At the "Sign of the Golden Fleece"

by Emma Leslie

But although the Church was neutral in its opinion of Miles, and old friends offended, the news was carried by one and another until it reached the ears of the beggars in the woods, and among these it aroused varying feelings. Those who were rogues and vagabonds from choice, or who, from having lived this life so long did not care for steady work, mocked and jeered at the idea of men going back when once they had been turned off the land. Then there were others out of whom all the manhood had been beaten by the cruel and degrading treatment they had received, and these seemed to care very little for anything now. But there were a few young men who had vivid recollections of a happy home and steady work, who had not yet been flogged at the cart-tail, or branded as slaves, and two or three of these resolved to tie their rags together as decently as they could, and go to see Miles as soon as his funeral guests should depart.

So as soon as Miles had a little time to give to his wife and her father, he was fetched in some alarm by his steward, to meet this ragged band of dirty unkempt men, who nevertheless seemed to know how to behave themselves with courtesy and decorum.

After a few words of explanation, Miles learned that these were for the most part the sons of those tenants who had been turned off the land. When he heard this, he said to the steward, "take them to the barn where the tables are set, and give them a good meal of what is left of the funeral baked meats!" Then turning to the men he said, "You are hungry and weary, eat first, and then I will see you and learn what you want, and how I can help you!"

"God bless you, Master Miles, and may the holy Mother have you in her keeping," fervently ejaculated one of the most gaunt and hungry looking of the band, and they gladly followed to the barn.

The servants eyed the ragged crew suspiciously, but they had abundance of meat and bread still in the larder, and so the men ate their fill, and washed down the meal with ale that was not too strong for weakly stomachs. Having eaten and drunk, the men asked if they might wash and roll themselves in the straw by way of drying before they again presented themselves before Sir Miles.

To this the servants gave a rather grudging assent, but Miles was pleased to see in this a sign that the men had not lost all self-respect, and he did not fail to accord to them a hearty welcome, and even thanked them for coming to ask as to the truth of the reports they had heard.

"I will tell you plainly that those who have lived on this land for generations I should like to come back. But there are difficulties in the way of doing this all at once. The houses have fallen into decay, many of them have disappeared, and only a few stones remain of what was once a comfortable dwelling. Now when they are put up, I would like them to be more substantially built, and not mere mud-hovels. You are strong hearty men if you were well fed. Would you be willing to learn how to do this work, if I could find somebody to teach you, and pay you a fair wage while you were learning?"

To see the gleaming eager eyes of the half-starved men as they listened to this proposal, was enough to convince Miles of the sincerity of his visitors; and so, after some further talk, it was arranged that they should all sleep in the straw at the upper end of the barn that night, and Miles would write a letter for them to carry to Rankin the next day. In this Miles told the farmer something of what he intended to do, and asked him to give the men some employment, if possible, about the building, that they might learn something of the art of laying and compacting the stones and beams of timber, that they might know how to fashion a house out of these materials, instead of mud and straw, and thatch of turf, which was what most of them were built of.

Having assented to this proposal, the men then asked Miles what was to be done when they had learned to build better houses.

"I will employ you to put up substantial barns and farm-houses, where mud cottages stood before," answered Miles, quite expecting to see a smile of gratification brighten the gaunt faces.