The Life of a Ploughman
Written circa A.D. 1000

Master: What sayest thou ploughman? How do you do your work?
Ploughman: O my lord, I work very hard: I go out at dawn, driving the cattle to the field, and I yoke them to the plough. Nor is the weather so bad in winter that I dare to stay at home, for fear of my lord: but when the oxen are yoked, and the ploughshare and coulter attached to the plough, I must plough one whole field a day, or more.
Master: Have you any assistant?
Ploughman: I have a boy to drive the oxen with a goad, and he too is hoarse with cold and shouting.
Master: What more do you do in a day?
Ploughman: Certainly I do more. I must fill the manger of the oxen with hay, and water them and carry out the dung.
Master: Indeed, that is a great labor.
Ploughman: Even so, it is a great labor for I am not free.

Wright, Thomas. Anglo-Saxon and Old English Vocabularies, Vol. I, p. 88, Trubner and Co., London, 1884.