The Singing Butler

The Singing Butler
The elderly heads nodded recognition of Tom's wisdom once more, and one individual murmured, "An the king be mad himself, according to report, then it is a madness of a sort that would improve the sanity of some I wot of, if by the gentle providence of God they could but catch it."
"What age hath the child?" asked Tom.
"Nine years, please your majesty."
The Singing Butler
"By the law of England may a child enter into covenant and sell itself, my lord?" asked Tom, turning to a learned judge.
"The law doth not permit a child to make or meddle in any weighty matter, good my liege, holding that its callow wit unfitteth it to cope with the riper wit and evil schemings of them that are its elders. The devil may buy a child, if he so choose, and the child agree thereto, but not an Englishman-in this latter case the contract would be null and void."
The Singing Butler