And now appears at last Piers
Ploughman, who gives his name to the whole poem.
"Quoth a ploughman and put forth his head,
'I know him as well as a clerk know his books.
Clear Conscience and Wit showed me his place
And did engage me since to serve him ever.
Both in sowing and setting, which I labour,
I have been his man this fifteen winters.'"
Piers described to the pilgrims all the long way that they must
go in order to find Truth. He told them that they must go
through Meekness; that they must cross the ford Honor-your-father
and turn aside from the brook Bear-no-false-witness, and so on
and on until they come at last to Saint Truth.
"It were a hard road unless we had a guide that might go with us
afoot until we got there," said the pilgrims. So Piers offered,
if they would wait until he had plowed his field, to go with them
and show them the way.
"That would be a long time to wait," said a lady. "What could we
women do meantime?"
And Piers answered:--
"Some should sew sacks to hold wheat.
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