"He will meet with very great temptations," threw in a second.
"The greater will be his triumph," returned the Prior.
"But he is still only a brother," a third protested.
"We can make him a father," the Prior answered. An answer which brought them all to their feet, opposing it loudly:
"That cannot be! that cannot be! our rules are against it."
"Then let some one else go," said the Prior coldly.
Silence fell upon the group: they shrugged their shoulders, fell back into their large richly carved arm-chairs, and murmured:
"Then let Peter be made father, and let father Peter go."
It was the student John's week in the bake-house, and from there he had heard every word; and now that the worthy fathers had gone away, he came out of the bake-house and hobbled off to the kitchen. The master of the kitchen was not there, but Samuel, a fellow-student, hung over the edge of a large two-handled tub. John was lank, and Samuel was thickset; both were in rags, out of respect to the golden saying, "In rags is a student at his best." It was the daily duty of these two students to carry to the pigs this large tub full of kitchen refuse. As soon as John saw that the kitchen master was not there, he began rummaging in the tub among the crusts of bread, apple parings, and scraps of mouldy cheese, selecting with an experienced eye.