ht, and shall be till the Good Shepherd call me by my name to come
and rejoice with Him over the finding of His sheep that is lost. O
Lord, make no long tarrying! Yea, make no tarrying, O my God!

SELWICK HALL, APRIL YE V.
_Ned_ hath spoke out at last, like the honest man he is, and done
_Aubrey_ to wit of his desire to wed with _Faith Murthwaite_. She is a
good maid, and I cast no doubt shall make a good wife. Scarce so comely
as her sister _Temperance_, may-be, yet she liketh me the better: and
not by no means so fair as _Gillian Armstrong_, which liketh me not at
all. I would with all mine heart that I could put a spoke in that
lass's wheel the which she rolleth toward our _Walter_: yet this know I,
that if you shall give an hint to a young man that he were best not to
wed with a certain maid, mine head to a porridge-pot but he shall go and
fall o' love with her, out of pure contrariety. Men be such dolts!
And, worser yet, they will not be ruled by the women, that have all the
wit going.

Master _Murthwaite_, though he say little, as his wont is, is
nevertheless, as I can see, pleased enough (and Mistress _Murthwaite_ a
deal more, and openly) that his lass should have caught our _Ned_. And
truly our _Ned_ is no ill catch, for he feareth God, and hath a deal of
his father in him, than which I can write no better commendation. _Wat_
is more like _Lettice_.

Ay me, but is it no strange matter that the last thing ever a man (or
woman) doth seem able to understand, is that `whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap.' _That_: not an other thing. Yet for one that
honestly essayeth to sow that which he would reap, an hundred shall sow
darnel and look confidently to reap fine wheat. They sow that they have
no desire to reap, and ope their dull eyes in amazement when that cometh
up which they have sown.

How do men pass their lives in endeavours to deceive God! Because they
be ready to take His gold for tinsel, they reckon He shall leave their
tinsel pass for gold.

Yea, and too oft we know not indeed what we sow.--Here be seeds; what, I
wis not. Drop them into the earth--they shall come up somewhat.--Then,
when they come up briars and thistles, we stand and gape on them.--Dear
heart, who had thought they should be so? I looked for primroses and
violets.--Did you so, friend? But had you not been wiser to ask at the
Husbandman, who wot that you did not?--