Page:Tales from Chaucer.djvu/105

 land, and keep his estate free from debt and incumbrance (if he had the brains to let them) or assist him to live as frugally as he might desire; and even to order and arrange the public affairs of a county:—yet was this manciple a match for them all.

The was a slender choleric man; his beard was close shaven like stubble; and hair cropped round his ears, with a forelock like a priest. His legs were long and straight as a pike, without a hint of calf. He was an excellent manager of a granary, and no auditor could catch him tripping in his accounts. He could give a shrewd guess what would be the produce of the land after rain or drouth. He had been bailiff to his lord from the year of his coming of age; consequently had the care and accounting of his whole stock. He was alive to all the tricks and contrivances of the labourers and other bailiffs, so that they stood in awe of him as they would of death himself. He had a handsome house upon a heath 'bosomed high' in green trees: and, in short, was better provided than his master; for he had secretly amassed considerable property,