“Because I should have to put my wife in peril, if I went back to do it,” was the bold answer.
“Ha, so!” Such a possibility, in those rough days, was only too apparent to the honest baker. “Well, well! Had to run from a bad master, eh? Ay, ay, I see.”
He did not see exactly the accurate details of the facts; but the applicant did not contradict him.
“Well! I could do with another hand, it’s true; and I must say I like the look of you. How long have you been a baker’s man?”
“When I’ve been with you seven days, it’ll be just a week,” was the humorous reply.
“What, you’ve all to learn? That’s a poor lookout.”
“A man that has all to learn, and has a will to it, will serve you better than one that has less to learn, and has no will to it.”
“Come, I can’t gainsay that. What have you been, then?”
“I have been watchman in a castle.”
“Oh, ho!—how long?”