2. The Reeve (cont.) Middle Class: - The Reeve is also called a steward because other people entrust them with their property. But, the Reeve abuses that trust for his own personal gain. - He is keeper of an estate owned by a higher man. Inferences: - “he could judge by watching drought and rain, the yield he might expect from seed and grain” - “his master’s sheep , his animals, and hens, pigs, horses, dairies, stores, and cattle pens were wholly trusted to the government” - but, he has been embezzling money from his Lord the entire time he’s been in charge or the estate - Chaucer shows the different sides of the Reeve. One as a good superintendent of his Lord’s estate, but then the other side of a deceitful thief who tricks his Lord into lending him what were once his own possessions.