ll, and spoke ye
fair, and lodged ye soft, and clad ye fine, and wrought the whole town
on to cheer ye, and to fill your purses full of gold? What, sir," said
he, turning to the gaping farrier--"what if I promised thee to turn
thine every word to a silver sixpence, and thy smutty grins to golden
angels--what wouldst thou? Knock me in the head with thy dirty sledge,
and bawl foul play?"

"Nay, that I'd not," roared the burly smith, with a stupid, ox-like
grin, scratching his tousled head; "I'd say, 'Go it, bully, and a plague
on him that said thee nay!'"

"And yet when I would fill this silly fellow's jerkin full of good gold
Harry shovel-boards for the simple drawing of his breath, ye bawl
'Foul play!'"

"What, here! come out, lad," roared the smith, with a great horse-laugh,
swinging Nick forward and thwacking him jovially between the shoulders
with his brawny hand; "come out, and go along o' the master here,--'tis
for thy good,--and ho-ome wull keep, I trow, till thou dost come again."

But Nick hung back, and clung to the blacksmith's grimy arm, crying in
despair: "I will na--oh, I will na!"

"Tut, tut!" cried Master Carew. "Come, Nicholas; I mean thee well, I'll
speak thee fair, and I'll treat thee true"--and he smiled so frankly
that even Nick's doubts almost wavered. "Come, I'll swear it on my
hilt," said he.

The smith's brow clouded. "Nay," said he; "we'll no swearing by hilts or
by holies here; the bailiff will na have it, sir."

"Good! then upon mine honour as an Englishman!" cried Carew. "What, how,
bullies? Upon mine honour as an Englishman!--how is it? Here we be, all
Englishmen together!" and he clapped his hand to Will Hostler's
shoulder, whereat Will stood up very straight and looked around, as if
all at once he were somebody instead of somewhat less than nobody at all
of any consequence. "What!--ye are all for fair play?--and I am for fair
play, and good Master Smith, with his beautiful shoe, here, is for fair
play! Why, sirs, my bullies, we are all for fair play; and what more can
a man ask than good, downright English fair play? Nothing, say I. Fair
play first, last, and all the time!" and he waved his hand. "Hurrah for
downright English fair play!"

"Hurrah, hurrah!" bellowed the crowd, swept along like bubbles in a
flood. "Fair play, says we--English fair play--hurrah!" And those inside
waved their hands, and those that were outside tossed up their caps, in
sheer delight of good fair play.