![]() Rob practiced his juggling near enough to the fire so that the smells were a sweet torment. Barber tied the package with flaxen cord and then hung it over the fire on a spit. They barded the bird by wrapping it completely in thin sheets of salt pork, overlapped and molded snugly. “A swan’s flesh is stronger than a goose’s but drier than a duck’s and so must be barded,” he instructed Rob happily. He stuffed it with chestnuts, onions, fat, and herbs as befit a bird that had cost him dear. The farmer sold it dressed but Barber fussed over the bird, washing it painstakingly in a running stream and then dangling it by the legs over a small fire to singe off the pinfeathers. It was scarcely more than a cygnet but nevertheless larger than any fowl Rob had ever seen prepared for table. ![]() They held over outside a town called Bletchly because Barber bought a swan from a farmer. ![]()
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