les," said he; "for how
shall a woodwright make a chest without the wood and the tools?"

Said I, "He must needs buy leave to labour of them that own all things
except himself and such as himself."

"Yea, but wherewith shall he buy it?" said John Ball. "What hath he
except himself?"

"With himself then shall he buy it," quoth I, "with his body and the
power of labour that lieth therein; with the price of his labour shall
he buy leave to labour."

"Riddles again!" said he; "how can he sell his labour for aught else
but his daily bread? He must win by his labour meat and drink and
clothing and housing! Can he sell his labour twice over?"

"Not so," said I, "but this shall he do belike; he shall sell himself,
that is the labour that is in him, to the master that suffers him to
work, and that master shall give to him from out of the wares he maketh
enough to keep him alive, and to beget children and nourish them till
they be old enough to be sold like himself, and the residue shall the
rich man keep to himself."

John Ball laughed aloud, and said: "Well, I perceive we are not yet
out of the land of riddles. The man may well do what thou sayest and
live, but he may not do it and live a free man."

"Thou sayest sooth," said I.

CHAPTER XI

HARD IT IS FOR THE OLD WORLD TO SEE THE NEW

He held his peace awhile, and then he said: "But no man selleth
himself and his children into thraldom uncompelled; nor is any fool so
great a fool as willingly to take the name of freeman and the life of a
thrall as payment for the very life of a freeman. Now would I ask thee
somewhat else; and I am the readier to do so since I perceive that thou
art a wondrous seer; for surely no man could of his own wit have
imagined a tale of such follies as thou hast told me. Now well I wot
that men having once shaken themselves clear of the burden of
villeinage, as thou sayest we shall do (and I bless thee for the word),
shall never bow down to this worser tyranny without sore strife in the
world; and surely so sore shall it be, before our valiant sons give
way, that maids and little lads shall take the sword and the spear, and
in many a field men's blood and not water shall turn the gristmills of
England. But when all this is over, and the tyranny is established,
because there are but few men in the land after the great war, how
shall it be with you then? Will there not be many soldiers and
sergeants and few workers? Surely in