is hard enough to beat into them a sense of fellowship for those who are suffering and a-hungering afar off. It is slow work getting from east to west and from south to north, yet the good work prospers surely. Steadily the people are coming to right knowledge. More and more Holy Writ is being placed into their hands, and it taketh but small wit to see there is something awry with a world which matcheth so ill with its Word."
"Ay!" cried one lustily, "did the world go by the Book, there would be no woe and unruth."
"Yes," spoke up Richard Meryl, "but the world goes not by the law of Holy Writ, but by the law of Westminster, and therein lieth all the unrest. Did they not seek to put man's law above God's law, there would be no rebellion."