ain things for which he had occasion. One
day it chanced that the abbess saw him and asked the bailiff who he
was. 'Madam,' answered he, 'this is a poor deaf and dumb man, who came
hither the other day to ask an alms; so I took him in out of charity
and have made him do sundry things of which we had need. If he knew
how to till the hortyard and chose to abide with us, I believe we
should get good service of him; for that we lack such an one and he is
strong and we could make what we would of him; more by token that you
would have no occasion to fear his playing the fool with yonder lasses
of yours.' 'I' faith,' rejoined the abbess, 'thou sayst sooth. Learn
if he knoweth how to till and study to keep him here; give him a pair
of shoes and some old hood or other and make much of him, caress him,
give him plenty to eat.' Which the bailiff promised to do. Masetto was
not so far distant but he heard all this, making a show the while of
sweeping the courtyard, and said merrily in himself, 'An you put me
therein, I will till you your hortyard as it was never tilled yet.'
Accordingly, the bailiff, seeing that he knew right well how to work,
asked him by signs if he had a mind to abide there and he replied on
like wise that he would do whatsoever he wished; whereupon the bailiff
engaged him and charged him till the hortyard, showing him what he was
to do; after which he went about other business of the convent and
left him. Presently, as Masetto went working one day after another,
the nuns fell to plaguing him and making mock of him, as ofttimes it
betideth that folk do with mutes, and bespoke him the naughtiest words
in the world, thinking he understood them not; whereof the abbess,
mayhap supposing him to be tailless as well as tongueless, recked
little or nothing. It chanced one day, however, that, as he rested
himself after a hard morning's work, two young nuns, who went about
the garden,[153] drew near the place where he lay and fell to looking
upon him, whilst he made a show of sleeping. Presently quoth one who
was somewhat the bolder of the twain to the other, 'If I thought thou
wouldst keep my counsel, I would tell thee a thought which I have once
and again had and which might perchance profit thee also.' 'Speak in
all assurance,' answered the other, 'for certes I will never tell it
to any.' Then said the forward wench, 'I know not if thou have ever
considered how straitly we are kept and how no man dare ever enter
here,