Chapter 16

Later that night he and Daniel compared notes. They both wore ribbons with red strips on the grey. They also had small badges that marked them as working at this particular estate.

"I'm not sure the stables will be any warmer than our tent," Paul said, "but I don't think they'll be any colder either."

"I'll be glad to sleep on something other than the ground, even if it is hay," Daniel said.

"So we are both to be called Grounds Keeper," Paul said. "It seems strange to both have the same name."

"Not name, but label," Daniel said. "It is too much work for the Master to learn who the people are who keep his home, so we are called by the work that we do."

"It seems the world gets stranger the further we get from home."

"It makes sense if you think on it," Daniel said. "There are too many people here to simply do as their Book tells them. It is more efficient to have some people who have Books, while others simply obey the ones with the Books. It is like the foresters, but even more so. The ribbons are different. They separate us into the obedient and the must be obeyed. There is a compulsion so the ones to be obeyed don't have to waste time explaining things.

"Yet it seems hard on those who must simply obey."

"I don't recall anywhere in the Book where it says that the world should be fair," Daniel said. "We obey or we displease God. If we are to start questioning, who's to say where it would end?"