Harry felt at once that in this sharp boy he had a critic far more dangerous than any he was likely to meet elsewhere.  Others would pass him unnoticed; but his fellow-apprentice would criticise every act and word, and he felt somewhat disquieted to find that he had fallen under such supervision.  It was now, he felt, all-important for him to discover what were the real sentiments of the boy, and whether he was trustworthy to his master, and to be relied upon to keep the secret which had fallen into his possession.

“I have been,” he said, “in the big church at the end of this street.  What a pother the preachers do surely keep up there.  I should be sorely worried to hear them long, and would rather thrash out a load of corn than listen long to the clacking of their tongues.”

“Thou wilt be sicker still of them before thou hast done with them.  It is one of the duties of us apprentices to listen to the teachers, and if I had my way, we would have an apprentices’ riot, and demand to be kept to the terms of our indentures, which say nothing about preachers.  What is the way of thinking of this uncle of yours?”

“He is a prudent man,” Roger said, “and says but little.  For myself, I care nothing either way, and cannot understand what they are making this pother about.  So far as I can see, folks only want to be quiet, and do their work.  But even in our village at home there is no quiet now.  Some are one way, some t’other.  There are the Church folk, and the meeting-house folk, and it is as much as they can do to keep themselves from going at each other’s throats.  I hear so much about it that my brain gets stupid with it all, and I hate Parliament and king worse than the schoolmaster who used to whack me for never knowing the difference between one letter and another.”

“But you can read and write, I suppose?” Jacob said; “or you would be of little use as an apprentice.”

“Yes, I can read and write,” Roger said; “but I cannot say that I love these things.  I doubt me that I am not fitter for the plow than for a trade.  But my Aunt Marjory was forever going on about my coming to London, and entering the shop of Master Nicholas Fleming, and as it seemed an easy thing to sell yards of silks and velvets, I did not stand against her wishes, especially as she promised that if in a year’s time I did not like the life, she would ask Master Nicholas to cancel my indentures, and let me go back again to the farm.”

“Ah, well,” Jacob said, “it is useful to have an aunt who has been nurse to a city merchant.  The life is not a bad one, though our master is strict with all.  But Dame Alice is a good housewife, and has a light hand at confections, and when there are good things on the table she does not, as do most of the wives of the traders, keep them for herself and her husband, but lets us have a share also.”

“I am fond of confections,”, Harry said; “and my Aunt Marjory is famous at them; and now, as I am very sleepy, I will go off.  But methinks, Jacob, that you take up hugely more than your share of the bed.”