"But, sir, does not this very book say we are not to fear them which kill the body?" asked Jack. "Did not the man in the parable you have just spoken sell all he had to buy the treasure hid in a field?"
"Even so, my son."
"My uncle's father was burned for having in his house and reading an English Bible," pursued Jack, "and he went to his death with joy. Oh, sir, I have so longed and prayed to see an English or Latin Bible!"
"Ay, so! You can read your Latin Bible," said the stranger, "You are, then, a scholar?"
"No great scholar as yet, though I can read Latin well enough," said Jack, with not unjustifiable pride. "I took the gold medal at Bridgewater grammar school, and Sir William Leavett says I can go to Oxford in another year, if my health fail not. I came to keep sheep with my uncle in Holford because I was sickly with too much study, but I am quite well now."
"And was it your uncle or your father from whom you parted but now?"
"My father, sir, and, I do think, the best man in all the world. My uncle lives in a cottage just under the hill yonder."
"And you are of Bridgewater, and know my cousin, Sir William Leavett?" continued the stranger. "I purpose to visit him before my return. Is the good man well?"
"Quite well, sir, my father says. He is indeed a good man, and beloved by gentle and simple among his own flock. He has promised to come and see me one day, but his hands are always full of business, what with the school, and the poor and sick, and the Greek studies which he greatly affects."
"Ay, does he so? And you, do you know any Greek?"