nswering 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's? Ruinous
the church had been since the Black Death, and ruinous she should remain;
and I could hang myself in my new scaffold-ropes! Gentle and simple, high
and low--the Hayes, the Fowles, the Fanners, the Collinses--they were all in
a tale against me. Only Sir John Pelham up yonder to 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 any
one?'

'Not till Sebastian came for his guns, and John Collins played him the
same dog's tricks as he'd