The Herd Boy and His Hermit

cloud of

clad in h

DSWO

rocks and brushwood veiled the approach to an open glade where stood a rude stone hovel, rough enough, but possessing two rooms, a hearth and a chimney, and thus superior to the hut that had been left

wooded valley of the Derwent, growing wider ever before it debouched amid rocks into the sea. The goodwife at

nd vowed she was in fear of the Scots, so I eve

ance only meant a small villag

vise his newly arrived tenants to be much seen at this place, where there were people who might talk. They were almost able to provide for their daily needs themselves, except

ch, from which she had been debarred all the time they had b

go on some feast day, when there is such a concourse of folk that thou mightst not be n

re keen for with their church

aware he spoke with intent to tease her. 'Have I not lived all this while

'thou beest a good wife, Dolly, and maybe thy faithfulness wi

with eagerness, 'is

owing thyself to him. I give him my dues, that he may have no occasion against me o

a scholarly hermit who might learn me

stead and I, able to train any young n

now, but a noble needs booklore too,' said the bo

'Sir Lancelot knows nought of the

roke in Dolly

. And ye lads had best not molest him! He is for e

of a young knight than on the desire to acquire knowledge, that study

Piers, and he was continually calling him to order, making him sit and stand upright, as he had seen the young pages forced to do at the castle, learn how to handle a sword, and use the long stick which was the substitute for a lance, and to mount and sit on the ol

g lord might be taught to use, and there were doleful auguries and sharp reproofs, designed in comically respectful p

s when he looked up to the sky, and saw star beyond star, differing from one another in brightness. There were those white birds too, differing from all the night-jars and plovers he had seen on the moor, floating now over the waves, now up aloft and away, as if they were soaring into the very skies. Oh, would that he could follow them, and rise with them to know what were those great grey or white clouds, and what was above

n. Indeed, one day when Simon Bunce struck him sharply and hard over the shoulders for dragging home a great piece of sea-weed with numerous curious creatures upon it, Goodwife Dolly rushed out and made such an

he weapon in his inert hand, and told him how and where to strike. But 'It is not in sooth. I don't want to hu

tail?' cried Si

when the black bull came down. Why cannot you do the

the bull would fall

low to do my heart good, and show

g to beat Mother Dolly, Hal started forward and dealt a blow sufficient to make Simon cry out, 'Ha,

worth his learning, when there was so much more that awoke his delight and interest? Was it really childish to heed these things? Yet even to his young, undeveloped brain it