'Thank you kindly,' said Jack, 'but it is something particular between him and me. I will go out and find him and speak without disturbing him.'
'Oh, he is busy, as usual, doing nothing. He is in the shippon. When you have seen him, come back and have a glass of cider.'
Jack left the house, and before long he found the farmer, who was looking at a cow that had inflammation.
'You want me? About what?'
'Just this, Mr. Nethersole. I am weary to death of doing nothing. I want work. Will you give me employment? I was not brought up
"To plough and sow, to reap and mow,
And be a farmer's boy—"
but I will do my best.'
'Can you thatch?'
'I have not learned.'