ought the
ship would be beaten to pieces, though he kept up a show of
confidence in order to inspirit the men. However, at the end of the
fourth day the gale abated; but it was days before the great sea
went down, the waves coming in long regular hills, which seemed to
me as big as those which we have here in Devonshire; but smooth and
regular, so that while we rolled mightily, there was naught to fear
from them."

"I should not like to be a sailor," Agnes said. "It would be far
better, Roger, were you to come into our father's counting house.
You know he would take you into his business, did Cousin Reuben
desire it."

Roger laughed.

"I should make but a poor penman, Agnes. I love the sea dearly, and
it is seldom that we have such gales to meet as that; and after
all, it is no worse to be drowned than it is to come to any other
death. I am well content, cousin, with matters as they are; and
would not stay ashore and spend my life in writing, not to be as
rich as the greatest merchant in Plymouth. I almost wish,
sometimes, I had been born a Spaniard or a Portugal; for then I
might have a chance of sailing to wondrous new countries, instead
of voyaging only in European waters."

"It seems to me that you have plenty to see as it is, Roger,"
Dorothy said.

"I do not say nay to that," Roger assented; "but I do not see why
Spain and Portugal should claim all the Indies, East and West, and
keep all others from going there."

"But the pope has given the Indies to them," Dorothy said.

"I don't see that they were the pope's to give," Roger replied.
"That might do for the king, and his minister Wolsey, and the
bishops; but when in time all the people have read, as we do,
Master Wycliffe's Bible, they will come to see that there is no
warrant for the authority the pope claims; and then we may,
perhaps, take our share of these new discoveries."

"Hush, Roger! You should not speak so loud about the Bible. You
know that though there are many who read it, it is not a thing to
be spoken of openly; and that it would bring us all into sore
trouble, were anyone to hear us speak so freely as you have done.
There has been burning of Lollards, and they say that Wolsey is
determined to root out all the followers of Wycliffe."

"It will take him some trouble to do that," Roger said, shrugging
his shoulders. "Still, I will be careful, Dorothy, for I would not
on any account bring trouble upon you, here. But, thank Heaven,
Englan