Book Excerpt for the Day

    "What is it like," he asked in the spring darkness.  "As a peasant, how do you live?"
    "We get up at dawn," Jan began.
    "As I do," the king said.
    "And we work all day, and at sunset we go to bed."
    "What do you eat?"
    "Cabbage, beets, we grind our own flour."
    "I mean, what meats?"
    "We never eat meat.  Well, at Easter, maybe one chicken."
    "And what do you work at, Jan?"
    "Whatever the master tells us.  Then six weeks each year for the duke.  And three weeks for you."
    "What do you work at?"
    "We till the fields.  We sow the grain.  We harvest.  And then we go to bed."
    ...
    "Jan, tell me again, what do you do when you fall sick?"
    "We die."

(from Poland, by James A. Michener)

8*/10.  The complete review is here.
.