d hear Master Tom Collins's forge at Stockens
answering his brother, _Boom-oop! Boom-oop!_ and midway between, Sir
John Pelham's sledge-hammers at Brightling would strike in like a pack
o' scholars, and "_Hic-haec-hoc_" they'd say, "_Hic-haec-hoc_," till I
fell asleep. Yes. The valley was as full o' forges and fineries as a May
shaw o' cuckoos. All gone to grass now!'

'What did they make?' said Dan.

'Guns for the King's ships--and for others. Serpentines and cannon
mostly. When the guns were cast, down would come the King's Officers,
and take our plough-oxen to haul them to the coast. Look! Here's one of
the first and finest craftsmen of the Sea!'

He fluttered back a page of his book, and showed them a young man's
head. Underneath was written: 'Sebastianus.'

'He came down with a King's Order on Master John Collins for twenty
serpentines (wicked little cannon they be!) to furnish a venture of
ships. I drafted him thus sitting by our fire telling Mother of the new
lands he'd find the far side the world. And he found them, too! There's
a nose to cleave through unknown seas! Cabot was his name--a Bristol
lad--half a foreigner. I set a heap by him. He helped me to my
church-building.'

'I thought that was Sir Andrew Barton,' said Dan.

'Ay, but foundations before roofs,' Hal answered. 'Sebastian first put
me in the way of it. I had come down here, not to serve God as a
craftsman should, but to show my people how great a craftsman I was.
They cared not, and it served me right, one split straw for my craft or
my greatness. What a murrain call had I, they said, to mell with old St
Barnabas'? Ruinous the church had been since the Black Death, and
ruinous she would remain; and I could hang myself in my new
scaffold-ropes! Gentle and simple, high and low--the Hayes, the Fowles,
the Fenners, the Collinses--they were all in a tale against me. Only Sir
John Pelham up yonder at Brightling bade me heart-up and go on. Yet how
could I? Did I ask Master Collins for his timber-tug to haul beams? The
oxen had gone to Lewes after lime. Did he promise me a set of iron
cramps or ties for the roof? They never came to hand, or else they were
spaulty or cracked. So with everything. Nothing said, but naught done
except I stood by them, and then done amiss. I thought the countryside
was fair bewitched.'

'It was, sure-ly,' said Puck, knees under chin. 'Did you never suspect
ary one?'

'Not till Sebastian came for his guns, and John Co