ventories.
Therefore, to-morrow I shall have another task for you, for like
yourself your horse needs exercise."

And so he had, for with two stout servants riding with me and guiding
me, he sent me out of London to view a fair estate of his upon the
borders of the Thames and to visit his tenants there and make report of
their husbandry, also of certain woods where he proposed to fell oak for
shipbuilding. This I did, for the servants made me known to the tenants,
and got back at night-fall, able to tell him all which he was glad to
learn, since it seemed that he had not seen this estate for five long
years.

On another day he sent me to visit ships in which goods of his were
being laden at the wharf, and on another took me with him to a sale of
furs that came from the far north where I was told the snow never melts
and there is always ice in the sea.

Also he made me known to merchants with whom he traded, and to his
agents who were many, though for the most part secret, together with
other goldsmiths who held moneys of his, and in a sense were partners,
forming a kind of company so that they could find great sums in sudden
need. Lastly, his clerks and dependents were made to understand that if
I gave an order it must be obeyed, though this did not happen until I
had been with him for some time.

Thus it came about that within a year I knew all the threads of John
Grimmer's great business, and within two it drifted more and more into
my hands. The last part of it with which he made me acquainted was that
of lending money to those in high places, and even to the State itself,
but at length I was taught this also and came to know sundry of these
men, who in private were humble borrowers, but if they met us in the
street passed us with the nod that the great give to their inferiors.
Then my uncle would bow low, keeping his eyes fixed upon the ground and
bid me do the same. But when they were out of hearing he would chuckle
and say,

"Fish in my net, goldfish in my net! See how they shine who presently
must wriggle on the shore. Vanity of vanities! All is vanity, and
doubtless Solomon knew such in his day."

Hard I worked, and ever harder, toiling at the mill of all these large
affairs and keeping myself in health during such time as I could spare
by shooting at the butts with my big bow where I found that none could
beat me, or practising sword play in a school of arms that was kept by
a master of the craft from I