wilderness and forest, in the slums of towns, or
amongst the heathen, counting peril as nought. There was no buzz of
conversation, only from a stone pulpit the reader read a chapter
from the Gospels.

After this was done, grace after meat was said, and the elders
first departed, the great master taking Martin back with him into
his cell.

"And now, my son, what dost thou come to Oxford for?"

"To learn that I may afterwards teach."

"And what dost thou desire to become?"

"One of your holy brotherhood, a brother of Saint Francis."

"Dost thou know what that means, my son? Scanty clothing, hard
fare, the absence of all that men most value, the welcoming of
perils and hardships as thy daily companions, that thou mayst take
thy life in thy hand, and find the sheep of Christ amongst the
wolves."

"All this I have been told."

"Well, my son, thou art yet new to the world. At Oxford thou will
see it, and will make thy choice better when thou knowest both what
thou rejectest and what thou seekest. Meanwhile, guard thy youthful
steps; avoid quarrelling, fighting, drinking, dicing; mortify thine
own flesh--"

"Do these temptations await me in Oxford?"

"The air has been full of them, since Henry brought the thousand
students from the gay university of Paris hither. Thou wilt soon
see, and gauge thy power of resisting temptation. I would not say,
stay indoors. The virtue which has never been tested is nought."

"Where do the brethren chiefly work for God?"

"In the noisome lazar houses, amongst the lepers, in the shambles
of Newgate, here on the swamps between the walls and the Thames,
where men live and suffer. We do not enter the brotherhood to build
grand buildings. We sleep on bare pallets without pillows."

"Why without pillows?" asked Martin, wondering.

"We need no little mountains to lift our heads to heaven. None but
the sick go shod."

"Is it not dangerous to health to go without shoes in the winter?"

"God protects us," said the master, smiling sweetly. "One of our
friars found a pair of shoes last winter on a frosty morning, and
wore them to matins. At night he had a dream. He dreamt that he was
travelling on the work of God, and that at a dangerous pass in the
forest of the Cotswolds, robbers leapt out upon him, crying, 'Kill,
kill.'

"'I am a friar,' he shrieked.

"'You lie,' they replied, 'for you go shod.'

"He awoke and threw the shoes out of the window."

"And did he catch cold after