"I do not know him very well." "Oh! he is safe enough, and he has learned not to talk.

Besides, all the country will know it by Easter." So they turned their horses back again and rode up to the farm.
* * * * * It was a great day for a yeoman when three gentlemen should take their dinners in his house; and the place was in a respectful uproar.

From the kitchen vent went up a pillar of smoke, and through its door, in and out continually, fled maids with dishes.

The yeoman himself, John Merton, a dried-looking, lean man, stood cap in hand to meet the gentlemen; and his wife, crimson-faced from the fire, peeped and smiled from the open door of the living-room that gave immediately upon the yard.

For these gentlemen were from three of the principal estates here about.