e fiddle or write pieces of poetry.
They had little love for discussions. The priest, "the learned man" of
the village (and before the middle of the thirteenth century, a layman
who could read and write was regarded as a "sissy") was supposed to
settle all questions which had no direct practical value. Meanwhile the
German chieftain, the Frankish Baron, the Northman Duke (or whatever
their names and titles) occupied their share of the territory which
once had been part of the great Roman Empire and among the ruins of past
glory, they built a world of their own which pleased them mightily and
which they considered quite perfect.

They managed the affairs of their castle and the surrounding country to
the best of their ability. They were as faithful to the commandments of
the Church as any weak mortal could hope to be. They were sufficiently
loyal to their king or emperor to keep on good terms with those distant
but always dangerous potentates. In short, they tried to do right and
to be fair to their neighbours without being exactly unfair to their own
interests.

It was not an ideal world in which they found themselves. The greater
part of the people were serfs or "villains," farm-hands who were as much
a part of the soil upon which they lived as the cows and sheep whose
stables they shared. Their fate was not particularly happy nor was it
particularly unhappy. But what was one to do? The good Lord who ruled
the world of the Middle Ages had undoubtedly ordered everything for the
best. If He, in his wisdom, had decided that there must be both knights
and serfs, it was not the duty of these faithful sons of the church to
question the arrangement. The serfs therefore did not complain but when
they were too hard driven, they would die off like cattle which are not
fed and stabled in the right way, and then something would be hastily
done to better their condition. But if the progress of the world had
been left to the serf and his feudal master, we would still be living
after the fashion of the twelfth century, saying "abracadabra" when we
tried to stop a tooth-ache, and feeling a deep contempt and hatred for
the dentist who offered to help us with his "science," which most likely
was of Mohammedan or heathenish origin and therefore both wicked and
useless.

When you grow up you will discover that many people do not believe in
"progress" and they will prove to you by the terrible deeds of some of
our own contemporaries tha