It was the most ordinary day in the hamlet of John/Baron Akford, the village of Ekri.

The sun had risen early, but before it could begin its daily rounds, William/Moore, who was over forty years old, had finished much of his work in the fields.

As the light intensifies, the hamlet slowly reveals a faint outline, revealing a roof here, a low wall there, and in the distance, in the center of the village, a narrow street surrounded by groups of crude huts.

It's going to be a good day again.

Standing on a high slope outside the village, William made a judgment.

That's a good thing, but it also means that William will be more tired today, and he will have to catch up with the good weather as much as he can do as much farm work as he seems to never finish.

The natural urging of the good weather prompted William's movements to speed up a little, and the grass in the field fell much faster, and in this corner of the field, William/Moore's two sons were not idle.

The second son, Grace/Moore, was mowing the grass side by side with his father, while the younger son, Los/Moore, was constantly jumping over the stubble and drying the grass that had been harvested the previous morning.

Except for the precious scythe, which needed to be sharpened from time to time and pause for a while, the three of them were busy without interruption, and rarely spoke, because there was still a lot of work to be done, and time was running out.

Halfway through the summer, there are only a few days left until the second ploughing. Yesterday as he passed by the east side of the village, William saw a great man: the farmer was walking about the land of the lord with two of his servants.

William did not like to see such a situation at all, because the scene that occurs every year often means that the most important labor of summer is approaching at a rapid pace.

This is not like the piecemeal labor that the eldest son, Idra, can barely cope with these days, and the labor of plowing the land must require the men of the whole family to go together.

At the thought of this, William/Moore's heart immediately felt a pang of anxiety: there were still five plots of pasture that had not been harvested, the pea and barley fields in the commons had only been weeded once in the summer, the livestock sheds that had dragged on year after year were still only starting this year, and the ridges of the wasteland that had been carved out at the edge of the forest had long since been repaired......

It is certainly not possible to put all this work after the completion of the labor for the master, and there are only a few days left for the suitable days of turning the pasture, and the weeding of the pea fields and the green wheat fields must not be delayed until half a month later, and after the completion of the labor for the master, his share of the land and the commons must also be ploughed a second time, which is the most important farm work in the whole summer, and no villager will spend the time and effort to complete this work on other things.

The barn is still left alone, most of the neighbours live with the same livestock, and sometimes it is convenient to take care of it, the ridges of the newly opened land may wait until autumn, and the day of summer prayer can be set aside half a day to turn the peas and barley in the commons, and in any case the grass must be harvested as soon as possible, if this is delayed......

William was reluctant to think further.

At this time last year, the Mondham family just didn't have time to harvest the grass in time, and as a result, a cow and three goats didn't survive the winter, and this year the family couldn't fill their stomachs.

But...... William began to hesitate again, for if the ridges of the newly opened land were not trimmed soon, the damned rabbits and voles would soon be digging holes all over it, and the weeds and shrubs that had grown wildly in the summer would soon cross the ridges and fill the fields of wheat that had been so hard to be prepared.

This wasteland had been granted to William's family by the agricultural officer the year before, and although it was only the size of a boole, the work of pulling out thorns, clearing tree sturns, and leveling the land was almost endless in order to grow some buckwheat in it. For most of the year before and for the whole of last year, almost all of the time that William's family was able to squeeze out was spent in it, and if they did not take care of this new land before the summer prayer, most of the work of half a year would not only be in vain, but the buckwheat that had been planted with great difficulty might not be able to recover the seeds.

And William knew that his eldest son, Idra, had grown up, and had long longed to marry the daughter of his old friend Richard, and to be able to get a share of the new land that was less than half of the rent after starting a family, in addition to the land.

This matter must be resolved as soon as possible, and in a year or two, the second son, Grace, will also be of age to be able to get married, and it will be impossible for him to cope with the marriage of the two sons and their share of land at the same time.

While thinking about these troubles, while leading his two sons to bury their heads and work hard, William's hands moved faster and faster.

The sun rose higher and higher, and after about two hours, when William began to sweat incessantly, all the grass in the field finally fell, and after that, leading his sons to spread out the grass that had been harvested today, and turning the grass that had been harvested yesterday twice, William put away his sickle, and the three men left the field.

Walking downhill, around two low valleys, and across a single-plank bridge, William walked onto the village path, and as he passed Atwater's house, William heard his name being called behind him.

"William, hey...... William...... Wait a minute. ”

William turned around, and Holset, whose hair was beginning to fall out above his head, was holding a nail rake and was panting and jumping over two stumps and running in his direction.

"What's the matter, old Hott?"

"Can you spare three ticks in the afternoon?"

"In the afternoon, the grass will be mowed." This is the first priority that William always remembers.

"Everybody has to mow the grass." Holset ran to William's side and wiped the hot sweat from his forehead, "The summer service is almost here, and I will discuss with Freeman in the morning, and we will ship the pasture that has been turned over together today...... I remember your grass still lying in the field, right? ”

"Yes."

"How about doing it together in the afternoon? Freeman loaded his car, and I borrowed the holster and rope from the steward. ”

William thought for a while, it was a little early to start transporting the grass today, but the grass that had been turned over in the field also had a lot of weight, and in the afternoon, together with old Hult and Freeman, if the three scales could be transported, it should save some time.

"Good ......," William nodded, "At noon we all went to the commons to bring the cattle back, and when the sun was shining over the second stump, we went to Freeman's house to load the car...... One copy of the money for borrowing car covers and ropes. ”

After negotiating the arrangements for the afternoon, Holset and William, who stopped by, began to chat, exchanging a few pieces of news with each other:

Wilson's mother-in-law finally couldn't endure the daily abuse, and this morning no one was seen, and someone saw her carrying her little daughter on her back along the path west of the village, and everyone guessed that she had fled into the mountains, and now the police were looking for Wilson to pay a fine;

The bachelor Byrne could not fill his stomach all day, and yesterday he finally found the steward, and took the three portions of the land belonging to the lord, and was never allowed to leave the village until he had worked for the lord for thirty years, and had paid the ransom for the three portions;

Alice, who had no children and no daughter, had burned her foot a few days ago, and it had not been well for the past few days, but it was getting worse and worse, and the poor widow might never see the next summer;

And so on and so forth......

From this road, Holset was closer to home, and when he talked enviously about the addition of a calf to the Agnes family, Holset also walked to his door.

"Alright, no more, see you in the afternoon, old William. See you next time, little Grace...... See you next time, my lord. ”

At the door of the hut, as he finished his last sentence, Holset raised his hand to the top of his head, which had lost half of his hair, and took off the hat that did not exist on his head, and bowed solemnly.

Master...... Hey...... This old bastard......

William couldn't help but laugh, of course it was impossible for the big men of the barony to appear outside Holset's cabin, and the "master" in old Hoth's mouth was just the nickname that his youngest son Los had recently gotten.

Chapter 14: The Master (II)

William can't remember the specific day, but he has the impression that one day when he was working in a newly opened wasteland a while ago, it was probably because the weather was too hot, and his youngest son Loth's throat had a little problem.

William was a little worried at the time, but only a day later, William noticed that there was something wrong with Loth's throat, which was a great thing to congratulate......

If there is a problem with his voice, it will be inconvenient to speak, so Xiao Los can no longer quarrel about being hungry, no longer arguing that the food allocated to him is too little, and that the work is too tiring and that the work is too heavy, and he can no longer ......

In short, since little Lot's throat was dry and hoarse, old William had a lot less to worry about this little guy all of a sudden.

What made old William even happier was that he couldn't speak properly, and little Los was about to hold back uncomfortable, so he had to put the energy saved into farm work.

When he used to work, Xiao Los always touched east and west, asked left and right, and could only do a few corner jobs at most for a whole afternoon.

Now it's completely different, every morning, little Rose honestly follows him out of the house, and when he gets to the field, he works honestly with him, burying his head in hard work without saying a word.

Of course, in the eyes of a veteran farmer like William, Little Lot's ability to work is still much worse, and many of the jobs are quite rusty, and his hands and feet are not sharp at all. In addition, probably because he didn't put in any effort before, Xiao Los did a mess of a lot of the farm work he had taught before, and he didn't know the essentials at all, and he had to re-demonstrate it by himself for half a day before he could barely figure out the trick.

But even so, old William was already satisfied. Because, despite the lack of ability to work, old William can see that in recent times, Xiao Los has been working very hard, at least really putting his strength into farm work.

In the past few days, little Lot's throat has recovered, and old William has been a little worried that the little guy has changed back to his former appearance of being good at complaining and lazy to work.

Fortunately, it may have been a habit after a few days of dry and hoarse throat, and little Los had no obstacle to speak, but he did not have the slightest tendency to give old William a headache and worry again.

Especially yesterday afternoon, Little Loos actually finished cutting half a boolean of grass by himself.

That's half the weight of old William, a veteran farmer.

This result completely relieved William Sr.

Is this what grows up?

couldn't help but look back at Xiao Los, who was staring at the ground and carefully selecting the place to stay, Old William shook his head slowly, raising four sons and two daughters, Old William knew very well that growing up was not half a month, let alone a matter of one or two days.

At the age of thirteen or fourteen, it is the time full of fantasies, and little Loth is no exception, like the children of about the same size in the village, little Loth likes to listen to the stories of the messengers passing by, and old William remembers that at noon on the same day, little Los and the two children of the neighborhood, entangled the messenger in the next village for a long time.

Perhaps it was at this time that strange thoughts came to the little guy's head.

Yes, weird thoughts.

This is where the title "master" comes from.

I don't know what the messenger was telling, but from the next day, every morning onwards, little Rose would stand at the door with a wooden bowl, swallow saliva and put his fingers in his mouth, and so on and so forth, again and again, until he had used up three bowls of water.

I rummaged through the cabinet and found half a rag, carefully washed it back and forth I don't know how many times, and after washing my teeth every day, I used it to dip it in water, put it on my face and brush it back and forth several times.

Because of this, on the first day, the whole family had a rare laugh together on days other than the Summer Prayer and Harvest Festival, and Idra also gave little Ross a very apt name: washing his teeth and brushing his face.

Soon, the family realized that they were laughing too early.

That same night, after finishing the day's work and returning home for dinner, Xiao Los did not go to bed immediately as usual, but grabbed the rags that he had turned out in the morning and walked to the stream, dipped in water and wiped himself up and down!

Wiped it again the next day.

Wiped it again on the third day!

At the same time, there was an even more surprising thing: little Los actually did the laundry!

Everyone knows that clothes are a thing that means a piece of furniture hanging on the outside of the body, turned out when it is cold, and put it away when it is hot, it is neither a food bowl nor a soup bowl, at most hang it up and shoot a few times, what is the point of washing clothes?

…… Hell, laundry...... Just like "walking" and "cutting water", just thinking about connecting the words "washing" and "clothes" together makes old William feel very strange......

But Xiao Los just has to wash clothes, and it's the same as washing teeth and brushing his face, dipping in water and wiping his body, washing every day!

Compared to these two things, little Rose eats with a fixed bowl and spoon, drinks only hot water from the pot before boiling peas, walks resolutely without stepping on dung, wraps his hands and feet with leaves every time he works, and so on and so forth, which can no longer be surprising.

Even, after watching it for many days in a row, the family and old William have slowly become accustomed to it.

I don't care anymore.

Children always have a little strange thoughts, little Los Gu is weird, neither noisy to the family, nor eat more food, too wide, in case Los turns back to the old way of being noisy and annoyed is not like to work, who will do the extra work?

Still, William Sr. wanted to know what kind of story the messenger had told that would have made little Loos come up with so many strange tricks.

Three days ago, William Sr. got part of the answer to that question.

It was still morning, and about two farmers from a nearby village were driving a lean ox carrying buckwheat past the village of Ackley, and happened to meet a dozen men from the three families of William, Richard, and Holset, who had just prepared to work together.

Seeing such a procession, the two foreign farmers stood aside and made way of the way.

The problem was that the place where the two sides met was very narrow, with dense bushes on one side and a vigorous wheat field on the other, and the farmer could not stand in the wheat field, so he had to get as close to the bushes as possible to make a little more road surface.

Even so, two farmers and a cow occupy the road, and the rest of the road is always difficult to walk.

Of course, the villagers of Acre were reasonable, and soon, Richard walked sideways past the farmer, Richard's three sons walked sideways past the farmer, Holset walked sideways past the farmer, Holset's four sons walked sideways past the farmer, William walked sideways past the farmer, and Idra walked sideways past the farmer......

Next up is Loes.

Idra had passed, and Los was ready to turn sideways......

As a dozen men lined up, the two peasants, who had always stood cautiously by the side of the road, had just seen Los, and had only had time to glance vaguely, and in an instant the two peasants had taken off their hats in a hurry, and hurriedly held on to the buckwheat, and pulled the poor thin oxen with all their might, and without heeding the thorns and branches, they quickly burrowed into the bushes, and finally bent down in an orderly manner......

Bow to Wu Qingchen, who was inexplicable, but no longer needed to turn sideways at all, and called out respectfully:

Master.

Maybe it's getting along day and night, and the process of gradual change is not obvious; Perhaps it is already familiar, and it is difficult to turn the mind to the aspect that is too surprising;

In short, it was not until this time, until the two farmers who had never known Loth were respectfully reminded that the villagers of Ai Cree Village realized that at some point, the little Luo of the old William family, who was neat and neat all over his body, wiped his face clean, and his hair was neat and natural, looked like the old men who had only come to Ai Cree Village once in several months.

Naturally, old William understood that the story that the messenger told to Little Rose that day must have been about a big man, perhaps a farmer...... No, maybe it's a story about a steward!

Old William also understood that Little Lot's strange behavior every day must be to imitate the agricultural officer...... No, the Steward's panache.

No wonder these things have never been seen in other people in the village, or even heard of them, washing their teeth, brushing their faces, washing their bodies and washing their clothes, doing so much work every day, just to pretend to be a master in front of a farmer they don't know......

The little one has big goals......

Old William thought so.

At least, William Sr. had thought as ambitiously as he could.

In other words, this is already the most ambitious goal that old William can think of.