"The demand increases more and more," said Master Hall. "We cannot work our presses fast enough to supply it. But I bear some new restriction is to be put upon the sale and use of the books."
"I am sorry for that," said his wife. "I would fain see the time when every plowman and shepherd might have a Bible of his own."
"That time will surely come—or so I think," remarked her father, "though perhaps not in our day. But these young ones may live to see it."
"I fear, indeed, it will not be in our day," said Master Hall. "There are those about His Majesty that would willingly close, if not burn, every English Bible in the land."
"But not the Archbishop of Canterbury," said Master Davis.
"No; His Grace would, like my wife, put it into the hands of all, gentle or simple."
The talk then drifted away to other matters, and when we rose from table, Master Davis proposed we should seek the summer-house in the garden.
"Do so, and I will send you wine and sweetmeats," said Mistress Davis. "Then you can talk of your business matters, and we women will sit under the great apple tree, sew our seams, and talk of affairs level with our comprehension."
Whereat the men laughed, though I did not see the joke. Mistress Davis asked me to help her in the ordering of the banquet, * and I was glad to do so. (I never do feel thoroughly at home in any house till I get into the pantry and kitchen.) Margaret was busy with the little girls, and I saw them showing her their work, and the clothes they had been making for their dolls.
* A banquet was what we should now call a dessert of fruits and sweetmeats piled upon wooden trays and trimmed with flowers. It was often set before callers.