"And more need not be said," answered the baker heartily. "I know you well, Thomas Sprat, for an honest, godly, and kind-hearted man, and I shall feel as easy about my lad as if he were in his own chamber. So then we will consider the matter settled, eh, Jack? And thou shalt learn to keep sheep, like the king the good priest was telling us of, he that wrote the Psalms—what a head I have, to be sure!" "King David," said Jack. "But there will be no giants to fight at Holford, I am afraid." "There are giants to fight everywhere, dear lad," said the shepherd, "yes, and dwarfs, too, worse than the giants." "Dwarfs and giants in Holford! What does the man mean?" said the baker. "Oh, I see—this will be some of your parables!" he added, with a jolly laugh. "I am but a plain man, and don't understand such matters. You and Jack will suit exactly, I dare say. Well, then, it is settled, and as soon as the lad is able to ride so far I will bring him out to you." "There is one thing for which I should like to be a priest," said Jack the next day. He was lying at length on the settle in the sitting-room, and Anne sat sewing at the window. "Only one?" said Anne. "Only one that I know of now. I should like to be a priest, that I might read the Bible. Did you ever see a Bible in the convent, Anne?" "No, never," replied his sister. "I dare say there might be one in the library, for they had great store of books both written and printed; but no one ever meddled with them, except that the librarian used to take them out and dust and air them once or twice a year." "But what did you do?" asked Jack. "You must have had a great plenty of time." "Not so much as you think. There were the daily services, and the hours of silence, and the embroidery, and the making of sweetmeats and comfits for sale and for feast-days, and other things besides. There was very little time for reading." "But you had reading at meals," persisted Jack. "What did they read to you?" "Homilies, and lives of the saints, and such like," replied Anne. "And were not some of those taken from the Bible?" "How should I know, when, as I told you, I never saw a Bible?" asked Anne, in a tone of some little irritation. "The Bible is not for common folks and laymen like you and me. Father Barnabas said it was by reading the Bible in the vulgar tongue that the rebellion was got up long ago in the days of Lord Cobham and the Lollards." "That is curious, though," said Jack, meditatively. "What is curious?" "That reading the Bible should make men rebels and traitors. The priests say—at least Father William says—that the Bible is the Word of God to men, given them for their salvation; and I cannot see how reading and knowing the word of God should make men wicked."