"Be free of cap [taking it off to his elders] and full of courtesy." At meals his first duty is to wait upon his parents, after saying this grace:-- "Give thanks to God with one accord For that shall be set on this board. And be not careful what to eat, To each thing living the Lord sends meat; For food He will not see you perish, But will you feed, foster, and cherish; Take well in worth what He hath sent, At this time be therewith content, Praising God." He is then to make low curtsy, saying "Much good may it do you!" and, if he is big enough, he is to bring the food to the table. In filling the dishes he must take care not to get them so full as to spill anything on his parents' clothes. He is to have spare trenchers and napkins ready for guests, to see that all are supplied with "bread and drink," and that the "voiders"--the baskets or vessels into which bones are thrown--are often emptied. When the course of meat is over he is to clear the table, cover the salt, put the dirty trenchers and napkins into a voider, sweep the crumbs into another, place a clean trencher before each person, and set on "cheese with fruit, with biscuits or caraways" [comfits containing caraway seeds, which were considered favorable to digestion, and, according to a writer on health, in 1595, "surely very good for students"], also wine, "if any there were," or beer. The meal ended, he is to remove the cloth, turning in each side and folding it up carefully; "a clean towel then on the table to spread," and bring basin and ewer for washing the hands. He now clears the table again, and when the company rise, he must not "forget his duty":-- "Before the table make thou low curtsy." The boy can now eat his own dinner, and equally minute directions are given as to his behavior while doing it. He is not to break his bread, but "cut it fair," not to fill his spoon too full of soup, nor his mouth too full of meat-- "Not smacking thy lips as commonly do hogs, Nor gnawing the bones as it were dogs. Such rudeness abhor, such beastliness fly, At the table behave thyself mannerly." He must keep his fingers clean with a napkin, wipe his mouth before drinking, and be temperate in eating--"For 'measure is treasure,' the proverb doth say." The directions "how to behave thyself in talking with any man" are very minute and specific:--