y to lament with friend or
brother that they are pinched in their servitude, or to devise means
for ending it. And yet indeed thou sayest it: they also shall have one
will if they but knew it: but for a long while they shall have but a
glimmer of knowledge of it: yet doubt it not that in the end they shall
come to know it clearly, and then shall they bring about the remedy;
and in those days shall it be seen that thou hast not wrought for
nothing, because thou hast seen beforehand what the remedy should be,
even as those of later days have seen it."

We both sat silent a little while. The twilight was gaining on the
night, though slowly. I looked at the poppy which I still held in my
hand, and bethought me of Will Green, and said:

"Lo, how the light is spreading: now must I get me back to Will Green's
house as I promised."

"Go, then," said he, "if thou wilt. Yet meseems before long he shall
come to us; and then mayst thou sleep among the trees on the green
grass till the sun is high, for the host shall not be on foot very
early; and sweet it is to sleep in shadow by the sun in the full
morning when one has been awake and troubled through the night-tide."

"Yet I will go now," said I; "I bid thee good-night, or rather
good-morrow."

Therewith I half rose up; but as I did so the will to depart left me as
though I had never had it, and I sat down again, and heard the voice of
John Ball, at first as one speaking from far away, but little by little
growing nearer and more familiar to me, and as if once more it were
coming from the man himself whom I had got to know.

[2] Forestaller, one who buys up goods when they are cheap, and so
raises the price for his own benefit; forestalls the due and real
demand. Regrater, one who both buys and sells in the same market, or
within five miles thereof; buys, say a ton of cheese at 10 A.M. and
sells it at 5 P.M. a penny a pound dearer without moving from his
chair. The word "monopolist" will cover both species of thief.

CHAPTER XII

ILL WOULD CHANGE BE AT WHILES WERE IT NOT FOR
THE CHANGE BEYOND THE CHANGE

He said: "Many strange things hast thou told me that I could not
understand; yea, some my wit so failed to compass, that I cannot so
much as ask thee questions concerning them; but of some matters would I
ask thee, and I must hasten, for in very sooth the night is worn old
and grey. Whereas thou sayest that in the days to come, when there
shall be no