which sometimes we ate alone and
sometimes in the company of sea-captains and learned clerks or of other
merchants, all of whom treated him with great deference and as I soon
guessed, were in truth his servants. At night, however, we were always
alone and then he would pour out his wisdom on me while I listened,
saying little. On the sixth day, growing weary of this idleness, I made
bold to ask him if there was aught that I could do.

"Aye, plenty if you have a mind to work," he answered. "Sit down now,
and take pen and paper and write what I shall tell you."

Then he dictated a short letter to me as to shipping wine from Spain,
and when it was sanded, read it carefully.

"You have it right," he said, seeming pleased, "and your script is
clear if boyish. They taught you none so ill yonder at Hastings where
I thought you had only learned to handle ropes and arrows. Work? Yes,
there is plenty of it of the more private sort which I do not give to
this scribe or to that who might betray my secrets. For know," he went
on in a stern voice, "there is one thing which I never pardon, and it is
betrayal. Remember that, nephew Hubert, even in the arms of your loves,
if you should be fool enough to seek them, or in your cups."

So he talked on, and while he did so went to an iron chest that he
unlocked, and thence drew out a parchment roll which he bade me take to
my workroom and copy there. I did so, and found that it was an inventory
of his goods and estates, and oh! before I had done I wished that there
were fewer of them. All the long day I laboured, only stopping for a
bite at noon, till my head swam and my fingers ached. Yet as I did so
I felt proud, for I guessed that my uncle had set me this task for two
reasons: first, to show his trust in me, and, secondly, to acquaint
me with the state of his possessions, but as it were in the way of
business. By nightfall I had finished and checked the copy which with
the original I hid in my robe when the green-robed waiting maid summoned
me to eat.

At our meal my uncle asked me what I had seen that day and I
replied--naught but figures and crabbed writing--and handed him the
parchments which he compared item by item.

"I am pleased with you," he said at last, "for heresofar I find but a
single error and that is my fault, not yours; also you have done two
days' work in one. Still, it is not fit that you who are accustomed
to the open air should bend continually over deeds and in