"Thither shall I come," said he, smiling kindly, "or no man I know in
field. Lo you, Will Green looking for something, and that is me. But
in his house will be song and the talk of many friends; and forsooth I
have words in me that crave to come out in a quiet place where they
may have each one his own answer. If thou art not afraid of dead men
who were alive and wicked this morning, come thou to the church when
supper is done, and there we may talk all we will."

Will Green was standing beside us before he had done, with his hand
laid on the priest's shoulder, waiting till he had spoken out; and as
I nodded Yea to John Ball he said:

"Now, master priest, thou hast spoken enough this two or three hours,
and this my new brother must tell and talk in my house; and there my
maid will hear his wisdom which lay still under the hedge e'en now
when the bolts were abroad. So come ye, and ye good fellows, come!"

So we turned away together into the little street. But while John
Ball had been speaking to me I felt strangely, as though I had more
things to say than the words I knew could make clear: as if I wanted
to get from other people a new set of words. Moreover, as we passed up
the street again I was once again smitten with the great beauty of the
scene; the houses, the church with its new chancel and tower,
snow-white in the moonbeams now; the dresses and arms of the people,
men and women (for the latter were now mixed up with the men); their
grave sonorous language, and the quaint and measured forms of speech,
were again become a wonder to me and affected me almost to tears.


CHAPTER VIII