Council, and that there is a talk of issuing an order that no boy not
yet apprenticed to a trade shall be allowed to carry a club, and that
any found doing so shall be publicly whipped."

"I don't want to be turbulent," Walter said; "but if the Aldersgate boys
will defy us, what are we to do? I don't hit harder than I can help, and
if Jonah Harris would leave his head unguarded I could not help hitting
it."

"I tell you it won't do, Walter," Giles said. "You will be getting
yourself into sore trouble. You are growing too masterful altogether,
and have none of the quiet demeanour and peaceful air which becomes an
honest citizen. In another six months you will be apprenticed, and then
I hope we shall hear no more of these doings."

"My father is talking of apprenticing me, Master Geoffrey," Walter said
that evening. "I hope that you will, as you were good enough to promise,
talk with him about apprenticing me to your craft rather than to his. I
should never take to the making of bows, though, indeed, I like well
to use them; and Will Parker, who is teaching me says that I show rare
promise; but it would never be to my taste to stand all day sawing, and
smoothing, and polishing. One bow is to me much like another, though my
father holds that there are rare differences between them; but it is a
nobler craft to work on iron, and next to using arms the most pleasant
thing surely is to make them. One can fancy what good blows the sword
will give and what hard knocks the armour will turn aside; but some day,
Master Geoffrey, when I have served my time, I mean to follow the army.
There is always work there for armourers to do, and sometimes at a pinch
they may even get their share of fighting."

Walter did not venture to say that he would prefer to be a man-at-arms,
for such a sentiment would be deemed as outrageous in the ears of a
quiet city craftsman as would the proposal of the son of such a man
nowadays to enlist as a soldier. The armourer smiled; he knew well
enough what was in Walter's mind. It had cost Geoffrey himself a hard
struggle to settle down to a craft, and deemed it but natural that
with the knightly blood flowing in Walter's veins he should long to
distinguish himself in the field. He said nothing of this, however, but
renewed his promise to speak to Giles Fletcher, deeming that a few years
passed in his forge would be the best preparation which Walter could
have for a career as a soldier.

CHAPTER II