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diff --git a/16823-h/16823-h.htm b/16823-h/16823-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..30fa5db --- /dev/null +++ b/16823-h/16823-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6473 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of My Neighbors, by Caradoc Evans. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 45%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {empty-cells: show; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } + + body{margin-left: 8%; + margin-right: 12%; + } + + img {border: none;} + + ins {text-decoration: none; border-bottom: thin dotted red;} + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {visibility: hidden; position: absolute; left: 92%; color: gray; font-size: smaller; text-align: right; clear: both;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .0em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 0em; + font-size: smaller; background: #ffffcc; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .right {text-align: right;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .hang {text-indent: -3em; margin-left: 3em;} + + .narrow {margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%;} /* like blockquote, but narrower and with equal margins */ + + .tnote {font-size: .9em; font-style: italic; } /* Transcriber's Notes */ + + hr.major { width:75%; margin-top:2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + hr.minor { width:30%; margin-top:0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;} + + + + .caption {font-size: smaller;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + + + + /* kludge to get around brain dead IE not understanding CSS */ + div.centered {text-align: center;} + div.centered table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of My Neighbors, by Caradoc Evans + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: My Neighbors + Stories of the Welsh People + +Author: Caradoc Evans + +Release Date: October 8, 2005 [EBook #16823] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY NEIGHBORS *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1>MY NEIGHBORS</h1> + +<h3>STORIES OF THE WELSH PEOPLE<br /></h3> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h2>CARADOC EVANS<br /><br /><br /></h2> + + + + +<div class="figcenter" > +<img src="images/mark.png" alt="mark" title="mark" /> +<br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p class="center">NEW YORK<br /> +HARCOURT, BRACE AND HOWE<br /> +1920<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> +</p> + + + +<p class="center">COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY<br /> +HARCOURT, BRACE AND HOWE, INC.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></p> + + +<p class="center" style="font-family: sans-serif"><small>THE QUINN & BODEN COMPANY<br /> +RAHWAY, N.J.</small><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> +</p> + + + +<p class="center">TO<br /> +MY FRIEND<br /> +<big>THOMAS BURKE</big><br /> +<small>OF "LIMEHOUSE NIGHTS"</small><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents"> +<tr><td align='right'><small>CHAPTER</small></td><td align='right'></td><td align='right'><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'></td><td align='right'></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap"><a href="#THE_WELSH_PEOPLE">The Welsh People</a></span></td><td align='right'>3</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='right'></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap"><a href="#I">Love and Hate</a></span></td><td align='right'>11</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='right'></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap"><a href="#II">According to the Pattern</a></span></td><td align='right'>31</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='right'></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap"><a href="#III">The Two Apostles</a></span></td><td align='right'>59</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='right'></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap"><a href="#IV">Earthbred</a></span></td><td align='right'>81</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='right'></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap"><a href="#V">For Better</a></span></td><td align='right'>99</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='right'></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap"><a href="#VI">Treasure and Trouble</a></span></td><td align='right'>117</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='right'></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap"><a href="#VII">Saint David and the Prophets</a></span></td><td align='right'>131</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VIII.</td><td align='right'></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap"><a href="#VIII">Joseph's House</a></span></td><td align='right'>155</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>IX.</td><td align='right'></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap"><a href="#IX">Like Brothers</a></span></td><td align='right'>173</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>X.</td><td align='right'></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap"><a href="#X">A Widow Woman</a></span></td><td align='right'>187</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XI.</td><td align='right'></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap"><a href="#XI">Unanswered Prayers</a></span></td><td align='right'>199</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XII.</td><td align='right'></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap"><a href="#XII">Lost Treasure</a></span></td><td align='right'>215</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XIII.</td><td align='right'></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap"><a href="#XIII">Profit and Glory</a></span></td><td align='right'>231</td></tr> +</table></div> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a>[<i>p</i> 3]</span></p> +<h2><a name="THE_WELSH_PEOPLE" id="THE_WELSH_PEOPLE"></a>THE WELSH PEOPLE</h2> + + +<p>Our God is a big man: a tall man much +higher than the highest chapel in Wales +and broader than the broadest chapel. For +the promised day that He comes to deliver +us a sermon we shall have made a hole in +the roof and taken down a wall. Our God +has a long, white beard, and he is not +unlike the Father Christmas of picture-books. +Often he lies on his stomach on +Heaven's floor, an eye at one of his myriads +of peepholes, watching that we keep +his laws. Our God wears a frock coat, a +starched linen collar and black necktie, and +a silk hat, and on the Sabbath he preaches +to the congregation of Heaven.</p> + +<p>Heaven is a Welsh chapel; but its pulpit +is of gold, and its walls, pews, floor, roof, +harmonium, and its clock—which marks +the days of the month as well as the hours +of the day—are of glass. The inhabitants +are clothed in the white shirts in which +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4"></a>[<i>p</i> 4]</span>they were buried and in which they arose +at the Call; and the language of God and +his angels and of the Company of Prophets +is Welsh, that being the language spoken +in the Garden of Eden and by Jacob, +Moses, Abraham, and Elijah.</p> + +<p>Wales is Heaven on earth, and every +Welsh chapel is a little Heaven; and God +has favored us greatly by choosing to rule +over us preachers who are fashioned in his +likeness and who are without spot or +blemish.</p> + +<p>Every Welsh child knows that the +preacher is next to God; "I am the Big +Man's photograph," the preacher shouts; +and the child is brought up in the fear +of the preacher.</p> + +<p>Jealous of his trust, the preacher has +made rules for the salvation of our bodies +and souls. Temptations such as art, +drama, dancing, and the study of folklore +he has removed from our way. Those +are vanities, which make men puffed up +and vainglorious; and they are unsavory +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5"></a>[<i>p</i> 5]</span>in the nostrils of the Big Man. And look +you, the preacher asks, do they not cost +money? Are they not time wasters? The +capel needs your money, boys bach, that +the light—the grand, religious light—shall +shine in the pulpit.</p> + +<p>That is the lamp which burns throughout +Wales. It keeps our feet from Church +door and public house, and it guides us +to the polling booth where we record our +votes as the preacher has instructed us. +Be the season never so hard and be men +and women never so hungry, its flame does +not wane and the oil in its vessel is not +low.</p> + +<p>White cabbages and new potatoes, eggs +and measures of corn, milk and butter and +money we give to the preacher. We trim +our few acres until our shoulders are +crutched and the soil is in the crevices of +our flesh that his estate shall be a glory +unto God. We make for him a house +which is as a mansion set amid hovels and +for the building thereof the widow must +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6"></a>[<i>p</i> 6]</span>set aside portions of her weekly old age +pension. These things and many more we +do, for forgiveness of sin is obtained by +sacrifice. Such folk as hold back their offerings +have their names proclaimed in the +pulpit.</p> + +<p>Said the preacher: "Heavy was the punishment +of the Big Man on Twm Cwm, +persons, because Twm speeched against +the capel. Was he not put in the coffin +in his farm trowsis and jacket? And do +you know, the Big Man cast a brightness +on his buttons for him to be known in the +blackness of hell."</p> + +<p>It is no miracle that we are religious. +Our God is just behind the preacher, and +he is in the semblance of the preacher; and +we believe in him truly. It is no miracle +that we are prayerful. Our God is by us +in our hagglings and cheatings. Becca +Penffos prays that the dealer's eyes are +closed to the disease of her hen; Shon +Porth asks the Big Man to destroy his +pregnant sister into whose bed Satan en<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7"></a>[<i>p</i> 7]</span>ticed +him; Ianto Tybach says: "Give me +a nice bit of haymaking weather, God bach. +Strike my brother Enoch dead and blind +and see I have his fields without any old +bother. A champion am I in the religion +and there's gifts I give the preacher. Ask +him. That's all. Amen."</p> + +<p>Although we know God, we are afraid +of to-morrow: one will steal our seeds, a +horse will perish, our wife will die and a +servant woman will have to be hired to the +time that we find another wife, the Englishman +whom we defrauded in the market +place will come and seek his rights.</p> + +<p>We are what we have been made by our +preachers and politicians, and thus we remain. +Among ourselves our repute is ill. +Our villages and countryside are populated +with the children of cousins who have married +cousins and of women who have played +the harlot with their brothers; and no one +loves his neighbor. Abroad we are distrusted +and disdained. This is said of us: +"A Welshman's bond is as worthless as +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8"></a>[<i>p</i> 8]</span>his word." We traffic in prayers and +hymns, and in the name of Jesus Christ, +and we display a spurious heart upon our +breast. Our politicians, crafty pupils of +the preachers and now their masters, weep +and moan in the public places as if they +were women in childbirth; in their souls +they are lustful and cruel and greedy. +They have made themselves the slaves of +the wicked, and like asses their eyes are +lifted no higher than the golden carrot +which is their reward from the wicked. +Not of one of us it can be said: "He is a +great man," or "He is a good man," or +"He is an honest man."</p> + +<p>Maybe the living God will consider our +want of knowledge and act mercifully toward +us.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9"></a>[<i>p</i> 9]</span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10"></a>[<i>p</i> 10]</span></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11"></a>[<i>p</i> 11]</span></p> +<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2> + +<h2>LOVE AND HATE</h2> + + +<p>By living frugally—setting aside a portion +of his Civil Service pay and holding +all that he got from two butchers whose +trade books he kept in proper order—Adam +Powell became possessed of Cartref +in which he dwelt and which is in Barnes, +and two houses in Thornton East; and one +of the houses in Thornton East he let to +his widowed daughter Olwen, who carried +on a dressmaking business. At the end +of his term he retired from his office, his +needs being fulfilled by a pension, and +his evening eased by the ministrations of +his elder daughter Lisbeth.</p> + +<p>Soon an inward malady seized him, and +in the belief that he would not be rid of it, +he called Lisbeth and Olwen, to whom +both he pronounced his will.</p> + +<p>"The Thornton East property I give +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></a>[<i>p</i> 12]</span>you," he said. "Number seven for Lissi +and eight for Olwen as she is. It will be +pleasant to be next door, and Lissi is not +likely to marry at her age which is advanced. +Share and share alike of the furniture, +and what's left sell with the house +and haff the proceeds. If you don't fall +out in the sharing, you never will again."</p> + +<p>At once Lisbeth and Olwen embraced.</p> + +<p>"My sister is my best friend," was the +testimony of the elder; "we shan't go +astray if we follow the example of the +dad and mother," was that of the younger.</p> + +<p>"Take two or three excursion trains +to Aberporth for the holidays," said +Adam, "and get a little gravel for the +mother's grave in Beulah. And a cheap +artificial wreath. They last better than +real ones. It was in Beulah that me and +your mother learnt about Jesus."</p> + +<p>Together Olwen and Lisbeth pledged +that they would attend their father's +behests: shunning ill-will and continually +petitioning to be translated to the King<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13"></a>[<i>p</i> 13]</span>dom +of God; "but," Lisbeth laughed +falsely, "you are not going to die. The +summer will do wonders for you."</p> + +<p>"You are as right as a top really," +cried Olwen.</p> + +<p>Beholding that his state was the main +concern of his children, Adam counted +himself blessed; knowing of a surety +that the designs of God stand fast +against prayer and physic, he said: "I +am shivery all over."</p> + +<p>A fire was kindled and coals piled upon +it that it was scarce to be borne, and +three blankets were spread over those +which were on his bed, and three earthen +bottles which held heated water were put +in his bed; and yet the old man got no +warmth.</p> + +<p>"I'll manage now alone," said Lisbeth +on the Saturday morning. "You'll have +Jennie and her young gentleman home +for Sunday. Should he turn for the worse +I'll send for you."</p> + +<p>Olwen left, and in the afternoon came<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></a>[<i>p</i> 14]</span> +Jennie and Charlie from the drapery shop +in which they were engaged; and sighing +and sobbing she related to them her +father's will.</p> + +<p>"If I was you, ma," Jennie counseled, +"I wouldn't leave him too much alone +with Aunt Liz. You never can tell. +Funny things may happen."</p> + +<p>"I'd trust Aunt Liz anywhere," Olwen +declared, loath to have her sister charged +with unfaithfulness.</p> + +<p>"What do you think, Charlie?" asked +Jennie.</p> + +<p>The young man stiffened his slender +body and inclined his pale face and rubbed +his nape, and he proclaimed that there +was no discourse of which the meaning +was hidden from him and no device with +which he was not familiar; and he +answered: "I would stick on the spot."</p> + +<p>That night Olwen made her customary +address to God, and before she came up +from her knees or uncovered her eyes, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15"></a>[<i>p</i> 15]</span>she extolled to God the acts of her father +Adam. But slumber kept from her because +of that which Jennie had spoken; +and diffiding the humor of her heart, she +said to herself: "Liz must have a chance +of going on with some work." At that +she slept; and early in the day she was +in Cartref.</p> + +<p>"Jennie and Charlie insist you rest," she +told Lisbeth. "She can manage quite +nicely, and there's Charlie which is a help. +So should any one who is twenty-three."</p> + +<p>For a week the daughters waited on +their father and contrived they never so +wittily to free him from his disorder—Did +they not strip and press against him?—they +could not deliver him from the wind +of dead men's feet. They stitched black +cloth into garments and while they stitched +they mumbled the doleful hymns of Sion. +Two yellow plates were fixed on Adam's +coffin—this was in accordance with the +man's request—and the engraving on one +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></a>[<i>p</i> 16]</span>was in the Welsh tongue, and on the other +in the English tongue, and the reason was +this: that the angel who lifts the lid—be +he of the English or of the Welsh—shall +know immediately that the dead is of the +people chosen to have the first seats in +the Mansion.</p> + +<p>The sisters removed from Cartref such +things as pleased them; Lisbeth chose more +than Olwen, for her house was bare; and +in the choosing each gave in to the other, +and neither harbored a mean thought.</p> + +<p>With her chattels and her sewing +machine, Lisbeth entered number seven, +which is in Park Villas, and separated +from the railway by a wood paling, and +from then on the sisters lived by the rare +fruits of their joint industry; and never, +except on the Sabbath, did they shed +their thimbles or the narrow bright scissors +which hung from their waists. Some of +the poor middle-class folk near-by brought +to them their measures of materials, and +the more honorable folk who dwelt in the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></a>[<i>p</i> 17]</span>avenues beyond Upper Richmond Road +crossed the steep railway bridge with +blouses and skirts to be reformed.</p> + +<p>"We might be selling Cartref now," said +Olwen presently.</p> + +<p>"I leave it to you," Lisbeth remarked.</p> + +<p>"And I leave it to you. It's as much +yours as mine."</p> + +<p>"Suppose we consult Charlie?"</p> + +<p>"He's a man, and he'll do the best he +can."</p> + +<p>"Yes, he's very cute is Charlie."</p> + +<p>Charlie gave an ear unto Olwen, and he +replied: "You been done in. It's disgraceful +how's she's took everything that +were best."</p> + +<p>"She had nothing to go on with," said +Olwen. "And it will come back. It will +be all Jennie's."</p> + +<p>"What guarantee have you of that? +That's my question. What guarantee?"</p> + +<p>Olwen was silent. She was not wishful +of disparaging her sister or of squabbling +with Charlie.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></a>[<i>p</i> 18]</span>"Well," said Charlie, "I must have an +entirely free hand. Give it an agent if +you prefer. They're a lively lot."</p> + +<p>He went about over-praising Cartref. +"With the sticks and they're not rubbish," +he swore, "it's worth five hundred. Three-fifty +will buy the lot."</p> + +<p>A certain man said to him: "I'll give +you two-twenty"; and Charlie replied: +"Nothing doing."</p> + +<p>Twelve months he was in selling the +house, and for the damage which in the +meanseason had been done to it by a bomb +and by fire and water the sum of money +that he received was one hundred and fifty +pounds.</p> + +<p>Lisbeth had her share, and Olwen had +her share, and each applauded Charlie, +Lisbeth assuring him: "You'll never regret +it"; and this is how Charlie applauded +himself: "No one else could have got so +much."</p> + +<p>"The house and cash will be a nice egg-nest +for Jennie," Olwen announced.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></a>[<i>p</i> 19]</span>"And number seven and mine will make +it more," added Lisbeth.</p> + +<p>"It's a great comfort that she'll never +want a roof over her," said Olwen.</p> + +<p>Mindful of their vows to their father, +the sisters lived at peace and held their +peace in the presence of their prattling +neighbors. On Sundays, togged in black +gowns on which were ornaments of jet, +they worshiped in the Congregational +Chapel; and as they stood up in their +pew, you saw that Olwen was as the tall +trunk of a tree at whose shoulders are the +stumps of chopped branches, and that Lisbeth's +body was as a billhook. Once they +journeyed to Aberporth and they laid a +wreath of wax flowers and a thick layer +of gravel on their mother's grave. They +tore a gap in the wall which divided their +little gardens, and their feet, so often did +one visit the other, trod a path from backdoor +to backdoor.</p> + +<p>Nor was their love confused in the +joy that each had in Jennie, for +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20"></a>[<i>p</i> 20]</span>whom sacrifices were made and treasures +hoarded.</p> + +<p>But Jennie was discontented, puling for +what she could not have, mourning her +lowly fortune, deploring her spinsterhood.</p> + +<p>"Bert and me are getting married +Christmas," she said on a day.</p> + +<p>"Hadn't you better wait a while," said +Olwen. "You're young."</p> + +<p>"We talked of that. Charlie is getting +on. He's thirty-eight, or will be in January. +We'll keep on in the shop and have +sleep-out vouchers and come here week-ends."</p> + +<p>As the manner is, the mother wept.</p> + +<p>"You've nothing to worry about," Lisbeth +assuaged her sister. "He's steady +and respectable. We must see that she +does it in style. You look after the other +arrangements and I'll see to her clothes."</p> + +<p>She walked through wind and rain and +sewed by day and night, without heed of +the numbness which was creeping into her +limbs; and on the floor of a box she put +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21"></a>[<i>p</i> 21]</span>six jugs which had been owned by the +Welshwoman who was Adam's grandmother, +and over the jugs she arrayed the +clothes she had made, and over all she put +a piece of paper on which she had written, +"To my darling niece from her Aunt +Lisbeth."</p> + +<p>Jennie examined her aunt's handiwork +and was exceedingly wrathful.</p> + +<p>"I shan't wear them," she cried. "She +might have spoken to me before she started. +After all, it's my wedding. Not hers. +Pwf! I can buy better jugs in the six-pence-apenny +bazaar."</p> + +<p>"Aunt Liz will alter them," Olwen +began.</p> + +<p>"I agree with her," said Charlie. +"Aunt Liz should be more considerate +seeing what I have done for her. But for +me she wouldn't have any money at all."</p> + +<p>Charlie and Jennie stirred their rage and +gave utterance to the harshest sayings they +could devise about Lisbeth; "and I don't +care if she's listening outside the door,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></a>[<i>p</i> 22]</span> +said Charlie; "and you can tell her it's +me speaking," said Jennie.</p> + +<p>Throughout Saturday and Sunday +Jennie pouted and dealt rudely and uncivilly +with her mother; and on Monday, +at the hour she was preparing to depart, +Olwen relented and gave her twenty +pounds, wherefore on the wedding day +Lisbeth was astonished.</p> + +<p>"Why aren't you wearing my presents?" +she asked.</p> + +<p>"That's it," Jennie shouted. "Don't +you forget to throw cold water, will you? +It wouldn't be you if you did. I don't +want to. See? And if you don't like +it, lump it."</p> + +<p>Olwen calmed her sister, whispering: +"She's excited. Don't take notice."</p> + +<p>At the quickening of the second dawn +after Christmas, Jennie and Bert arose, +and Jennie having hidden her wedding-ring, +they two went about their business; +and when at noon Olwen proceeded to +number seven, she found that Lisbeth had +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></a>[<i>p</i> 23]</span>been taken sick of the palsy and was fallen +upon the floor. Lisbeth was never well +again, and what time she understood all +that Olwen had done for her, she melted +into tears.</p> + +<p>"I should have gone but for you," she +averred. "The money's Jennie's, which is +the same as I had it and under the mattress, +and the house is Jennie's."</p> + +<p>"She's fortunate," returned Olwen. +"She'll never want for ten shillings a +week which it will fetch. You are kind +indeed."</p> + +<p>"Don't neglect them for me," Lisbeth +urged. "I'll be quite happy if you drop +in occasionally."</p> + +<p>"Are you not my sister?" Olwen cried. +"I'm having a bed for you in our front +sitting-room. You won't be lonely."</p> + +<p>Winter, spring, and summer passed, and +the murmurs of Jennie and Charlie against +Lisbeth were grown into a horrid clamor.</p> + +<p>"Hush, she'll hear you," Olwen always +implored. "It won't be for much longer.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></a>[<i>p</i> 24]</span> +The doctor says she may go any minute."</p> + +<p>"Or last ages," said Charlie.</p> + +<p>"Jennie will have the house and the +money," Olwen pleaded. "And the +money hasn't been touched. Same as you +gave it to her. She showed it to me under +the mattress. Not every one have two +houses."</p> + +<p>"By then you will have bought it over +and over again," said Charlie. "Doesn't +give Jennie and me much chance of saving, +does it?"</p> + +<p>"And she can't eat this and can't eat +that," Jennie screamed. "She won't, she +means."</p> + +<p>Weekly was Olwen harassed with new +disputes, and she rued that she had said: +"I'll have a bed for you in our front sitting-room"; +and as it falls out in family +quarrels, she sided with her daughter and +her daughter's husband.</p> + +<p>So the love of the sisters became forced +and strained, each speaking and answering +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25"></a>[<i>p</i> 25]</span>with an ill-favored mouth; it was no longer +entire and nothing that was professed +united it together.</p> + +<p>"I must make my will now," Lisbeth +hinted darkly.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps Charlie will oblige you," replied +Olwen.</p> + +<p>"Charlie! You make me smile. Why, +he can't keep a wife."</p> + +<p>"I thought you had settled all that," +Olwen faltered.</p> + +<p>"Did you? Anyway, I'll have it in +black and white. The minister will do it."</p> + +<p>After the minister was gone away, Lisbeth +said: "I couldn't very well approach +him. He's worried about money for the +new vestry. Why didn't you tell me about +the new vestry? It was in the magazine."</p> + +<p>Olwen mused and from her musings +came this: "It'll be a pity to spoil it +now. For Jennie's sake."</p> + +<p>She got very soft pillows and clean bed-clothes +for Lisbeth and she placed toothsome +dishes before Lisbeth; and it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26"></a>[<i>p</i> 26]</span> +Lisbeth's way to probe with a fork all the +dishes that Olwen had made and to say +"It's badly burnt," or "You didn't give +much for this," or "Of course you were +never taught to cook."</p> + +<p>For three years Olwen endured her +sister's taunts and the storms of her daughter +and her son-in-law; and then Jennie +said: "I'm going to have a baby." If +she was glad and feared to hear this, how +much greater was her joy and how much +heavier was her anxiety as Jennie's space +grew narrower? She left over going to the +aid of Lisbeth, from whom she took away +the pillows and for whom she did not +provide any more toothsome dishes; she +did not go to her aid howsoever frantic +the beatings on the wall or fierce the outcry. +Never has a sentry kept a closer look-out +than Olwen for Jennie. Albeit Jennie +died, and as Olwen looked at the hair +which was faded from the hue of daffodils +into that of tow and at the face the +cream of the skin of which was now like +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27"></a>[<i>p</i> 27]</span>clay, she hated Lisbeth with the excess that +she had loved her.</p> + +<p>"My dear child shall go to Heaven like +a Princess," she said; and she sat at her +work table to fashion a robe of fine cambric +and lace for her dead.</p> + +<p>Disturbed by the noise of the machine, +Lisbeth wailed: "You let me starve but +won't let me sleep. Why doesn't any one +help me? I'll get the fever. What have +I done?"</p> + +<p>Olwen moved to the doorway of the +room, her body filling the frame thereof, +her scissors hanging at her side.</p> + +<p>"You are wrong, sister, to starve me," +Lisbeth said. "To starve me. I cannot +walk you know. You must not blame +me if I change my mind about my money. +It was wrong of you."</p> + +<p>Olwen did not answer.</p> + +<p>"Dear me," Lisbeth cried, "supposing +our father in Heaven knew how you treat +me. Indeed the vestry shall have my bit. +I might be a pig in a pigsty. I'll get +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28"></a>[<i>p</i> 28]</span>the fever. Supposing our father is looking +through the window of Heaven at your +cruelty to me."</p> + +<p>Olwen muttered the burden of her care: +"'The wife would pull through if she had +plenty of attention. How could she with +her about? The two of you killed her. +You did. I warned you to give up everything +and see to her. But you neglected +her.' That's what Charlie will say. Hoo-hoo. +'It's unheard of for a woman to die +before childbirth. Serves you right if I +have an inquest.'..."</p> + +<p>"For shame to keep from me now," said +Lisbeth in a voice that was higher than +the continued muttering of Olwen. "Have +you no regard for the living? The dead is +dead. And you made too much of Jennie. +You spoiled her...."</p> + +<p>On a sudden Olwen ceased, and she +strode up to the bed and thrust her scissors +into Lisbeth's breast.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29"></a>[<i>p</i> 29]</span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30"></a>[<i>p</i> 30]</span></p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31"></a>[<i>p</i> 31]</span></p> +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2> + +<h2>ACCORDING TO THE PATTERN</h2> + + +<p>On the eve of a Communion Sunday +Simon Idiot espied Dull Anna washing +her feet in the spume on the shore; he +came out of his hiding-place and spoke +jestingly to Anna and enticed her into +Blind Cave, where he had sport with her. +In the ninth year of her child, whom she +had called Abel, Anna stretched out her +tongue at the schoolmaster and took her +son to the man who farmed Deinol.</p> + +<p>"Brought have I your scarecrow," she +said. "Give you to me the brown pennies +that you will pay for him."</p> + +<p>From dawn to sunset Abel stood on a +hedge, waving his arms, shouting, and +mimicking the sound of gunning. +Weary of his work he vowed a vow that +he would not keep on at it. He walked +to Morfa and into his mother's cottage; +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32"></a>[<i>p</i> 32]</span>his mother listened to him, then she took a +stick and beat him until he could not rest +nor move with ease.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Dear little man. "Bach" is the Welsh masculine for "dear"; "fach" the Welsh feminine for "dear."</span></p> + +<p>"Break him in like a frisky colt, +<ins title="Footnote: Dear little man. 'Bach' is the Welsh masculine for 'dear'; 'fach' the Welsh feminine for 'dear.'">little man bach,"</ins> said Anna to the farmer. +"Know you he is the son of Satan. Have +I not told how the Bad Man came to me +in my sound sleep and was naughty with +me?"</p> + +<p>But the farmer had compassion on Abel +and dealt with him kindly, and when Abel +married he let him live in Tybach—the +mud-walled, straw-thatched, two-roomed +house which is midway on the hill that +goes down from Synod Inn into Morfa—and +he let him farm six acres of +land.</p> + +<p>The young man and his bride so labored +that the people thereabout were confounded; +they stirred earlier and lay down +later than any honest folk; and they took +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33"></a>[<i>p</i> 33]</span>more eggs and tubs of butter to market +than even Deinol, and their pigs fattened +wondrously quick.</p> + +<p>Twelve years did they live thus wise. +For the woman these were years of toil +and child-bearing; after she had borne +seven daughters, her sap husked and +dried up.</p> + +<p>Now the spell of Abel's mourning was +one of ill-fortune for Deinol, the master +of which was grown careless: hay rotted +before it was gathered and corn before it +was reaped; potatoes were smitten by a +blight, a disease fell upon two cart-horses, +and a heifer was drowned in the sea. +Then the farmer felt embittered, and by +day and night he drank himself drunk in +the inns of Morfa.</p> + +<p>Because he wanted Deinol, Abel brightened +himself up: he wore whipcord leggings +over his short legs, and a preacher's +coat over his long trunk, a white and red +patterned celluloid collar about his neck, +and a bowler hat on the back of his head; +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34"></a>[<i>p</i> 34]</span>and his side-whiskers were trimmed in the +shape of a spade. He had joy of many +widows and spinsters, to each of whom he +said: "There's a grief-livener you are," +and all of whom he gave over on hearing +of the widow of Drefach. Her he married, +and with the money he got with her, +and the money he borrowed, he bought +Deinol. Soon he was freed from the +hands of his lender. He had eight horses +and twelve cows, and he had oxen and +heifers, and pigs and hens, and he had +twenty-five sheep grazing on his moorland. +As his birth and poverty had caused +him to be scorned, so now his gains caused +him to be respected. The preacher of +Capel Dissenters in Morfa saluted him on +the tramping road and in shop, and +brought him down from the gallery to the +Big Seat. Even if Abel had land, money, +and honor, his vessel of contentment was +not filled until his wife went into her deathbed +and gave him a son.</p> + +<p>"Indeed me," he cried, "Benshamin his +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35"></a>[<i>p</i> 35]</span>name shall be. The Large Maker gives +and a One He is for taking away."</p> + +<p>He composed a prayer of thankfulness +and of sorrow; and this prayer he recited +to the congregation which gathered at the +graveside of the woman from Drefach.</p> + +<p>Benshamin grew up in the way of Capel +Dissenters. He slept with his father and +ate apart from his sisters, for his mien +was lofty. At the age of seven he knew +every question and answer in the book +"Mother's Gift," with sayings from which +he scourged sinners; and at the age of +eight he delivered from memory the Book +of Job at the Seiet; at that age also he +was put among the elders in the Sabbath +School.</p> + +<p>He advanced, waxing great in religion. +On the nights of the Saying and Searching +of the Word he was with the cunningest +men, disputing with the preacher, stressing +his arguments with his fingers, and +proving his learning with phrases from +the sermons of the saintly Shones Talysarn.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36"></a>[<i>p</i> 36]</span>If one asked him: "What are you going, +Ben Abel Deinol?" he always answered: +"The errander of the White Gospel +fach."</p> + +<p>His father communed with the preacher, +who said: "Pity quite sinful if the boy +is not in the pulpit."</p> + +<p>"Like that do I think as well too," +replied Abel. "Eloquent he is. Grand +he is spouting prayers at his bed. Weep +do I."</p> + +<p>Neighbors neglected their fields and +barnyards to hear the lad's shoutings to +God. Once Ben opened his eyes and rebuked +those who were outside his room.</p> + +<p>"Shamed you are, not for certain," he +said to them. "Come in, boys Capel. +Right you hear the Gospel fach. Youngish +am I but old is my courtship of King +Jesus who died on the tree for scamps of +parsons."</p> + +<p>He shut his eyes and sang of blood, +wood, white shirts, and thorns; of the +throng that would arise from the burial-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37"></a>[<i>p</i> 37]</span>ground, +in which there were more graves +than molehills in the shire. He cried +against the heathenism of the Church, +the wickedness of Church tithes, and +against ungodly book-prayers and short +sermons.</p> + +<p>Early Ben entered College Carmarthen, +where his piety—which was an adage—was +above that of any student. Of him +this was said: "'White Jesus bach is as +plain on his lips as the purse of a big +bull.'"</p> + +<p>Brightness fell upon him. He had a +name for the tearfulness and splendor +of his eloquence. He could conduct himself +fancifully: now he was Pharaoh wincing +under the plagues, now he was the +Prodigal Son longing to eat at the pigs' +trough, now he was the Widow of Nain +rejoicing at the recovery of her son, now +he was a parson in Nineveh squirming +under the prophecy of Jonah; and his +hearers winced or longed, rejoiced or +squirmed. Congregations sought him to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38"></a>[<i>p</i> 38]</span>preach in their pulpits, and he chose such +as offered the highest reward, pledging +the richest men for his wage and the cost +of his entertainment and journey. But +Ben would rule over no chapel. "I wait +for the call from above," he said.</p> + +<p>His term at Carmarthen at an end, he +came to Deinol. His father met him in +a doleful manner.</p> + +<p>"An old boy very cruel is the Parson," +Abel whined. "Has he not strained Gwen +for his tithes? Auction her he did and +bought her himself for three pounds and +half a pound."</p> + +<p>Ben answered: "Go now and say the +next Saturday Benshamin Lloyd will give +mouthings on tithes in Capel Dissenters."</p> + +<p>Ben stood in the pulpit, and spoke to +the people of Capel Dissenters.</p> + +<p>"How many of you have been to his +church?" he cried. "Not one male bach +or one female fach. Go there the next +Sabbath, and the black muless will not +say to you: 'Welcome you are, persons<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39"></a>[<i>p</i> 39]</span> +Capel. But there's glad am I to see you.' +A comic sermon you will hear. A sermon +got with half-a-crown postal order. +Ask Postman. Laugh highly you will +and stamp on the floor. Funny is the +Parson in the white frock. Ach y fy, +why for he doesn't have a coat preacher +like Respecteds? Ask me that. From +where does his Church come from? She +is the inheritance of Satan. The only +thing he had to leave, and he left her to +his friends the parsons. Iss-iss, earnest +affair is this. Who gives him his food? +We. Who pays for Vicarage? We. +Who feeds his pony? We. His cows? +We. Who built his church? We. With +stones carted from our quarries and mortar +messed about with the tears of our +mothers and the blood of our fathers."</p> + +<p>At the gate of the chapel men discussed +Ben's words; and two or three of them +stole away and herded Gwen into the +corner of the field; and they caught her +and cut off her tail, and drove a staple +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40"></a>[<i>p</i> 40]</span>into her udder. Sunday morning eleven +men from Capel Dissenters, with iron +bands to their clogs on their feet, and white +aprons before their bellies, shouted without +the church: "We are come to pray +from the book." The Parson was affrighted, +and left over tolling his bell, and +he bolted and locked the door, against +which he set his body as one would set +the stub of a tree.</p> + +<p>Running at the top of their speed the +railers came to Ben, telling how the Parson +had put them to shame.</p> + +<p>"Iobs you are," Ben answered. "The +boy bach who loses the key of his house +breaks into his house. Does an old wench +bar the dairy to her mishtress?"</p> + +<p>The men returned each to his abode, and +an hour after midday they gathered in +the church burial-ground, and they drew +up a tombstone, and with it rammed the +door; and they hurled stones at the +windows; and in the darkness they built +a wall of dung in the room of the door.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41"></a>[<i>p</i> 41]</span>Repentance sank into the Parson as he +saw and remembered that which had been +done to him. He called to him his servant +Lissi Workhouse, and her he told to +take Gwen to Deinol. The cow lowed +woefully as she was driven; she was heard +even in Morfa, and many hurried to the +road to witness her.</p> + +<p>Abel was at the going in of the close.</p> + +<p>"Well-well, Lissi Workhouse," he said, +"what's doing then?"</p> + +<p>"'Go give the male his beast,' mishtir +talked."</p> + +<p>"Right for you are," said Abel.</p> + +<p>"Right for enough is the rascal. But a +creature without blemish he pilfered. Hit +her and hie her off."</p> + +<p>As Lissi was about to go, Ben cried +from within the house: "The cow the +fulbert had was worth two of his cows."</p> + +<p>"Sure, iss-iss," said Abel. "Go will I +to Vicarage with boys capel. Bring the +baston, Ben bach."</p> + +<p>Ben came out, and his ardor warmed +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42"></a>[<i>p</i> 42]</span>up on beholding Lissi's broad hips, scarlet +cheeks, white teeth, and full bosoms.</p> + +<p>"Not blaming you, girl fach, am I," he +said. "My father, journey with Gwen. +Walk will I with Lissi Workhouse."</p> + +<p>That afternoon Abel brought a cow in +calf into his close; and that night Ben +crossed the mown hayfields to the Vicarage, +and he threw a little gravel at Lissi's +window.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The hay was gathered and stacked and +thatched, and the corn was cut down, and +to the women who were gleaning his +father's oats, Ben said how that Lissi was +in the family way.</p> + +<p>"Silence your tone, indeed," cried one, +laughing. "No sign have I seen."</p> + +<p>"If I died," observed a large woman, +"boy bach pretty innocent you are, Benshamin. +Four months have I yet. And +not showing much do I."</p> + +<p>"No," said another, "the bulk might +be only the coil of your apron, ho-ho."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43"></a>[<i>p</i> 43]</span>"Whisper to us," asked the large +woman, "who the foxer is. Keep the +news will we."</p> + +<p>"Who but the scamp of the Parson?" +replied Ben. "What a sow of a +hen."</p> + +<p>By such means Ben shifted his offense. +On being charged by the Parson he rushed +through the roads crying that the enemy +of the Big Man had put unbecoming +words on a harlot's tongue. Capel Dissenters +believed him. "He could not act +wrongly with a sheep," some said.</p> + +<p>So Ben tasted the sapidness and relish +of power, and his desires increased.</p> + +<p>"Mortgage Deinol, my father bach," he +said to Abel. "Going am I to London. +Heavy shall I be there. None of the +dirty English are like me."</p> + +<p>"Already have I borrowed for your +college. No more do I want to have. +How if I sell a horse?"</p> + +<p>"Sell you the horse too, my father +bach."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44"></a>[<i>p</i> 44]</span>"Done much have I for you," Abel +said. "Fairish I must be with your +sisters."</p> + +<p>"Why for you cavil like that, father? +The money of mam came to Deinol. Am +I not her son?"</p> + +<p>Though his daughters, murmured—"We +wake at the caw of the crows," they +said, "and weary in the young of the +day"—Abel obeyed his son, who thereupon +departed and came to Thornton +East to the house of Catherine Jenkins, +a widow woman, with whom he took the +appearance of a burning lover.</p> + +<p>Though he preached with a view at +many English chapels in London, none +called him. He caused Abel to sell cattle +and mortgage Deinol for what it was +worth and to give him all the money he +received therefrom; he swore such hot +love for Catherine that the woman pawned +her furniture for his sake.</p> + +<p>Intrigued that such scant fruit had come +up from his sowings, Ben thought of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45"></a>[<i>p</i> 45]</span>further ways of stablishing himself. He +inquired into the welfare of shop-assistants +from women and girls who worshiped in +Welsh chapels, and though he spoiled +several in his quest, the abominations +which oppressed these workers were made +known to him. Shop-assistants carried +abroad his fame and called him "Fiery +Taffy." Ben showed them how to rid +themselves of their burden; "a burden," +he said, "packed full and overflowing by +men of my race—the London Welsh +drapers."</p> + +<p>The Welsh drapers were alarmed, and +in a rage with Ben. They took the opinion +of their big men and performed slyly. +Enos-Harries—this is the Enos-Harries +who has a drapery shop in Kingsend—sent +to Ben this letter: "Take Dinner with Slf +and Wife same, is Late Dinner I am +pleased to inform. You we don't live in +Establishment only as per printed Note +Heading. And Oblige."</p> + +<p>Enos-Harries showed Ben his house, and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46"></a>[<i>p</i> 46]</span>told him the cost of the treasures that +were therein.</p> + +<p>Also Harries said: "I have learned of +you as a promising Welshman, and I want +to do a good turn for you with a speech +by you on St. David's Day at Queen's +Hall. Now, then."</p> + +<p>"I am not important enough for +that."</p> + +<p>"She'll be a first-class miting in tip-top +speeches. All the drapers and dairies +shall be there in crowds. Three sirs shall +come."</p> + +<p>"I am choked with engagements," said +Ben. "I am preaching very busy now +just."</p> + +<p>"Well-well. Asked I did for you are +a clean Cymro bach. As I repeat, only +leading lines in speakers shall be there. +Come now into the drawing-room and +I'll give you an intro to the Missus Enos-Harries. +In evening dress she is—chik +Paris Model. The invoice price was ten-ten."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47"></a>[<i>p</i> 47]</span>"Wait a bit," Ben remarked. "I would +be glad if I could speak."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps the next time we give you +the invite. The Cymrodorion shall be in +the miting."</p> + +<p>"As you plead, try I will."</p> + +<p>"Stretching a point am I," Harries +said. "This is a favor for you to address +this glorious miting where the Welsh +drapers will attend and the Missus Enos-Harries +will sing 'Land of my Fathers.'"</p> + +<p>Ben withdrew from his fellows for three +days, and on the third day—which was +that of the Saint—he put on him a frock +coat, and combed down his mustache over +the blood-red swelling on his lip; and he +cleaned his teeth. Here are some of the +sayings that he spoke that night:</p> + +<p>"Half an hour ago we were privileged +to listen to the voice of a lovely lady—a +voice as clear as a diamond ring. It inspired +us one and all with a hireath for +the dear old homeland—for dear Wales, +for the land of our fathers and mothers +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48"></a>[<i>p</i> 48]</span>too, for the land that is our heritage not +by Act of Parliament but by the Act of +God....</p> + +<p>"Who ownss this land to-day? The +squaire and the parshon. By what right? +By the same right as the thief who steals +your silk and your laces, and your milk +and butter, and your reddy-made blousis. +I know a farm of one hundred acres, each +rod having been tamed from heatherland +into a manna of abundance. Tamed by +human bones and muscles—God's invested +capital in His chosen children. Six +months ago this land—this fertile and +rich land—was wrestled away from the +owners. The bones of the living and the +dead were wrestled away. I saw it three +months ago—a wylderness. The clod had +been squeesed of its zweat. The land +belonged to my father, and his father, +and his father, back to countless generations....</p> + +<p>"I am proud to be among my people +to-night. How sorry I am for any one +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49"></a>[<i>p</i> 49]</span>who are not Welsh. We have a language +as ancient as the hills that shelter us, and +the rivers that never weery of refreshing +us....</p> + +<p>"Only recently a few shop-assistants—a +handful of counter-jumpers—tried to +shake the integrity of our commerse. But +their white cuffs held back their aarms, +and the white collars choked their aambitions. +When I was a small boy my mam +used to tell me how the chief Satan was +caught trying to put his hand over the sun +so as to give other satans a chance of doing +wrong on earth in the dark. That was +the object of these misguided fools. They +had no grievances. I have since investigated +the questions of living-in and fines. +Both are fair and necessary. The man who +tries to destroy them is like the swimmer +who plunges among the water lilies to be +dragged into destruction....</p> + +<p>"Welsh was talked in the Garden of +Aden. That is where commerse began. +Didn't Eve buy the apple?...</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50"></a>[<i>p</i> 50]</span>"Ladies and gentlemen, Cymrodorion, +listen. There is a going in these classical +old rafterss. It is the coming of God. +And the message He gives you this night +is this: 'Men of Gwalia, march on and +keep you tails up.'"</p> + +<p>From that hour Ben flourished. He +broke his league with the shop-assistants. +Those whom he had troubled lost courage +and humbled themselves before their employers; +but their employers would have +none of them, man or woman, boy or girl.</p> + +<p>Vexation followed his prosperity. His +father reproached him, writing: "Sad I +drop into the Pool as old Abel Tybach, and +not as Lloyd Deinol." Catherine harassed +him to recover her house and chattels. To +these complainings he was deaf. He married +the daughter of a wealthy Englishman, +who set him up in a large house in +the midst of a pleasure garden; and of +the fatness and redness of his wife he was +sickened before he was wedded to her.</p> + +<p>By studying diligently, the English lan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51"></a>[<i>p</i> 51]</span>guage +became as familiar to him as the +Welsh language. He bound himself to +Welsh politicians and engaged himself in +public affairs, and soon he was as an idol +to a multitude of people, who were sensible +only to his well-sung words, and who +did not know that his utterances veiled +his own avarice and that of his masters. +All that he did was for profit, and yet +he could not win enough.</p> + +<p>Men and women, soothed into false ease +and quickened into counterfeit wrath, commended +him, crying: "Thank God for Ben +Lloyd." Such praise puffed him up, and +howsoever mighty he was in the view of +fools, he was mightier in his own view.</p> + +<p>"At the next election I'll be in Parliament," +he boasted in his vanity. "The +basis of my solidity—strength—is as immovable—is +as impregnable as Birds' Rock +in Morfa."</p> + +<p>Though the grandson of Simon Idiot +and Dull Anna prophesied great things +for himself, it was evil that came to him.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52"></a>[<i>p</i> 52]</span>He trembled from head to foot to ravish +every comely woman on whom his ogling +eyes dwelt. His greed made him faithless +to those whom he professed to serve: in +his eagerness to lift himself he planned, +plotted, and trafficked with the foes of his +officers. Hearing that an account of his +misdeeds was spoken abroad, he called the +high London Welshmen into a room, and +he said to them:</p> + +<p>"These cruel slanderers have all but +broken my spirit. They are the wicked +inventions of fiends incarnate. It is not +my fall that is required—if that were so +I would gladly make the sacrifise—the +zupreme sacrifise, if wanted—but it is the +fall of the Party that these men are after. +He who repeats one foul thing is doing +his level best to destroy the fabric of this +magnificent organisation that has been +reared by your brains. It has no walls +of stone and mortar, yet it is a sity builded +by men. We must have no more bickerings. +We have work to do. The seeds +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53"></a>[<i>p</i> 53]</span>are springing forth, and a goodly harvest +is promised: let us sharpen our blades +and clear our barn floors. Cymru fydd—Wales +for the Welsh—is here. At home +and at Westminster our kith and kin +are occupying prominent positions. Disestablishment +is at hand. We have closed +public-houses and erected chapels, each +chapel being a factor in the education of +the masses in ideas of righteous government. +You, my friends, have secured +much of the land, around which you have +made walls, and in which you have set +water fountains, and have planted rare +plants and flowers. And you have put up +your warning signs on it—'Trespassers +will be prosecuted.'</p> + +<p>"There is coming the Registration of +Workers Act, by which every worker will +be held to his locality, to his own enormous +advantage. And it will end strikes, and +trades unionism will deservedly crumble. +In future these men will be able to settle +down, and with God's blessing bring chil<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54"></a>[<i>p</i> 54]</span>dren +into the world, and their condition +will be a delight unto themselves and a +profit to the community.</p> + +<p>"But we must do more. I must do +more. And you must help me. We +must stand together. Slander never +creates; it shackles and kills. We must +be solid. Midway off the Cardigan coast—in +beautiful Morfa—there is a rock—Birds' +Rock. As a boy I used to climb to +the top of it, and watch the waters swirling +and tumbling about it, and around it +and against it. But I was unafraid. For +I knew that the rock was old when man +was young, and that it had braved all +the washings of the sea."</p> + +<p>The men congratulated Ben; and Ben +came home and he stood at a mirror, +and shaping his body put out his arms.</p> + +<p>"How's this for my maiden speech in +the house?" he asked his wife. Presently +he paused. "You're a fine one to +be an M.P.'s lady," he said. "You stout, +underworked fool."</p> + +<p>Ben urged on his imaginings: he ad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55"></a>[<i>p</i> 55]</span>vised +his monarch, and to him for favors +merchants brought their gold, and mothers +their daughters. Winter and spring +moved, and then his mind brought his +enemies to his door.</p> + +<p>"As the root of a tree spreads in the +bosom of the earth," he said, "so my fame +shall spread over the world"; and he built +a fence about his house.</p> + +<p>But his mind would not be stilled. +Every midnight his enemies were at the +fence, and he could not sleep for the +dreadful outcry; every midnight he arose +from his bed and walked aside the fence, +testing the strength of it with a hand and +a shoulder and shooing away his enemies +as one does a brood of chickens from a +cornfield.</p> + +<p>His fortieth summer ran out—a season +of short days and nights speeding on the +heels of night. Then peace fell upon him; +and at dusk of a day he came into his +room, and he saw one sitting in a chair. +He went up to the chair and knelt on a +knee, and said: "Your Majesty...."</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56"></a>[<i>p</i> 56]</span></p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57"></a>[<i>p</i> 57]</span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58"></a>[<i>p</i> 58]</span></p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59"></a>[<i>p</i> 59]</span></p> +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2> + +<h2>THE TWO APOSTLES</h2> + + +<p>God covered sun, moon, and stars, stilled +the growing things of the earth and dried +up the waters on the face of the earth, +and stopped the roll of the world; and +He fixed upon a measure of time in which +to judge the peoples, this being the +measure which was spoken of as the Day +of Judgment.</p> + +<p>In the meanseason He summoned Satan +to the Judgment Hall, which is at the +side of the river that breaks into four heads, +and above which, its pulpits stretching beyond +the sky, is the Palace of White +Shirts, and below which, in deep darknesses, +are the frightful regions of the +Fiery Oven. "Give an account of your +rule in the face of those whom you provoked +to mischief," He said to Satan. +"My balance hitched to a beam will weigh +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60"></a>[<i>p</i> 60]</span>the good and evil of my children, and if +good is heavier than evil, I shall lighten +your countenance and clothe you with the +robes of angels."</p> + +<p>"Awake the dead" He bade the +Trumpeter, and "Lift the lids off the +burying-places" He bade the laborers. In +their generations were they called; "for," +said the Lord, "good and evil are customs +of a period and when the period is passed +and the next is come, good may be evil and +evil may be good."</p> + +<p>Now God did not put His entire trust +in Satan, and in the evening of the day +He set to prove him: "It is over."</p> + +<p>"My Lord, so be it," answered Satan.</p> + +<p>"How now?" asked God.</p> + +<p>"The scale of wickedness sways like a +kite in the wind," cried Satan. "Give me +my robes and I will transgress against you +no more."</p> + +<p>"In the Book of Heaven and Hell," +said God, "there is no writing of the last +of the Welsh."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61"></a>[<i>p</i> 61]</span>Satan spoke up: "My Lord, your +pledge concerned those judged on the Day +of Judgment. Day is outing. The windows +of the Mansion are lit; hark the +angels tuning their golden strings for the +cheer of the Resurrection Supper. Give +me my robes that I may sing your +praises."</p> + +<p>"Can I not lengthen the day with a +wink of my eye?"</p> + +<p>"All things you can do, my Lord, but +observe your pledge to me. Allow these +people to rest a while longer. Their number +together with the number of their sins +is fewer than the hairs on Elisha's head."</p> + +<p>God laughed in His heart as He replied +to Satan: "Tell the Trumpeter to take +his horn and the laborers their spades and +bring to me the Welsh."</p> + +<p>The laborers digged, and at the sound +of the horn the dead breathed and heaved. +Those whose wit was sharp hurried into +neighboring chapels and stole Bibles and +hymn-books, with which in their pockets +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62"></a>[<i>p</i> 62]</span>and under their arms they joined the host +in Heaven's Courtyard, whence they went +into the Waiting Chamber that is without +the Judgment Hall.</p> + +<p>"Boy bach, a lot of Books of the Word +he has," a woman remarked to the Respected +Towy-Watkins. "Say him I have +one."</p> + +<p>"Happy would I be to do like that," +was the reply. "But, female, much does +the Large One regard His speeches. What +is the text on the wall? 'Prepare your +deeds for the Lord.' The Beybile is the +most religious deed. Farewell for now," +and he pretended to go away.</p> + +<p>Holding the sleeve of his White Shirt, +the woman separated her toothless gums +and fashioned her wrinkled face in grief. +"Two tens he has," she croaked. "And +his shirt is clean. Dirty am I; buried I +was as I was found, and the shovelers +beat the soil through the top of the coffin. +Do much will I for one Beybile."</p> + +<p>"A poor dab you are," said Towy.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63"></a>[<i>p</i> 63]</span>"Many deeds you have? But no odds +to me."</p> + +<p>"Four I have."</p> + +<p>"Woe for you, unfortunate."</p> + +<p>"Iss-iss, horrid is my plight," the woman +whined. "Little I did for Him."</p> + +<p>"Don't draw tears. For eternity you'll +weep. Here is a massive Beybile for your +four deeds."</p> + +<p>"Take him one. Handy will three be +in the minute of the questioning."</p> + +<p>"Refusing the Beybile bach you are. +Also the hymn-book—old and new notations—I +present for four. Stupid am I +as the pigger's prentice who bought the +litter in the belly."</p> + +<p>"Be him soft and sell for one."</p> + +<p>"I cannot say less. No relation you are +to me. Hope I do that right enough are +your four. Recite them to me, old +woman."</p> + +<p>"I ate rats to provide a Beybile to +the Respected," the woman trembled. +"I—"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64"></a>[<i>p</i> 64]</span>"You are pathetic," Towy said. "Hie +and get your tokens and have that poor +one will I because of my pity for you."</p> + +<p>The woman told her deeds in Heaven's +Record Office, and she was given four +white tablets on which her deeds were inscribed; +and the rat tablet Towy took from +her. "Faith and hope are tidy heifers," +he said, "but a stallion is charity. Priceless +Beybile I give you, sinner."</p> + +<p>As he moved away Towy cried in the +manner of one selling by auction: "This +is the beloved Beybile of Jesus. This is +the book of hymns—old and new notations. +Hymns harvest, communion, funerals, +Sunday schools, and hymns for +children bach are here. Treasures bulky +for certain."</p> + +<p>For some he received three tablets each, +for some five tablets each, and for some +ten tablets each. But the gaudy Bible +which was decorated with pictures and +ornamented with brass clasps and a leather +covering he did not sell; nor did he sell +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65"></a>[<i>p</i> 65]</span>the gilt-edged hymn-book. Between the +leaves of his Bible he put his tablets—as +a preacher his markers—the writing +on each tablet confirming a verse in the +place it was set. His labor over, he +chanted: "Pen Calvaria! Pen Calvaria! +Very soon will come to view." Men and +women gazed upon him, envying him; +and those who had Bibles and hymn-books +hastened to do as he had done.</p> + +<p>Among the many that came to him was +one whose name was Ben Lloyd.</p> + +<p>"Dear me," said Towy.</p> + +<p>"Dear me," said Ben.</p> + +<p>"Fat is my religion after the springing," +cried Towy. "Perished was I and +up again. Amen, Big Man. Amen and +amen. And amen.</p> + +<p>"I opened my eyes and I saw a hand +thrusting aside the firmament and I heard +One calling me from the beyond, and the +One was God."</p> + +<p>"Like the roar of heated bulls was the +noise, Ben bach."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66"></a>[<i>p</i> 66]</span>"Praise Him I did that I was laid to +rest at home. Away from the stir of Parliament. +Tell Him I will how my spirit, +though the flesh was dead, bathed in the +living rivers and walked in the peaceful +valleys of the glorious land of my fathers—thinking, +thinking of Jesus."</p> + +<p>"Hold on. Not so fast. From Capel +Bryn Salem I journeyed to mouth with +my heart to the Lord, and your slut of +widow paid me only four soferens. Eloquent +sermon I spouted and four soferens +is the price of a supply."</p> + +<p>"In your charity forgive her; her sorrow +was o'erpowering."</p> + +<p>"Sorrow! The mule of an English! +She wasn't there."</p> + +<p>"You don't say," cried Ben. "If +above she is I will have her dragged +down."</p> + +<p>"Not a stone did she put over your +head, and the strumpets of your sisters +did not tend your grave. Why you were +not eaten by worms I can't know."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67"></a>[<i>p</i> 67]</span>On a sudden Towy shouted: "See an +old parson do I. Is not this the day of +rising up? Awful if the Big Man mistakes +us for the Church. Not been inside +a church have I, drop dead and blind, +since I was born."</p> + +<p>None gave heed to his cry, for the sound +of the bargaining was most high. "Dissenters," +he bellowed, "what right have +Church heathens to mix with us? The +Fiery Oven is their home."</p> + +<p>The people were dismayed. Their number +being small, the Church folk were +pressed one upon the other; and after +they were thrown in a mass against the +gate of the Chariot House the Dissenters +spread themselves easily as far as the door +of the Crooked Stairway.</p> + +<p>"Now, boys capel," Towy-Watkins +said, "we will have a sermon. Fine will +Welsh be in the nostrils of the Big +Preacher. Pray will I at once."</p> + +<p>The prayer ended, and one struck his +tuning-fork; and while the congregation +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68"></a>[<i>p</i> 68]</span>moaned and lamented, a tall man, who +wore the habit of a preacher and whose +yellow beard—the fringe of which was +singed—hung over his breast like a sheaf +of wheat, passed through the way of the +door of the Stairway, and as he walked +towards the Judgment Hall, some said: +"Fair day, Respected," and some said: +"Similar he is to Towy-Watkins."</p> + +<p>"Shut your throats, colts," Towy rebuked +the people. "Say after me: 'Go +round my backhead, Satan.'"</p> + +<p>"Go round my backhead, Satan," the +people obeyed.</p> + +<p>"Catch him and skin him," Towy +screamed. "Teach him we will to snook +about here."</p> + +<p>Fear arming his courage, Satan shouted: +"He who hurts me him shall I pitch head-long +to the flames." The people's hands +went to their sides, and Satan departed +in peace.</p> + +<p>"In my heart is my head," Towy said. +"Near the Oven we are. Blow your noses +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69"></a>[<i>p</i> 69]</span>of the stench. Young youths, herd blockheads +Church over here."</p> + +<p>Before the stalwarts started on their +errand, the Overseer of the Waiting +Chamber came to the door of the lane +that takes you into the Judgment Hall, +wherefore the Dissenters wept, howled, +and whooped.</p> + +<p>"Ready am I, God bach," Towy exclaimed, +stretching his hairy arms. "Take +me."</p> + +<p>"Patiently I waited for the last Trump +and humbly do I now wait for the Crown +from your fingers," said Ben Lloyd. "My +deeds are recorded in the archives of the +House of Commons and the Cymrodorion +Society."</p> + +<p>"Clap up," Towy admonished Ben. +"My religious actions can't be counted."</p> + +<p>Lowering his eyes the Overseer murmured: +"I am not the Lord."</p> + +<p>"For why did you not say that?" cried +Towy. He stepped to the Overseer. +"Hap you are Apostle Shames. A splen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70"></a>[<i>p</i> 70]</span>did +photo of Shames is in the Beybile with +pictures. Fond am I of preaching from +him. Lovely pieces there are. 'Abram +believed God.' Who was Abram? Father +of Isaac bach. Who made Abram? The +Big Man. And the Big Man made the +capel and the respected that is the jewel +of the capel. Is not the pulpit the throne? +Glad am I to see you, indeed, Shames."</p> + +<p>The Overseer opened his lips.</p> + +<p>"Enter with you will I," said Towy. +"Look through my glassy soul you can."</p> + +<p>"Silence—" the Overseer began.</p> + +<p>"Iss, silence for ever and ever, amen," +said Towy. "No trial I need. How can +the Judge judge if there's no judging to +be? Go up will I then. Hope to see you +again, Shames."</p> + +<p>The Overseer tightened his girdle. +"Thus saith the Lord," he proclaimed: +"'I will consider each by his deeds or all +by the deeds of their two apostles.'"</p> + +<p>"Ho-ho," said Towy. "Half one moment. +Think will we. Dissenters, crowd +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71"></a>[<i>p</i> 71]</span>here. Ben Lloyd, make arguments. +Tricky is old Shames."</p> + +<p>The Dissenters assembled close to Ben +and Towy, and the Church people crept +near them in order to share their counsel; +but the Dissenters turned upon their +enemies and bruised them with fists and +Bibles and hymn-books, and called them +frogs, turks, thieves, atheists, blacks; and +there never has been heard such a tumult +in any house. Alarmed that he could not +part one side from the other, the Overseer +sought Satan, who had a name for crafty +dealings with disputants.</p> + +<p>Satan was distressed. "If it was not +for personal reasons," he said, "I would +let them go to Hell." He sent into the +Chamber a carpenter who put a barrier +from wall to wall, and he appointed Jude +in charge of the barrier to guard that no +one went under it or over it.</p> + +<p>Then the wise men of the Dissenters +continued to examine the Lord's offer; +and a thousand men declared they were +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72"></a>[<i>p</i> 72]</span>holy enough to go before God, and from +the thousand five hundred were cast out, +and from the five hundred three hundred, +and from the two hundred one hundred +were cast away. Now this hundred were +Baptists, Methodists, and Congregationalists, +and they quarreled so harshly and +decried one another so spitefully that Ben +and Towy made with them a compact to +speak specially for each of them in the +private ear of God. The strife quelled and +Towy having cried loudly: "Dissenters +and Churchers, glad you are that me and +Ben Lloyd, Hem Pee, are your apostles," +he and Ben followed the Overseer.</p> + +<p>In the Judgment Hall the two apostles +crouched to pray, and they were stirred +by Satan laying his hands on their +shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Prayers are useless here, my friends," +said the Devil. "We must proceed with +the business. I am just as anxious as +you are that everything reaches a satisfactory +conclusion."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73"></a>[<i>p</i> 73]</span>"I object," said Ben. "Solemnly object. +I don't know this infidel. I don't +want to know him."</p> + +<p>"Go from here," Towy gruntled. "A +sweat is in my whiskers. Inhabitants, why +isn't his tongue a red-hot poker?... Well, +boys Palace, grand this is. Say +who you are?" he asked one whose face +shone like a mirror. "Respected Towy-Watkins +am I."</p> + +<p>He whose face shone like a polished +mirror answered that he was Moses the +Keeper of the Balance. "The Lord is in +the Cloud," he said.</p> + +<p>Towy addressed the Cloud, which was +the breadth of a man's hand, and which +was brighter than the golden halo of the +throne: "Big Man, peep at your helper. +Was not I a ruler over the capel? Religious +were my prayers."</p> + +<p>"I did not hear any," said God.</p> + +<p>"Mistake. Mistake. Towy bach eloquent +was I called. Here am I with the +Speech, and the Speech is God and God +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74"></a>[<i>p</i> 74]</span>is the Speech. Take you as a great gift +this nice hymn-book."</p> + +<p>"What are hymns?" asked God.</p> + +<p>"Moses, Moses," cried Towy, "explain +affairs to Him."</p> + +<p>God spoke: "Satan, render your account +of the mischief you made these +men do."</p> + +<p>"This is a travesty of the traditions +of the House," said Ben. "Traditions +that are dear to me, being taught them +at my mother's knees. I refuse to be +drenched in Satan's froth. Against one +who was a member of the Government +you are taking the evidence of the most +discredited man in the universe—the +world's worst sinner."</p> + +<p>He ceased, because Satan had begun to +read; and Satan read rapidly, with shame, +and without pantomime, not pausing at +what times he was abused and charged +with lying; and he read correctly, for the +Records Clerk followed him word by word +in the Book of the Watchers; and for every +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75"></a>[<i>p</i> 75]</span>sin to which he confessed Moses placed a +scarlet tablet in the scale of wickedness.</p> + +<p>"I will attend to what I have heard," +said the Lord when Satan had finished. +"Put your tablets in the scale and go +into the Chamber."</p> + +<p>Ben and Towy withdrew, and as they +passed out they beheld that the scale of +scarlet tablets touched the ground.</p> + +<p>Then the Cloud vanished and God came +out of the Cloud.</p> + +<p>"My wrath is fierce," He said. "Bind +these Welsh and torment them with vipers +and with fire in the uttermost parts of +Hell. They shall have no more remembrance +before me."</p> + +<p>"Will you destroy the just?" asked +Moses.</p> + +<p>"They have chosen."</p> + +<p>"Shall the godly perish because of the +godless?"</p> + +<p>"I flooded the world," said God.</p> + +<p>"The righteous Noah and his house and +his animals you did not destroy. And +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76"></a>[<i>p</i> 76]</span>you repented that you smote every living +thing. May not my Lord repent again?"</p> + +<p>"I am not destroying every living +thing," God replied. "I am destroying +the vile."</p> + +<p>"Remember Sodom and Gomorrah, +Lot's wife and his daughters. They all +sinned after their deliverance. The doings +of Sodom stayed."</p> + +<p>Moses also said: "You gave your ear +to Jonah from the well of the sea."</p> + +<p>"I sacrificed my Son for man."</p> + +<p>"And loosed Satan upon him."</p> + +<p>"Is scarlet white?" asked God.</p> + +<p>"Is justice the fruit of injustice? The +two men were not of the Church, and the +Church may be holy in your sight."</p> + +<p>"I have judged."</p> + +<p>"And your judgment is past understanding," +said Moses, and he sat at the +Balance.</p> + +<p>The servants of the Lord spoke one +with another: "I cannot eat of the supper," +said one; "The songs will be as a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77"></a>[<i>p</i> 77]</span>wolf's howlings in the wilderness," said +another; "The honey will be as bittersweet +as Adam's apple," said a third. +But Satan exclaimed: "Come, let us seek +in the Book of the Watchers for an act +that will turn Him from His purpose."</p> + +<p>In seeking, some put their fingers on +the leaves and advised Moses to cry unto +the Lord in such and such a manner.</p> + +<p>"My voice is dumb," replied Moses.</p> + +<p>Satan presently astonished the servants; +he took the book to the Lord. "My +Lord," he said, "which is the more precious—good +or evil?"</p> + +<p>"Good," said the Lord.</p> + +<p>"More precious than the riches of Solomon +is a deed done in your name?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Though the sins were as numerous as +the teeth of a shoal of fish?"</p> + +<p>"So. Unravel your riddle."</p> + +<p>"An old woman of the Dissenters," said +Satan, "claimed four tablets, whereas her +deeds were nine."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78"></a>[<i>p</i> 78]</span>God looked at the Balance and lo, the +scale of white tablets was heavier than the +scale of scarlet tablets.</p> + +<p>"Bid hither the apostles," He commanded +the Overseer, "for they shall see +me, and this day they and their flocks shall +be in Paradise."</p> + +<p>Satan stood before the face of Moses, +glowing as the angels; and he brought out +scissors to clip off the fringe of his beard. +When he had cut only a little, the Overseer +entered the Judgment Hall, saying: "The +two apostles tricked Jude and crawled +under the barrier, and they shot back the +bolts of the gate of the Chariot House and +called a charioteer to take them to Heaven. +'This is God's will,' they said to him."</p> + +<p>Satan's scissors fell on the floor.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79"></a>[<i>p</i> 79]</span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80"></a>[<i>p</i> 80]</span></p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81"></a>[<i>p</i> 81]</span></p> +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2> + +<h2>EARTHBRED</h2> + + +<p>Because he was diseased with a consumption, +Evan Roberts in his thirtieth year +left over being a drapery assistant and +had himself hired as a milk roundsman.</p> + +<p>A few weeks thereafter he said to Mary, +the woman whom he had promised to +wed: "How now if I had a milk-shop?"</p> + +<p>Mary encouraged him, and searched for +that which he desired; and it came to be +that on a Thursday afternoon they two met +at the mouth of Worship Street—the narrow +lane that is at the going into Richmond.</p> + +<p>"Stand here, Marri," Evan ordered. +"Go in will I and have words with the +owner. Hap I shall uncover his tricks."</p> + +<p>"Very well you are," said Mary. +"Don't over-waggle your tongue. Address +him in hidden phrases."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82"></a>[<i>p</i> 82]</span>Evan entered the shop, and as there was +no one therein he made an account of the +tea packets and flour bags which were +on the shelves. Presently a small, fat +woman stood beyond the counter. Evan +addressed her in English: "Are you +Welsh?"</p> + +<p>"That's what people say," the woman +answered.</p> + +<p>"Glad am I to hear you," Evan returned +in Welsh. "Tell me how you was."</p> + +<p>"A Cymro bach I see," the woman cried. +"How was you?"</p> + +<p>"Peeped did I on your name on the sign. +Shall I say you are Mistress Jinkins?"</p> + +<p>"Iss, indeed, man."</p> + +<p>"What about affairs these close days?"</p> + +<p>"Busy we are. Why for you ask? +Trade you do in milk?"</p> + +<p>"Blurt did I for nothing," Evan replied.</p> + +<p>"No odds, little man. Ach y fy, jealous +other milkmen are of us. There's nasty +some people are."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83"></a>[<i>p</i> 83]</span>"Natty shop you have. Little shop and +big traffic, Mistress Jinkins?"</p> + +<p>"Quick you are."</p> + +<p>"Know you Tom Mathias Tabernacle +Street?" Evan inquired.</p> + +<p>"Seen him have I in the big meetings +at Capel King's Cross."</p> + +<p>"Getting on he is, for certain sure. +Hundreds of pints he sells. And +groceries."</p> + +<p>"Pwf," Mrs. Jenkins sneered. "Fulbert +you are to believe him. A liar without +shame is Twm. And a cheat. Bad +sampler he is of the Welsh."</p> + +<p>"Speak I do as I hear. More thriving +is your concern."</p> + +<p>"No boast is in me. But don't we do +thirty gallons?"</p> + +<p>Evan summoned up surprise into his +face, and joy. "Dear me to goodness," +he exclaimed. "Take something must I +now. Sell you me an egg."</p> + +<p>Evan shook the egg at his ear. "She +is good," he remarked.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84"></a>[<i>p</i> 84]</span>"Weakish is the male," observed Mrs. +Jenkins. "Much trouble he has in his +inside."</p> + +<p>"Poor bach," replied Evan. "Well-well. +Fair night for to-day."</p> + +<p>"Why for you are in a hurry?"</p> + +<p>"Woman fach, for what you do not +know that I abide in Wandsworth and the +clock is late?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Jenkins laughed. "Boy pretty sly +you are. Come you to Richmond to buy +one egg."</p> + +<p>Evan coughed and spat upon the +ground, and while he cleaned away his +spittle with a foot he said: "Courting +business have I on the Thursdays. The +wench is in a shop draper."</p> + +<p>"How shall I mouth where she is? +With Wright?"</p> + +<p>"In shop Breach she is." He spoke +this in English: "So long."</p> + +<p>In that language also did Mrs. Jenkins +answer him: "Now we shan't be long."</p> + +<p>Narrowing his eyes and crooking his +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85"></a>[<i>p</i> 85]</span>knees, Evan stood before Mary. "Like +to find out more would I," he said. +"Guess did the old female that I had +seen the adfertissment."</p> + +<p>"Blockhead you are to bare your +mind," Mary admonished him.</p> + +<p>"Why for you call me blockhead when +there's no blockhead to be?"</p> + +<p>"Sorry am I, dear heart. But do you +hurry to marry me. You know that things +are so and so. The month has shown +nothing."</p> + +<p>"Shut your head, or I'll change my +think altogether."</p> + +<p>The next week Evan called at the dairy +shop again.</p> + +<p>"How was the people?" he cried on +the threshold.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Jenkins opened the window which +was at the back of her, and called out: +"The boy from Wales is here, Dai."</p> + +<p>Stooping as he moved through the way +of the door, Dai greeted Evan civilly: +"How was you this day?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86"></a>[<i>p</i> 86]</span>"Quite grand," Evan answered.</p> + +<p>"What capel do you go?"</p> + +<p>"Walham Green, dear man."</p> + +<p>"Good preach there was by the Respected +Eynon Daviss the last Sabbath +morning, shall I ask? Eloquent is +Eynon."</p> + +<p>"In the night do I go."</p> + +<p>"Solemn serious, go you ought in the +mornings."</p> + +<p>"Proper is your saying," Evan agreed. +"Perform I would if I could."</p> + +<p>"Biggish is your round, perhaps?" said +Dai.</p> + +<p>"Iss-iss. No-no." Evan was confused.</p> + +<p>"Don't be afraid of your work. Crafty +is your manner."</p> + +<p>Evan had not anything to say.</p> + +<p>"Fortune there is in milk," said Dai. +"Study you the size of her. Little she is. +Heavy will be my loss. The rent is only +fifteen bob a week. And thirty gallons +and more do I do. Broke is my health,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87"></a>[<i>p</i> 87]</span> +and Dai laid the palms of his hands on +his belly and groaned.</p> + +<p>"Here he is to visit his wench," said +Mrs. Jenkins.</p> + +<p>"You're not married now just?" asked +Dai.</p> + +<p>"Better in his pockets trousers is a male +for a woman," said Mrs. Jenkins.</p> + +<p>"Comforting in your pockets trousers is +a woman," Dai cried.</p> + +<p>"Clap your throat," said Mrs. Jenkins. +"Redness you bring to my skin."</p> + +<p>Evan retired and considered.</p> + +<p>"Tempting is the business," he told +Mary. "Fancy do I to know more of her. +Come must I still once yet."</p> + +<p>"Be not slothful," Mary pleaded. "Already +I feel pains, and quickly the months +pass."</p> + +<p>Then Evan charged her to watch over +the shop, and to take a count of the people +who went into it. So Mary walked in +the street. Mrs. Jenkins saw her and imagined +her purpose, and after she had proved +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88"></a>[<i>p</i> 88]</span>her, she and Dai formed a plot whereby +many little children and young youths and +girls came into the shop. Mary numbered +every one, but the number that she gave +Evan was three times higher than the +proper number. The man was pleased, and +he spoke out to Dai. "Tell me the price +of the shop," he said.</p> + +<p>"Improved has the health," replied +Dai. "And not selling I don't think +am I."</p> + +<p>"Pity that is. Great offer I have."</p> + +<p>"Smother your cry. Taken a shop too +have I in Petersham. Rachel will look +after this."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Jenkins spoke to her husband with +a low voice: "Witless you are. Let him +speak figures."</p> + +<p>"As you want if you like then," said +Dai.</p> + +<p>"A puzzle you demand this one minute," +Evan murmured. "Thirty pounds +would—"</p> + +<p>"Light is your head," Dai cried.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89"></a>[<i>p</i> 89]</span>"More than thirty gallons and a pram. +Eighty I want for the shop and stock."</p> + +<p>"I stop," Evan pronounced. "Thirty-five +can I give. No more and no less."</p> + +<p>"Cute bargainer you are. Generous am +I to give back five pounds for luck cash +on spot. Much besides is my counter +trade."</p> + +<p>"Bring me papers for my eyes to see," +said Evan.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Jenkins rebuked Evan: "Hoity-toity! +Not Welsh you are. Old English +boy."</p> + +<p>"Tut-tut, Rachel fach," said Dai. +"Right you are, and right and wrong is +Evan Roberts. Books I should have. +Trust I give and trust I take. I have no +guile."</p> + +<p>"How answer you to thirty-seven?" +asked Evan. "No more we've got, drop +dead and blind."</p> + +<p>He went away and related all to +Mary.</p> + +<p>"Lose the shop you will," Mary warned +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90"></a>[<i>p</i> 90]</span>him. "And that's remorseful you'll +be."</p> + +<p>"Like this and that is the feeling," said +Evan.</p> + +<p>"Go to him," Mary counseled, "and +say you will pay forty-five."</p> + +<p>"No-no, foolish that is."</p> + +<p>They two conferred with each other, and +Mary gave to Evan all her money, which +was almost twenty pounds; and Evan +said to Dai: "I am not doubtful—"</p> + +<p>"Speak what is in you," Dai urged +quickly.</p> + +<p>"Test your shop will I for eight weeks +as manager. I give you twenty down as +earnest and twenty-five at the finish of +the weeks if I buy her."</p> + +<p>Dai and Rachel weighed that which +Evan had proposed. The woman said: +"A lawyer will do this"; the man said: +"Splendid is the bargain and costly and +thievish are old lawyers."</p> + +<p>In this sort Dai answered Evan: "Do +as you say. But I shall not give money +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91"></a>[<i>p</i> 91]</span>for your work. Act you honestly by me. +Did not mam carry me next my brother, +who is a big preacher? Lend you will I +a bed, and a dish or two and a plate, and +a knife to eat food."</p> + +<p>At this Mary's joy was abounding. +"Put you up the banns," she said.</p> + +<p>"Lots of days there is. Wait until I've +bought the place."</p> + +<p>Mary tightened her inner garments and +loosened her outer garments, and every +evening she came to the shop to prepare +food for Evan, to make his bed, and to +minister to him as a woman.</p> + +<p>Now the daily custom at the shop was +twelve gallons of milk, and the tea packets +and flour bags which were on shelves were +empty. Evan's anger was awful. He upbraided +Mary, and he prayed to be shown +how to worst Dai. His prayer was respected: +at the end of the second week +he gave Dai two pounds more than he had +given him the week before.</p> + +<p>"Brisk is trade," said Dai.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92"></a>[<i>p</i> 92]</span>"I took into stock flour, tea, and four +tins of job biscuits," replied Evan. "Am +I not your servant?"</p> + +<p>"Well done, good and faithful servant."</p> + +<p>It was so that Evan bought more than +he would sell, and each week he held a +little money by fraud; and matches also +and bundles of firewood and soap did he +buy in Dai's name.</p> + +<p>In the middle of the eighth week Dai +came down to the shop.</p> + +<p>"How goes it?" he asked in English.</p> + +<p>"Fine, man. Fine." Changing his language, +Evan said: "Keep her will I, and +give you the money as I pledged. Take +you the sum and sign you the paper +bach."</p> + +<p>Having acted accordingly, Dai cast his +gaze on the shelves and on the floor, and +he walked about judging aloud the value +of what he saw: "Tea, three-pound-ten; +biscuits, four-six; flour, four-five; firewood, +five shillings; matches, one-ten; soap, +one pound. Bring you these to Petersham.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93"></a>[<i>p</i> 93]</span> +Put you them with the bed and the dishes +I kindly lent you."</p> + +<p>"For sure me, fulfil my pledge will I," +Evan said.</p> + +<p>He assembled Dai's belongings and +placed them in a cart which he had borrowed; +and on the back of the cart he +hung a Chinese lantern which had in it a +lighted candle. When he arrived at Dai's +house, he cried: "Here is your ownings. +Unload you them."</p> + +<p>Dai examined the inside of the cart. +"Mistake there is, Evan. Where's the +stock?"</p> + +<p>"Did I not pay you for your stock and +shop? Forgetful you are."</p> + +<p>Dai's wrath was such that neither could +he blaspheme God nor invoke His help. +Removing the slabber which was gathered +in his beard and at his mouth, he shouted: +"Put police on you will I."</p> + +<p>"Away must I now," said Evan. +"Come, take your bed."</p> + +<p>"Not touch anything will I. Rachel, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94"></a>[<i>p</i> 94]</span>witness his roguery. Steal he does from +the religious."</p> + +<p>Evan drove off, and presently he became +uneasy of the evil that might befall +him were Dai and Rachel to lay their hands +on him; he led his horse into the unfamiliar +and hard and steep road which +goes up to the Star and Garter, and which +therefrom falls into Richmond town. At +what time he was at the top he heard the +sound of Dai and Rachel running to him, +each screaming upon him to stop. Rachel +seized the bridle of the horse, and Dai tried +to climb over the back of the cart. Evan +bent forward and beat the woman with +his whip, and she leaped aside. But Dai +did not release his clutch, and because the +lantern swayed before his face he flung it +into the cart.</p> + +<p>Evan did not hear any more voices, and +misdeeming that he had got the better of +his enemies, he turned, and, lo, the bed +was in a yellow flame. He strengthened +his legs and stretched out his thin upper +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95"></a>[<i>p</i> 95]</span>lip, and pulled at the reins, saying: "Wo, +now." But the animal thrust up its head +and on a sudden galloped downwards. +At the railing which divides two roads it +was hindered, and Evan was thrown upon +the ground. Men came forward to lift him, +and he was dead.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96"></a>[<i>p</i> 96]</span></p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97"></a>[<i>p</i> 97]</span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98"></a>[<i>p</i> 98]</span></p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99"></a>[<i>p</i> 99]</span></p> +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2> + +<h2>FOR BETTER</h2> + + +<p>At the time it was said of him "There's +a boy that gets on he is," Enoch Harries +was given Gwen the daughter of the +builder Dan Thomas. On the first Sunday +after her marriage the people of Kingsend +Welsh Tabernacle crowded about Gwen, +asking her: "How like you the bed, +Messes Harries fach?" "Enoch has +opened a shop butcher then?" "Any +signs of a baban bach yet?" "Managed to +get up quickly you did the day?" Gwen +answered in the manner the questions were +asked, seriously or jestingly. She considered +these sayings, and the cause of her +uneasiness was not a puzzle to her; and +she got to despise the man whom she had +married, and whose skin was like parched +leather, and to repel his impotent embraces.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100"></a>[<i>p</i> 100]</span>Withal she gave Enoch pleasure. She +clothed herself with costly garments, +adorned her person with rings and ornaments, +and she modeled her hair in the +way of a bob-wig. Enoch gave in to her +in all things; he took her among Welsh +master builders, drapers, grocers, dairymen, +into their homes and such places as +they assembled in; and his pride in his +wife was nearly as great as his pride +in the twenty plate-glass windows of his +shop.</p> + +<p>In her vanity Gwen exalted her estate.</p> + +<p>"I hate living over the shop," she said. +"It's so common. Let's take a house away +from here."</p> + +<p>"Good that I am on the premizes," +Enoch replied in Welsh. "Hap go wrong +will affairs if I leave."</p> + +<p>"We can't ask any one decent here. +Only commercials," Gwen said. With a +show of care for her husband's welfare, +she added: "Working too hard is my boy +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101"></a>[<i>p</i> 101]</span>bach. And very splendid you should be."</p> + +<p>Her design was fulfilled, and she and +Enoch came to dwell in Thornton East, +in a house near Richmond Park, and on +the gate before the house, and on the door +of the house, she put the name Windsor. +From that hour she valued herself high. +She had the words Mrs. G. Enos-Harries +printed on cards, and she did not speak of +Enoch's trade in the hearing of anybody. +She gave over conversing in Welsh, and +would give no answer when spoken to in +that tongue. She devised means continually +to lift herself in the esteem of +her neighbors, acting as she thought they +acted: she had a man-servant and four +maid-servants, and she instructed them to +address her as the madam and Enoch as +the master; she had a gong struck before +meals and a bell rung during meals; the +furniture in her rooms was as numerous +as that in the windows of a shop; she went +to the parish church on Sundays; she +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102"></a>[<i>p</i> 102]</span>made feasts. But her life was bitter: +tradespeople ate at her table and her neighbors +disregarded her.</p> + +<p>Enoch mollified her moaning with: +"Never mind. I could buy the whole +street up. I'll have you a motor-car. Fine +it will be with an advert on the front +engine."</p> + +<p>Still slighted, Gwen smoothed her misery +with deeds. She declared she was a Liberal, +and she frequented Thornton Vale +English Congregational Chapel. She gave +ten guineas to the rebuilding fund, put +a carpet on the floor of the pastor's +parlor, sang at brotherhood gatherings, +and entertained the pastor and his +wife.</p> + +<p>Wherefore her charity was discoursed +thus: "Now when Peter spoke of a light +that shines—shines, mark you—he was +thinking of such ladies as Mrs. G. Enos-Harries. +Not forgetting Mr. G. Enos-Harries."</p> + +<p>"I'm going to build you a vestry,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103"></a>[<i>p</i> 103]</span> +Gwen said to the pastor. "I'll organize a +sale of work to begin with."</p> + +<p>The vestry was set up, and Gwen bethought +of one who should be charged with +the opening ceremony of it, and to her +mind came Ben Lloyd, whose repute was +great among the London Welsh, and to +whose house in Twickenham she rode in +her car. Ben's wife answered her sharply: +"He's awfully busy. And I know he +won't see visitors."</p> + +<p>"But won't you tell him? It will do +him such a lot of good. You know what a +stronghold of Toryism this place is."</p> + +<p>A voice from an inner room cried: +"Who is to see me?"</p> + +<p>"Come this way," said Mrs. Lloyd.</p> + +<p>Ben, sitting at a table with writing paper +and a Bible before him, rose.</p> + +<p>"Messes Enos-Harries," he said, "long +since I met you. No odds if I mouth +Welsh? There's a language, dear me. +This will not interest you in the least. +Put your ambarelo in the cornel, Messes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104"></a>[<i>p</i> 104]</span> +Enos-Harries, and your backhead in a +chair. Making a lecture am I."</p> + +<p>Gwen told him the errand upon which +she was bent, and while they two drank +tea, Ben said: "Sing you a song, Messes +Enos-Harries. Not forgotten have I your +singing in Queen's Hall on the Day of +David the Saint. Inspire me wonderfully +you did with the speech. I've been sad +too, but you are a wedded female. Sing +you now then. Push your cup and saucer +under the chair."</p> + +<p>"No-no, not in tone am I," Gwen +feigned.</p> + +<p>"How about a Welsh hymn? Come in +will I at the repeats."</p> + +<p>"Messes Lloyd will sing the piano?"</p> + +<p>"Go must she about her duties. She's +a handless poor dab."</p> + +<p>Gwen played and sang.</p> + +<p>"Solemn pretty hymns have we," said +Ben. "Are we not large?" He moved +and stood under a picture which hung on +the wall—his knees touching and his feet +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105"></a>[<i>p</i> 105]</span>apart—and the picture was that of Cromwell. +"My friends say I am Cromwell and +Milton rolled into one. The Great Father +gave me a child and He took him back to +the Palace. Religious am I. Want I do +to live my life in the hills and valleys of +Wales: listening to the anthem of creation, +and searching for Him under the bark of +the tree. And there I shall wait for the +sound of the last trumpet."</p> + +<p>"A poet you are." Gwen was astonished.</p> + +<p>"You are a poetess, for sure me," Ben +said. He leaned over her. "Sparkling are +your eyes. Deep brown are they—brown +as the nut in the paws of the squirrel. Be +you a bard and write about boys Cymru. +Tell how they succeed in big London."</p> + +<p>"I will try," said Gwen.</p> + +<p>"Like you are and me. Think you do +as I think."</p> + +<p>"Know you for long I would," said +Gwen.</p> + +<p>"For ever," cried Ben. "But wedded +you are. Read you a bit of the lecture +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106"></a>[<i>p</i> 106]</span>will I." Having ended his reading and +having sobbed over and praised that which +he had read, Ben uttered: "Certain you +come again. Come you and eat supper +when the wife is not at home."</p> + +<p>Gwen quaked as she went to her car, +and she sought a person who professed to +tell fortunes, and whom she made to say: +"A gentleman is in love with you. And +he loves you for your brain. He is not +your husband. He is more to you than +your husband. I hear his silver voice holding +spellbound hundreds of people; I see +his majestic forehead and his auburn locks +and the strands of his silken mustache."</p> + +<p>Those words made Gwen very happy, +and she deceived herself that they were +true. She composed verses and gave them +to Ben.</p> + +<p>"Not right to Nature is this," said Ben. +"The mother is wrong. How many children +you have, Messes Enos-Harries?"</p> + +<p>"Not one. The husband is weak and he +is older much than I."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107"></a>[<i>p</i> 107]</span>"The Father has kept His most beautiful +gift from you. Pity that is." Tears +gushed from Ben's eyes. "If the marriage-maker +had brought us together, children +we would have jeweled with your eyes +and crowned with your hair."</p> + +<p>"And your intellect," said Gwen. "You +will be the greatest Welshman."</p> + +<p>"Whisper will I now. A drag is the +wife. Happy you are with the husband."</p> + +<p>"Why for you speak like that?"</p> + +<p>"And for why we are not married?" +Ben took Gwen in his arms and he kissed +her and drew her body nigh to him; and +in a little while he opened the door +sharply and rebuked his wife that she +waited thereat.</p> + +<p>Daily did Gwen praise and laud Ben to +her husband. "There is no one in the +world like him," she said. "He will get +very far."</p> + +<p>"Bring Mistar Lloyd to Windsor for +me to know him quite well," said Enoch.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108"></a>[<i>p</i> 108]</span>"I will ask him," Gwen replied without +faltering.</p> + +<p>"Benefit myself I will."</p> + +<p>Early every Thursday afternoon Ben +arrived at Windsor, and at the coming +home from his shop of Enoch, Ben always +said: "Messes Enos-Harries has been singing +the piano. Like the trilling of God's +feathered choir is her music."</p> + +<p>Though Ben and Gwen were left at +peace they could not satisfy nor crush +their lust.</p> + +<p>Before three years were over, Ben had +obtained great fame. "He ought to be +in Parliament and give up preaching entirely," +some said; and Enoch and Gwen +were partakers of his glory.</p> + +<p>Then Gwen told him that she had conceived, +whereof Ben counseled her to go +into her husband's bed.</p> + +<p>"That I have not the stomach to do," +the woman complained.</p> + +<p>"As you say, dear heart," said Ben. +"Cancer has the wife. Perish soon she +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109"></a>[<i>p</i> 109]</span>must. Ease our path and lie with your +lout."</p> + +<p>Presently Gwen bore a child; and Enoch +her husband looked at it and said: "Going +up is Ben Lloyd. Solid am I as the +counter."</p> + +<p>Gwen related her fears to Ben, who contrived +to make Enoch a member of the +London County Council. Enoch rejoiced: +summoning the congregation of Thornton +Vale to be witnesses of his gift of a Bible +cushion to the chapel.</p> + +<p>As joy came to him, so grief fell upon +his wife. "After all," Ben wrote to her, +"you belong to him. You have been +joined together in the holiest and sacredest +matrimony. Monumental responsibilities +have been thrust on me by my people. +I did not seek for them, but it is my duty +to bear them. Pray that I shall use God's +hoe with understanding and wisdom. There +is a talk of putting me up for Parliament. +Others will have a chanse of electing a real +religious man. I must not be tempted by +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110"></a>[<i>p</i> 110]</span>you again. Well, good-by, Gwen, may He +keep you unspotted from the world. Ships +that pass in the night."</p> + +<p>Enoch was plagued, and he followed Ben +to chapel meetings, eisteddfodau, Cymrodorion +and St. David's Day gatherings, +always speaking in this fashion: "Cast +under is the girl fach you do not visit +her. Improved has her singing."</p> + +<p>Because Ben was careless of his call, +his wrath heated and he said to him: +"Growing is the baban."</p> + +<p>"How's trade?" Ben remarked. "Do +you estimate for Government contracts?"</p> + +<p>"Not thought have I."</p> + +<p>"Just hinted. A word I can put in."</p> + +<p>"Red is the head of the baban."</p> + +<p>"Two black heads make red," observed +Ben.</p> + +<p>"And his name is Benjamin."</p> + +<p>"As you speak. Farewell for to-day. +How would you like to put up for a Welsh +constituency?"</p> + +<p>"Not deserving am I of anything.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111"></a>[<i>p</i> 111]</span> +Happy would I and the wife be to see you +in the House."</p> + +<p>But Ben's promise was fruitless; and +Enoch bewailed: "A serpent flew into my +house."</p> + +<p>He ordered Gwen to go to Ben.</p> + +<p>"Recall to him this and that," he said. +"A very good advert an M.P. would be +for the business. Be you dressed like a +lady. Take a fur coat on appro from the +shop."</p> + +<p>Often thereafter he bade his wife to take +such a message. But Gwen had overcome +her distress and she strew abroad her +charms; for no man could now suffice her. +So she always departed to one of her +lovers and came back with fables on her +tongue.</p> + +<p>"What can you expect of the Welsh?" +cried Enoch in his wrath. "He hasn't +paid for the goods he got on tick from the +shop. County court him will I. He ate +my food. The unrighteous ate the food +of the righteous. And he was bad with +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112"></a>[<i>p</i> 112]</span>you. Did I not watch? No good is the +assistant that lets the customer go away +with not a much obliged."</p> + +<p>The portion of the Bible that Enoch +read that night was this: "I have decked +my bed with coverings of tapestry, with +carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.... +Come, let us take our fill of love +until the morning: let us solace ourselves +with love. For the goodman is not at +home, he is gone on a long journey. He +hath—"</p> + +<p>"That's lovely," said Gwen.</p> + +<p>"Tapestry from my shop," Enoch expounded. +"And Irish linen. And busy +was the draper in Kingsend."</p> + +<p>Gwen pretended to be asleep.</p> + +<p>"He is the father. That will learn him +to keep his promise. The wicked man!"</p> + +<p>Unknown to her husband Gwen stood +before Ben; and at the sight of her Ben +longed to wanton with her. Gwen +stretched out her arms to be clear of +him and to speak to him; her speech was +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113"></a>[<i>p</i> 113]</span>stopped with kisses and her breasts swelled +out. Again she found pleasure in Ben's +strength.</p> + +<p>Then she spoke of her husband's +hatred.</p> + +<p>"Like a Welshman every spit he is," +said Ben. "And a black."</p> + +<p>But his naughtiness oppressed him for +many days and he intrigued; and it came +to pass that Enoch was asked to contest +a Welsh constituency, and Enoch immediately +let fall his anger for Ben.</p> + +<p>"Celebrate this we shall with a reception +in the Town Hall," he announced. +"You, Gwen fach, will wear the chikest +Paris model we can find. Ben's kindness +is more than I expected. Much that I +have I owe to him."</p> + +<p>"Even your son," said Gwen.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114"></a>[<i>p</i> 114]</span></p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115"></a>[<i>p</i> 115]</span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116"></a>[<i>p</i> 116]</span></p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117"></a>[<i>p</i> 117]</span></p> +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2> + +<h2>TREASURE AND TROUBLE</h2> + + +<p>On a day in a dry summer Sheremiah's +wife Catrin drove her cows to drink at +the pistil which is in the field of a certain +man. Hearing of that which she had +done, the man commanded his son: +"Awful is the frog to open my gate. +Put you the dog and bitch on her. +Teach her will I."</p> + +<p>It was so; and Sheremiah complained: +"Why for is my spring barren? In every +field should water be."</p> + +<p>"Say, little husband, what is in your +think?" asked Catrin.</p> + +<p>"Stupid is your head," Sheremiah answered, +"not to know what I throw out. +Going am I to search for a wet farm +fach."</p> + +<p>Sheremiah journeyed several ways, and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118"></a>[<i>p</i> 118]</span>always he journeyed in secret; and he +could not find what he wanted. Tailor +Club Foot came to sit on his table to +sew together garments for him and his +two sons. The tailor said: "Farm very +pretty is Rhydwen. Farm splendid is the +farm fach."</p> + +<p>"And speak like that you do, Club +Foot," said Sheremiah.</p> + +<p>"Iss-iss," the tailor mumbled.</p> + +<p>"Not wanting an old farm do I," +Sheremiah cried. "But speak to goodness +where the place is. Near you are, +calf bach, about affairs."</p> + +<p>The tailor answered that Rhydwen is +in the hollow of the hill which arises from +Capel Sion to the moor.</p> + +<p>In the morning Sheremiah rode forth +on his colt, and he said to Shan Rhydwen: +"Boy of a pigger am I, whatever."</p> + +<p>"Dirt-dirt, man," Shan cried; "no fat +pigs have I, look you."</p> + +<p>"Mournful that is. Mouthings have I +heard about grand pigs Tyhen. No odds, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119"></a>[<i>p</i> 119]</span>wench. Farewell for this minute, female +Tyhen."</p> + +<p>"Pigger from where you are?" Shan +asked.</p> + +<p>"From Pencader the horse has carried +me. Carry a preacher he did the last +Monday."</p> + +<p>"Weary you are, stranger. Give hay +to your horse, and rest you and take you +a little cup of tea."</p> + +<p>"Happy am I to do that. Thirsty is +the backhead of my neck."</p> + +<p>Sheremiah praised the Big Man for tea, +bread, butter, and cheese, and while he +ate and drank he put artful questions to +Shan. In the evening he said to Catrin: +"Quite tidy is Rhydwen. Is she not one +hundred acres? And if there is not water +in every field, is there not in four?"</p> + +<p>He hastened to the owner of Rhydwen +and made this utterance: "Farmer very +ordinary is your sister Shan. Shamed was +I to examine your land."</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't be surprised," answered +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120"></a>[<i>p</i> 120]</span>the owner. "Speak hard must I to the +trollop."</p> + +<p>"Not handy are women," said Sheremiah. +"Sell him to me the poor-place. +Three-fourths of the cost I give in yellow +money and one-fourth by-and-by in three +years."</p> + +<p>Having taken over Rhydwen, Sheremiah +in due season sold much of his corn +and hay, some of his cattle, and many +such movable things as were in his house +or employed in tillage; and he and Catrin +came to abide in Rhydwen; and they arrived +with horses in carts, cows, a bull +and oxen, and their sons, Aben and Dan. +As they passed Capel Sion, people who +were gathered at the roadside to judge +them remarked how that Aben was blind +in his left eye and that Dan's shoulders +were as high as his ears.</p> + +<p>At the finish of a round of time Sheremiah +hired out his sons and all that they +earned he took away from them; and he +and Catrin toiled to recover Rhydwen +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121"></a>[<i>p</i> 121]</span>from its slovenry. After he had paid all +that he owed for the place, and after +Catrin had died of dropsy, he called his +sons home.</p> + +<p>Thereon he thrived. He was over all +on the floor of Sion, even those in the Big +Seat. Men in debt and many widow-women +sought him to free them, and in +freeing them he made compacts to his +advantage. Thus he came to have +more cattle than Rhydwen could hold, +and he bought Penlan, the farm of eighty +acres which goes up from Rhydwen to the +edge of the moor, and beyond.</p> + +<p>In quiet seasons he and Aben and Dan +dug ditches on the land of Rhydwen; "so +that," he said, "my creatures shall not +perish of thirst."</p> + +<p>Of a sudden a sickness struck him, and +in the hush which is sometimes before +death, he summoned to him his sons. +"Off away am I to the Palace," he said.</p> + +<p>"Large will be the shout of joy among +the angels," Aben told him.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122"></a>[<i>p</i> 122]</span>"And much weeping there will be in +Sion," said Dan. "Speak you a little +verse for a funeral preach."</p> + +<p>"Cease you your babblings, now, indeed," +Sheremiah demanded. "Born first +you were, Aben, and you get Rhydwen. +And you, Dan, Penlan."</p> + +<p>"Father bach," Aben cried, "not right +that you leave more to me than Dan."</p> + +<p>"Crow you do like a cuckoo," Dan admonished +his brother. "Wise you are, +father. Big already is your giving to me."</p> + +<p>Aben looked at the window and he +beheld a corpse candle moving outward +through the way of the gate. "Religious +you lived, father Sheremiah, and religious +you put on a White Shirt." Then Aben +spoke of the sight he had seen.</p> + +<p>The old man opened his lips, counseling: +"Hish, hish, boys. Break you +trenches in Penlan, Dan. Poor bad are +farms without water. More than everything +is water." He died, and his sons +washed him and clothed him in a White<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123"></a>[<i>p</i> 123]</span> +Shirt of the dead, and clipped off his long +beard, which ceasing to grow, shall not +entwine his legs and feet and his arms and +hands on the Day of Rising; and they +bowed their heads in Sion for the full +year.</p> + +<p>Dan and Aben lived in harmony. They +were not as brothers, but as strangers; +neighborly and at peace. They married +wives, by whom they had children, and +they sat in the Big Seat in Sion. They +mowed their hay and reaped their corn at +separate periods, so that one could help +the other; if one needed the loan of anything +he would borrow it from his brother; +if one's heifer strayed into the pasture of +the other, the other would say: "The Big +Man will make the old grass grow." On +the Sabbath they and their children walked +as in procession to Sion.</p> + +<p>In accordance with his father's word, +Dan dug ditches in Penlan; and against +the barnyard—which is at the forehead of +his house—water sprang up, and he caused +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124"></a>[<i>p</i> 124]</span>it to run over his water-wheel into his +pond.</p> + +<p>Now there fell upon this part of Cardiganshire +a season of exceeding drought. +The face of the earth was as the face of +a cancerous man. There was no water in +any of the ditches of Rhydwen and none +in those of Penlan. But the spring which +Dan had found continued to yield, and +from it Aben's wife took away water in +pitchers and buckets; and to the pond +Aben brought his animals.</p> + +<p>One day Aben spoke to Dan in this +wise: "Serious sure, an old bother is +this."</p> + +<p>"Iss-iss," replied Dan. "Good is the +Big Man to allow us water bach."</p> + +<p>"How speech you if I said: 'Unfasten +your pond and let him flow into my +ditches'?"</p> + +<p>"The land will suck him before he goes +far," Dan answered.</p> + +<p>Aben departed; and he considered: "Did +not Penlan belong to Sheremiah? Travel +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125"></a>[<i>p</i> 125]</span>under would the water and hap spout up +in my close. Nice that would be. Nasty +is the behavior of Dan and there's sly is +the job."</p> + +<p>To Dan he said: "Open your pond, +man, and let the water come into the +ditches which father Sheremiah broke."</p> + +<p>Dan would not do as Aben desired, +wherefore Aben informed against him +in Sion, crying: "Little Big Man, know +you not what a Turk is the fox? One eye +bach I have, but you have two, and can +see all his wickedness. Make you him pay +the cost." He raised his voice so high +that the congregation could not discern +the meaning thereof, and it shouted as one +person: "Wo, now, boy Sheremiah! +What is the matter, say you?"</p> + +<p>The anger which Aben nourished against +Dan waxed hot. Rain came, and it did +not abate, and the man plotted mischief +to his brother's damage. In heavy darkness +he cut the halters which held Dan's +cows and horses to their stalls and drove +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126"></a>[<i>p</i> 126]</span>the animals into the road. He also +poisoned pond Penlan, and a sheep died +before it could be killed and eaten.</p> + +<p>Dan wept very sore. "Take you the +old water," he said. "Fat is my sorrow."</p> + +<p>"Not religious you are," Aben censured +him. "All the water is mine."</p> + +<p>"Useful he is to me," Dan replied. +"Like would I that he turns my wheel as +he goes to you."</p> + +<p>"Clap your mouth," answered Aben.</p> + +<p>"Not as much as will go through the leg +of a smoking pipe shall you have."</p> + +<p>In Sion Aben told the Big Man of all +the benefits which he had conferred upon +Dan.</p> + +<p>Men and women encouraged his fury; +some said this: "An old paddy is Dan +to rob your water. Ach y fi"; and some +said this: "A dirty ass is the mule." His +fierce wrath was not allayed albeit Dan +turned the course of the water away from +his pond, and on his knees and at his labor +asked God that peace might come.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127"></a>[<i>p</i> 127]</span>"Bury the water," Aben ordered, "and +fill in the ditch, Satan."</p> + +<p>"That will I do speedily," Dan answered +in his timidity. "Do you give me +an hour fach, for is not the sowing at +hand?" Aben would not hearken unto +his brother. He deliberated with a +lawyer, and Dan was made to dig a ditch +straightway from the spring to the close +of Rhydwen, and he put pipes in the +bottom of the ditch, and these pipes he +covered with gravel and earth.</p> + +<p>So as Dan did not sow, he had nothing +to reap; and people mocked him in this +fashion: "Come we will and gather in your +harvest, Dan bach." He held his tongue, +because he had nothing to say. His affliction +pressed upon him so heavily that +he would not be consoled and he hanged +himself on a tree; and his body was +taken down at the time of the morning +stars.</p> + +<p>A man ran to Rhydwen and related to +Aben the manner of Dan's death. Aben +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128"></a>[<i>p</i> 128]</span>went into a field and sat as one astonished +until the light of day paled. Then +he arose, shook himself, and set to number +the ears of wheat which were in his field.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129"></a>[<i>p</i> 129]</span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130"></a>[<i>p</i> 130]</span></p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131"></a>[<i>p</i> 131]</span></p> +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2> + +<h2>SAINT DAVID AND THE +PROPHETS</h2> + + +<p>God grants prayers gladly. In the moment +that Death was aiming at him a +missile of down, Hughes-Jones prayed: +"Bad I've been. Don't let me fall into +the Fiery Pool. Give me a brief while +and a grand one I'll be for the religion." +A shaft of fire came out of the mouth of +the Lord and the shaft stood in the way of +the missile, consuming it utterly; "so," +said the Lord, "are his offenses forgotten."</p> + +<p>"Is it a light thing," asked Paul, "to +defy the Law?"</p> + +<p>"God is merciful," said Moses.</p> + +<p>"Is the Kingdom for such as pray conveniently?"</p> + +<p>"This," Moses reproved Paul, "is +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132"></a>[<i>p</i> 132]</span>written in a book: 'The Lord shall judge +His people.'"</p> + +<p>Yet Paul continued to dispute, the +Prophets gathering near him for entertainment; +and the company did not +break up until God, as is the custom in +Heaven when salvation is wrought, proclaimed +a period of rejoicing.</p> + +<p>Wherefore Heaven's windows, the +number of which is more than that of +blades of grass in the biggest hayfield, +were lit as with a flame; and Heman and +his youths touched their instruments with +fingers and hammers and the singing +angels lifted their voices in song; and +angels in the likeness of young girls +brewed tea in urns and angels in the likeness +of old women baked pleasant breads +in the heavenly ovens. Out of Hell there +arose two mountains, which established +themselves one over the other on the floor +of Heaven, and the height of the mountains +was the depth of Hell; and you +could not see the sides of the mountains +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133"></a>[<i>p</i> 133]</span>for the vast multitude of sinners thereon, +and you could not see the sinners for the +live coals to which they were held, and you +could not see the burning coals for the +radiance of the pulpit which was set on +the furthermost peak of the mountain, +and you could not see the pulpit—from +toe to head it was of pure gold—for the +shining countenance of Isaiah; and as +Isaiah preached, blood issued out of the +ends of his fingers from the violence with +which he smote his Bible, and his single +voice was louder than the lamentations +of the damned.</p> + +<p>As the Lord had enjoined, the inhabitants +of Heaven rejoiced: eating and +drinking, weeping and crying hosanna.</p> + +<p>But Paul would not joy over that which +the Lord had done, and soon he sought +Him, and finding Him said: "A certain +Roman noble labored his horses to their +death in a chariot race before Cæsar: was +he worthy of Cæsar's reward?"</p> + +<p>"The noble is on the mountain-side,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134"></a>[<i>p</i> 134]</span> +God answered, "and his horses are in my +chariots."</p> + +<p>"One bears witness to his own iniquity, +and you bid us feast and you say 'He +shall have remembrance of me.'"</p> + +<p>"Is there room in Heaven for a false +witness?" asked God.</p> + +<p>Again did Paul seek God. "My Lord," +he entreated, "what manner of man is +this that confesses his faults?"</p> + +<p>"You will provoke my wrath," said God. +"Go and be merry."</p> + +<p>Paul's face being well turned, God +moved backward into the Record Office, +and of the Clerk of the Records He demanded: +"Who is he that prayed unto +me?"</p> + +<p>"William Hughes-Jones," replied the +Clerk.</p> + +<p>"Has the Forgiving Angel blotted out +his sins?"</p> + +<p>"For that I have fixed a long space of +time"; and the Clerk showed God eleven +heavy books, on the outside of each of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135"></a>[<i>p</i> 135]</span>which was written: "William Hughes-Jones, +One and All Drapery Store, +Hammersmith. His sins"; and God +examined the books and was pleased, and +He cried: "Rejoice fourfold"; and if +Isaiah's roar was higher than the wailings +of the perished it was now more awful +than the roar of a hundred bullocks in +a slaughter-house, and if Isaiah's countenance +shone more than anything in +Heaven, it was now like the eye of the +sun.</p> + +<p>"Of what nation is he?" the Lord +inquired of the Clerk.</p> + +<p>"The Welsh; the Welsh Nonconformists."</p> + +<p>"Put before me their good deeds."</p> + +<p>"There is none. William Hughes-Jones +is the first of them that has prayed. +Are not the builders making a chamber +for the accounts of their disobedience?"</p> + +<p>Immediately God thundered: the earth +trembled and the stars shivered and fled +from their courses and struck against one +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136"></a>[<i>p</i> 136]</span>another; and God stood on the brim of the +universe and stretched out a hand and a +portion of a star fell into it, and that is +the portion which He hurled into the +garden of Hughes-Jones's house. On a +sudden the revels ceased: the bread of the +feast was stone and the tea water, and the +songs of the angels were hushed, and the +strings of the harps and viols were withered, +and the hammers were dough, and +the mountains sank into Hell, and behold +Satan in the pulpit which was an iron +cage.</p> + +<p>The Prophets hurried into the Judgment +Hall with questions, and lo God was +in a cloud, and He spoke out of the +cloud.</p> + +<p>"I am angry," He said, "that Welsh +Nonconformists have not heard my name. +Who are the Welsh Nonconformists?" +The Prophets were silent, and God +mourned: "My Word is the earth and I +peopled the earth with my spittle; and I +appointed my Prophets to watch over my +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137"></a>[<i>p</i> 137]</span>people, and the watchers slept and my children +strayed."</p> + +<p>Thus too said the Lord: "That hour +I devour my children who have forsaken +me, that hour I shall devour my +Prophets."</p> + +<p>"May be there is one righteous among +us?" said Moses.</p> + +<p>"You have all erred."</p> + +<p>"May be there is one righteous among +the Nonconformists," said Moses; "will +the just God destroy him?"</p> + +<p>"The one righteous is humbled, and I +have warned him to keep my commandments."</p> + +<p>"The sown seed brought forth a +prayer," Moses pleaded; "will not the +just God wait for the harvest?"</p> + +<p>"My Lord is just," Paul announced. +"They who gather wickedness shall not +escape the judgment, nor shall the blind +instructor be held blameless."</p> + +<p>Moreover Paul said: "The Welsh Nonconformists +have been informed of you as +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138"></a>[<i>p</i> 138]</span>is proved by the man who confessed his +transgressions. It is a good thing for me +that I am not of the Prophets."</p> + +<p>"I'll be your comfort, Paul," the +Prophets murmured, "that you have done +this to our hurt." Abasing themselves, +they tore their mantles and howled; and +God, piteous of their howlings, was constrained +to say: "Bring me the prayers +of these people and I will forget your +remissness."</p> + +<p>The Prophets ran hither and thither, +wailing: "Woe. Woe. Woe."</p> + +<p>Sore that they behaved with such +scant respect, Paul herded them into the +Council Room. "Is it seemly," he rebuked +them, "that the Prophets of God +act like madmen?"</p> + +<p>"Our lot is awful," said they.</p> + +<p>"The lot of the backslider is justifiably +awful," was Paul's rejoinder. "You have +prophesied too diligently of your own +glory."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139"></a>[<i>p</i> 139]</span>"You are learned in the Law, Paul," +said Moses. "Make us waywise."</p> + +<p>"Send abroad a messenger to preach +damnation to sinners," answered Paul. +"For Heaven," added he, "is the knowledge +of Hell."</p> + +<p>So it came to pass. From the hem of +Heaven's Highway an angel flew into +Wales; and the angel, having judged by +his sight and his hearing, returned to the +Council Room and testified to the godliness +of the Welsh Nonconformists. "As +difficult for me," he vowed, "to write +the feathers of my wings as the sum of +their daily prayers."</p> + +<p>"None has reached the Record Office," +said Paul.</p> + +<p>"They are always engaged in this +bright business," the angel declared, "and +praising the Lord. And the number of +the people is many and Heaven will need +be enlarged for their coming."</p> + +<p>"Of a surety they pray?" asked Paul.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140"></a>[<i>p</i> 140]</span>"Of a surety. And as they pray they +quake terribly."</p> + +<p>"The Romans prayed hardly," said +Paul. "But they prayed to other +gods."</p> + +<p>"Wherever you stand on their land," +asserted the angel, "you see a temple."</p> + +<p>"I exceedingly fear," Paul remarked, +"that another Lord has dominion over +them."</p> + +<p>The Prophets were alarmed, and they +sent a company of angels over the earth +and a company under the earth; and the +angels came back; one company said: "We +searched the swampy marges and saw +neither a god nor a heaven nor any +prayer," and the other company said: +"We probed the lofty emptiness and we +did not touch a god or a heaven or any +prayer."</p> + +<p>Paul was distressed and he reported his +misgivings to God, and God upbraided +the Prophets for their sloth. "Is there +no one who can do this for me?" He +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141"></a>[<i>p</i> 141]</span>cried. "Are all the cunning men in Hell? +Shall I make all Heaven drink the dregs +of my fury? Burnish your rusted armor. +Depart into Hell and cry out: 'Is there +one here who knows the Welsh Nonconformists?' +Choose the most crafty and +release him and lead him here."</p> + +<p>Lots were cast and it fell to Moses to +descend into Hell; and he stood at the +well, the water of which is harder than +crystal, and he cried out; and of the +many that professed he chose Saint David, +whom he brought up to God.</p> + +<p>"Visit your people," said God to the +Saint, "and bring me their prayers."</p> + +<p>"Why should I be called?"</p> + +<p>"It is my will. My Prophets have +failed me, and if it is not done they shall +be destroyed."</p> + +<p>David laughed. "From Hell comes a +savior of the Prophets. In the middle of +my discourse at the Judgment Seat the +Prophets stooped upon me. 'To Hell with +him,' they screamed."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142"></a>[<i>p</i> 142]</span>"Perform faithfully," said the Lord, +"and you shall remain in Paradise."</p> + +<p>"My Lord is gracious! I was a Prophet +and the living believe that I am with the +saints. I will retire."</p> + +<p>"Perform faithfully and you shall be of +my Prophets."</p> + +<p>Then God took away David's body and +nailed it upon a wall, and He put wings +on the shoulders of his soul; and David +darted through a cloud and landed on +earth, and having looked at the filthiness +of the Nonconformists in Wales he withdrew +to London. But however actively +he tried he could not find a man of God +nor the destination of the fearful prayers +of Welsh preachers, grocers, drapers, milkmen, +lawyers, and politicians.</p> + +<p>Loth to go to Hell and put to a nonplus, +David built a nest in a tree in Richmond +Park, and he paused therein to consider +which way to proceed. One day he was +disturbed by the singing and preaching of +a Welsh soldier who had taken shelter +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143"></a>[<i>p</i> 143]</span>from rain under the tree. David came +down from his nest, and when the mouth +of the man was most open, he plunged +into the fellow's body. Henceforward in +whatsoever place the soldier was there also +was David; and the soldier carried him to +a clothier's shop in Putney, the sign of +the shop being written in this fashion:</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">J. Parker Lewis.</span> +The Little (Gents. Mercer) Wonder. + +Crossing the threshold, the soldier +shouted: "How are you?"</p> + +<p>The clothier, whose skin was as hide +which had been scorched in a tanner's yard, +bent over the counter. "Man bach," he +exclaimed, "glad am I to see you. Pray +will I now that you are all Zer Garnett." +His thanksgiving finished, he said: "Wanting +a suit you do."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and no," replied the soldier. +"Cheap she must be if yes."</p> + +<p>"You need one for certain. Shabby you +are."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144"></a>[<i>p</i> 144]</span>"This is a friendly call. To a low-class +shop must a poor tommy go."</p> + +<p>"Do you then not be cheated by an +English swindler." The clothier raised his +thin voice: "Kate, here's a strange boy."</p> + +<p>A pretty young woman, in spite of her +snaggled teeth, frisked into the room like +a wanton lamb. Her brown hair was +drawn carelessly over her head, and her +flesh was packed but loosely.</p> + +<p>"Serious me," she cried, "Llew Eevans! +Llew bach, how are you? Very big has the +army made you and strong."</p> + +<p>"Not changed you are."</p> + +<p>"No. The last time you came was to +see the rabbit."</p> + +<p>"Dear me, yes. Have you still got +her?"</p> + +<p>"She's in the belly long ago," said the +clothier.</p> + +<p>"I have another in her stead," said Kate. +"A splendid one. Would you like to +fondle her?"</p> + +<p>"Why, yez," answered the soldier.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145"></a>[<i>p</i> 145]</span>"Drat the old animal," cried the clothier. +"Too much care you give her, Kate. +Seven looks has the deacon from Capel +King's Cross had of her and he hasn't +bought her yet."</p> + +<p>As he spoke the clothier heaped garments +on the counter.</p> + +<p>"Put out your arms," he ordered Kate, +"and take the suits to a room for Llew +to try on."</p> + +<p>Kate obeyed, and Llew hymning +"Moriah" took her round the waist and +embraced her, and the woman, hungering +for love, gladly gave herself up. Soon +attired in a black frock coat, a black waistcoat, +and black trousers, Llew stepped into +the shop.</p> + +<p>"A champion is the rabbit," he said; +"and very tame."</p> + +<p>"If meat doesn't come down," said the +clothier, "in the belly she'll be as well."</p> + +<p>"Let me know before you slay her. +Perhaps I buy her. I will study her +again."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146"></a>[<i>p</i> 146]</span>The clothier gazed upon Llew. "Tidy +fit," he said.</p> + +<p>"A bargain you give me."</p> + +<p>"Why for you talk like that?" the +clothier protested. "No profit can I make +on a Cymro. As per invoice is the cost. +And a latest style bowler hat I throw in."</p> + +<p>Peering through Llew's body, Saint +David saw that the dealer dealt treacherously, +and that the money which he got for +the garments was two pounds over that +which was proper.</p> + +<p>Llew walked away whistling. "A +simple fellow is the black," he said to himself. +"Three soverens was bad."</p> + +<p>On the evening of the next day—that +day being the Sabbath—the soldier worshiped +in Capel Kingsend; and betwixt +the sermon and the benediction, the +preacher delivered this speech: "Very +happy am I to see so many warriors here +once more. We sacrificed for them quite +a lot, and if they have any Christianity +left in them they will not forget what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147"></a>[<i>p</i> 147]</span> +Capel Kingsend has done and will repay +same with interest. Happier still we are +to welcome Mister Hughes-Jones to the +Big Seat. In the valley of the shadow +has Mister Hughes-Jones been. Earnestly +we prayed for our dear religious leader. +To-morrow at seven we shall hold a prayer +meeting for his cure. At seven at night. +Will everybody remember? On Monday—to-morrow—at +seven at night a prayer +meeting for Mister Hughes-Jones will be +held in Capel Kingsend. The duty of +every one is to attend. Will you please +say something now, zer?"</p> + +<p>Hughes-Jones rose from the arm-chair +which is under the pulpit, and thrust out +his bristled chin and rested his palms on +the communion table; and he said not one +word.</p> + +<p>"Mister Hughes-Jones," the preacher +urged.</p> + +<p>"I am too full of grace," said Hughes-Jones; +he spoke quickly, as one who is +on the verge of tears, and his big nostrils +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148"></a>[<i>p</i> 148]</span>widened and narrowed as those of one +who is short of breath.</p> + +<p>"The congregation, zer, expects—"</p> + +<p>"Well-well, I've had a glimpse of the +better land and with a clear conscience I +could go there, only the Great Father has +more for me to do here. A miracle happened +to me. In the thick of my sickness +a meetority dropped outside the bedroom. +The mistress fainted slap bang. 'If +this is my summons,' I said, 'I am +ready.' A narrow squeak that was. I +will now sit and pray for you one and +all."</p> + +<p>In the morning Llew went to the One +and All and in English—that is the tongue +of the high Welsh—did he address +Hughes-Jones.</p> + +<p>"I've come to start, zer," he said.</p> + +<p>"Why wassn't you in the chapel yezterday?"</p> + +<p>"I wass there, zer."</p> + +<p>"Ho-ho. For me there are two people +in the chapel—me and Him."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149"></a>[<i>p</i> 149]</span>"Yez, indeed. Shall I gommence +now?"</p> + +<p>"Gommence what?"</p> + +<p>"My crib what I leave to join up."</p> + +<p>"Things have changed. There has been +a war on, mister. They are all smart +young ladies here now. And it is not +right to sack them and shove them on the +streets."</p> + +<p>"But—"</p> + +<p>"Don't answer back, or I'll have you +chucked from the premizes and locked up. +Much gratitude you show for all I did for +the soders."</p> + +<p>"Beg pardon, zer."</p> + +<p>"We too did our bits at home. Slaved +like horses. Me and the two sons. And +they had to do work of national importance. +Disgraceful I call it in a free country."</p> + +<p>"I would be much obliged, zer, if you +would take me on."</p> + +<p>"You left on your own accord, didn't +you? I never take back a hand that leave +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150"></a>[<i>p</i> 150]</span>on their own. Why don't you be patriotic +and rejoin and finish up the Huns?"</p> + +<p>Bowed down, the soldier made himself +drunk, and the drink enlivened his dismettled +heart; and in the evening he stole +into the loft which is above the Big Seat +of Capel Kingsend, purposing to disturb +the praying men with loud curses.</p> + +<p>But Llew slept, and while he slept the +words of the praying men came through +the ceiling like the pieces of a child's jigsaw +puzzle; some floated sluggishly and +fell upon the wall and the roof, and some +because of their little strength did not reach +above the floor; and none went through the +roof. Saint David closed his hands on +many, and there was no soundness in them, +and they became as though they were +nothing. He formed a bag of the soldier's +handkerchief, and he filled it with +the words, but as he drew to the edges +they crumbled into less than dust.</p> + +<p>He pondered; and he made a sack out +of cobwebs, and when the sack could not +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151"></a>[<i>p</i> 151]</span>contain any more words, he wove a lid of +cobwebs over the mouth of it. Jealous +that no mishap should befall his treasure, +he mounted a low, slow-moving cloud, and +folding his wings rode up to the Gate of +the Highway.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152"></a>[<i>p</i> 152]</span></p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153"></a>[<i>p</i> 153]</span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154"></a>[<i>p</i> 154]</span></p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155"></a>[<i>p</i> 155]</span></p> +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2> + +<h2>JOSEPH'S HOUSE</h2> + + +<p>A woman named Madlen, who lived in +Penlan—the crumbling mud walls of which +are in a nook of the narrow lane that rises +from the valley of Bern—was concerned +about the future state of her son Joseph. +Men who judged themselves worthy to +counsel her gave her such counsels as these: +"Blower bellows for the smith," "Cobblar +clox," "Booboo for crows."</p> + +<p>Madlen flattered her counselors, though +none spoke that which was pleasing unto +her.</p> + +<p>"Cobblar clox, ach y fy," she cried to +herself. "Wan is the lad bach with decline. +And unbecoming to his Nuncle +Essec that he follows low tasks."</p> + +<p>Moreover, people, look you at John +Lewis. Study his marble gravestone in +the burial ground of Capel Sion: "His +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156"></a>[<i>p</i> 156]</span>name is John Newton-Lewis; Paris House, +London, his address. From his big shop +in Putney, Home they brought him by +railway." Genteel are shops for boys who +are consumptive. Always dry are their +coats and feet, and they have white cuffs +on their wrists and chains on their waistcoats. +Not blight nor disease nor frost +can ruin their sellings. And every minute +their fingers grabble in the purses of +nobles.</p> + +<p>So Madlen thought, and having acted +in accordance with her design, she took +her son to the other side of Avon Bern, +that is to Capel Mount Moriah, over which +Essec her husband's brother lorded; and +him she addressed decorously, as one does +address a ruler of the capel.</p> + +<p>"Your help I seek," she said.</p> + +<p>"Poor is the reward of the Big +Preacher's son in this part," Essec announced. +"A lot of atheists they are."</p> + +<p>"Not pleading I have not the rent am +I," said Madlen. "How if I prentice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157"></a>[<i>p</i> 157]</span> +Joseph to a shop draper. Has he any +odds?"</p> + +<p>"Proper that you seek," replied Essec. +"Seekers we all are. Sit you. No room +there is for Joseph now I am selling +Penlan."</p> + +<p>"Like that is the plan of your head?" +Madlen murmured, concealing her dread.</p> + +<p>"Seven of pounds of rent is small. Sell +at eighty I must."</p> + +<p>"Wait for Joseph to prosper. Buy +then he will. Buy for your mam you +will, Joseph?"</p> + +<p>"Sorry I cannot change my think," +Essec declared.</p> + +<p>"Hard is my lot; no male have I to +ease my burden."</p> + +<p>"A weighty responsibility my brother +put on me," said Essec. "'Dying with +old decline I am,' the brother mouthed. +'Fruitful is the soil. Watch Madlen keeps +her fruitful.' But I am generous. Eight +shall be the rent. Are you not the wife of +my flesh?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158"></a>[<i>p</i> 158]</span>After she had wiped away her tears, +"Be kind," said Madlen, "and wisdom it +to Joseph."</p> + +<p>"The last evening in the seiet I commanded +the congregation to give the Big +Man's photograph a larger hire," said +Essec. "A few of my proverbs I will +now spout." He spat his spittle and +bundling his beard blew the residue of his +nose therein; and he chanted: "Remember +Essec Pugh, whose right foot is tied into +a club knot. Here's the club to kick sinners +as my perished brother tried to kick +the Bad Satan from the inside of his female +Madlen with his club of his baston. +Some preachers search over the Word. +Some preachers search in the Word. But +search under the Word does preacher +Capel Moriah. What's the light I find? +A stutterer was Moses. As the middle of +a butter cask were the knees of Paul. A +splotch like a red cabbage leaf was on the +cheek of Solomon. By the signs shall the +saints be known. 'Preacher Club Foot, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159"></a>[<i>p</i> 159]</span>come forward to tell about Moriah,' the +Big Man will say. Mean scamps, remember +Essec Pugh, for I shall remember you +the Day of Rising."</p> + +<p>It came to be that on a morning in the +last month of his thirteenth year Joseph +was bidden to stand at the side of the +cow which Madlen was milking and to give +an ear to these commandments: "The serpent +is in the bottom of the glass. The +hand on the tavern window is the hand of +Satan. On the Sabbath eve get one penny +for two ha'pennies for the plate collection. +Put money in the handkerchief corner. +Say to persons you are a nephew of Respected +Essec Pugh and you will have +credit. Pick the white sixpence from the +floor and give her to the mishtir; she will +have fallen from his pocket trowis."</p> + +<p>Then Joseph turned, and carrying his +yellow tin box, he climbed into the craggy +moorland path which takes you to the +tramping road. By the pump of Tavarn +Ffos he rested until Shim Carrier came +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160"></a>[<i>p</i> 160]</span>thereby; and while Shim's horse drank of +barley water, Joseph stepped into the +wagon; and at the end of the passage +Shim showed him the business of getting +a ticket and that of going into and coming +down from a railway carriage.</p> + +<p>In that manner did Joseph go to the +drapery shop of Rees Jones in Carmarthen; +and at the beginning he was +instructed in the keeping and the selling +of such wares as reels of cotton, needles, +pins, bootlaces, mending wool, buttons, and +such like—all those things which together +are known as haberdashery. He marked +how this and that were done, and in what +sort to fashion his visage and frame his +phrases to this or that woman. His oncoming +was rapid. He could measure, cut, +and wrap in a parcel twelve yards of +brown or white calico quicker than any +one in the shop, and he understood by rote +the folds of linen tablecloths and bedsheets; +and in the town this was said of him: +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161"></a>[<i>p</i> 161]</span>"Shopmen quite ordinary can sell what a +customer wants; Pugh Rees Jones can sell +what nobody wants."</p> + +<p>The first year passed happily, and the +second year; and in the third Joseph was +stirred to go forward.</p> + +<p>"What use to stop here all the life?" +he asked himself. "Better to go off."</p> + +<p>He put his belongings in his box and +went to Swansea.</p> + +<p>"Very busy emporium I am in," were +the words he sent to Madlen. "And the +wage is twenty pounds."</p> + +<p>Madlen rejoiced at her labor and sang: +"Ten acres of land, and a cow-house with +three stalls and a stall for the new calf, and +a pigsty, and a house for my bones and a +barn for my hay and straw, and a loft +for my hens: why should men pray for +more?" She ambled to Moriah, diverting +passers-by with boastful tales of Joseph, +and loosened her imaginings to the Respected.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162"></a>[<i>p</i> 162]</span>"Pounds without number he is earning," +she cried. "Rich he'll be. Swells +are youths shop."</p> + +<p>"Gifts from the tip of my tongue fell +on him," said Essec. "Religious were my +gifts."</p> + +<p>"Iss, indeed, the brother of the male +husband."</p> + +<p>"Now you can afford nine of pounds +for the place. Rich he is and richer he +will be. Pounds without number he +has."</p> + +<p>Madlen made a record of Essec's +scheme for Joseph; and she said also: +"Proud I'll be to shout that my son bach +bought Penlan."</p> + +<p>"Setting aside money am I," Joseph +speedily answered.</p> + +<p>Again ambition aroused him. "Footling +is he that is content with Zwanssee. Next +half-holiday skurshon I'll crib in Cardiff."</p> + +<p>Joseph gained his desire, and the +chronicle of his doings he sent to his +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163"></a>[<i>p</i> 163]</span>mother. "Twenty-five, living-in, and +spiffs on remnants are the wages," he +said. "In the flannelette department I +am and I have not been fined once. Lot +of English I hear, and we call ladies +madam that the wedded nor the unwedded +are insulted. Boys harmless are the eight +that sleep by me. Examine Nuncle of the +price of Penlan."</p> + +<p>"I will wag my tongue craftily and +slowly," Madlen vowed as she crossed her +brother-in-law's threshold.</p> + +<p>"I Shire Pembroke land is cheap," she +said darkly.</p> + +<p>"Look you for a farm there," said +Essec. "Pelted with offers am I for Penlan. +Ninety I shall have. Poverty makes +me sell very soon."</p> + +<p>"As he says."</p> + +<p>"Pretty tight is Joseph not to buy her. +No care has he for his mam."</p> + +<p>"Stiffish are affairs with him, poor +dab."</p> + +<p>Madlen reported to Joseph that which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164"></a>[<i>p</i> 164]</span> +Essec had said, and she added: "Awful +to leave the land of your father. And +auction the cows. Even the red cow that +is a champion for milk. Where shall I +go? The House of the Poor. Horrid that +your mam must go to the House of the +Poor."</p> + +<p>Joseph sat on his bed, writing: "Taken +ten pounds from the post I have which +leaves three shillings. Give Nuncle the +ten as earnest of my intention."</p> + +<p>Nine years after that day on which he +had gone to Carmarthen Joseph said in +his heart: "London shops for experience"; +and he caused a frock coat to be sewn together, +and he bought a silk hat and an +umbrella, and at the spring cribbing he +walked into a shop in the West End of +London, asking: "Can I see the engager, +pleaze?" The engager came to him and +Joseph spoke out: "I have all-round experience. +Flannelettes three years in +Niclass, Cardiff, and left on my own accord. +Kept the colored dresses in Tomos,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165"></a>[<i>p</i> 165]</span> +Zwanssee. And served through. Apprentized +in Reez Jones Carmarthen for three +years. Refs egzellent. Good ztok-keeper +and appearance."</p> + +<p>"Start at nine o'clock Monday morning," +the engager replied. "Thirty pounds +a year and spiffs; to live in. You'll be in +the laces."</p> + +<p>"Fashionable this shop is," Joseph wrote +to Madlen, "and I have to be smart and +wear a coat like the preachers, and mustn't +take more than three zwap lines per day +or you have the sack. Two white shirts +per week; and the dresses of the showroom +young ladies are a treat. Five pounds enclosed +for Nuncle."</p> + +<p>"Believe your mam," Madlen answered: +"don't throw gravel at the windows of the +old English unless they have the fortunes."</p> + +<p>In his zeal for his mother's welfare +Joseph was heedless of himself, eating little +of the poor food that was served him, +clothing his body niggardly, and seldom +frequenting public bath-houses; his mind +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166"></a>[<i>p</i> 166]</span>spanned his purpose, choosing the fields he +would join to Penlan, counting the number +of cattle that would graze on the land, +planning the slate-tiled house which he +would set up.</p> + +<p>"Twenty pounds more must I have," +he moaned, "for the blaguard Nuncle."</p> + +<p>Every day thereafter he stole a little +money from his employers and every night +he made peace with God: "Only twenty-five +is the wage, and spiffs don't count because +of the fines. Don't you let me be +found out, Big Man bach. Will you strike +mam into her grave? And disgrace Respected +Essec Pugh Capel Moriah?"</p> + +<p>He did not abate his energies howsoever +hard his disease was wasting and destroying +him. The men who lodged in his +bedroom grew angry with him. "How can +we sleep with your dam coughing?" they +cried. "Why don't you invest in a second-hand +coffin?"</p> + +<p>Feared that the women whom he served +would complain that the poison of his +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167"></a>[<i>p</i> 167]</span>sickness was tainting them and that he +would be sent away, Joseph increased his +pilferings; where he had stolen a shilling +he now stole two shillings; and when he +got five pounds above the sum he needed, +he heaved a deep sigh and said: "Thank +you for your favor, God bach. I will now +go home to heal myself."</p> + +<p>Madlen took the money to Essec, coming +back heavy with grief.</p> + +<p>"Hoo-hoo," she whined, "the ninety has +bought only the land. Selling the houses +is Essec."</p> + +<p>"Wrong there is," said Joseph. "Probe +deeply we must."</p> + +<p>From their puzzlings Madlen said: +"What will you do?"</p> + +<p>"Go and charge swindler Moriah."</p> + +<p>"Meddle not with him. Strong he is +with the Lord."</p> + +<p>"Teach him will I to pocket my honest +wealth."</p> + +<p>Because of his weakness, Joseph did not +go to Moriah; to-day he said: "I will to-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168"></a>[<i>p</i> 168]</span>morrow," +and to-morrow he said: "Certain +enough I'll go to-morrow."</p> + +<p>In the twilight of an afternoon he and +Madlen sat down, gazing about, and speaking +scantily; and the same thought was +with each of them, and this was the +thought: "A tearful prayer will remove +the Big Man from His judgment, but +nothing will remove Essec from his purpose."</p> + +<p>"Mam fach," said Joseph, "how will +things be with you?"</p> + +<p>"Sorrow not, soul nice," Madlen entreated +her son. "Couple of weeks very +short have I to live."</p> + +<p>"As an hour is my space. Who will +stand up for you?"</p> + +<p>"Hish, now. Hish-hish, my little +heart."</p> + +<p>Madlen sighed; and at the door she made +a great clatter, and the sound of the clatter +was less than the sound of her wailing.</p> + +<p>"Mam! Mam!" Joseph shouted. +"Don't you scream. Hap you will soften<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169"></a>[<i>p</i> 169]</span> +Nuncle's heart if you say to him that my +funeral is close."</p> + +<p>Madlen put a mourning gown over her +petticoats and a mourning bodice over +her shawls, and she tarried in a field as +long as it would take her to have traveled +to Moriah; and in the heat of the sun she +returned, laughing.</p> + +<p>"Mistake, mistake," she cried. "The +houses are ours. No undertanding was in +me. Cross was your Nuncle. 'Terrible if +Joseph is bad with me,' he said. Man +religious and tidy is Essec." Then she +prayed that Joseph would die before her +fault was found out.</p> + +<p>Joseph did not know what to do for +his joy. "Well-well, there's better I am +already," he said. He walked over the +land and coveted the land of his neighbors. +"Dwell here for ever I shall," he +cried to Madlen. "A grand house I'll +build—almost as grand as the houses of +preachers."</p> + +<p>In the fifth night he died, and before +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170"></a>[<i>p</i> 170]</span>she began to weep, Madlen lifted her voice: +"There's silly, dear people, to covet +houses! Only a smallish bit of house we +want."</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171"></a>[<i>p</i> 171]</span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172"></a>[<i>p</i> 172]</span></p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173"></a>[<i>p</i> 173]</span></p> +<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2> + +<h2>LIKE BROTHERS</h2> + + +<p>Silas Bowen hated his brother John, but +when he heard of John's sickness, he reasoned: +"Blackish has been his dealings. +And trickish. Sly also. Odd will affairs +seem if I don't go to him at once."</p> + +<p>At the proper hour he closed the door +of his shop. Then he washed his face, +and put beeswax on the dwindling points +of his mustache, and he came out of +Barnes into Thornton East; into High +Road, where is his brother's shop.</p> + +<p>"That is you," said John to him.</p> + +<p>"How was you, man?" Silas asked. +"Talk the name of the old malady."</p> + +<p>"Say what you have to say in English," +John answered in a little voice. "It is +easier and classier."</p> + +<p>That which was spoken was rendered +into English; and John replied: "I am +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174"></a>[<i>p</i> 174]</span>pleazed to see you. Take the bowler off +your head and don't put her on the +harimonium. The zweat will mark the +wood."</p> + +<p>"The love of brothers push me here," +said Silas. "It is past understanding. +As boyss we learn the same pray-yer. +And we talked the same temperance +dialogue in Capel Zion. I was always the +temperance one. And quite a champion +reziter. The way is round and about, boy +bach, from Zion to the grave."</p> + +<p>"Don't speak like that," pleaded John. +"I caught a cold going to the City to get +ztok. I will be healthy by the beginning +of the week."</p> + +<p>"Be it so. Yet I am full of your +trouble. Sick you are and how's +trade?"</p> + +<p>"Very brisk. I am opening a shop in +Richmond again," John said.</p> + +<p>"You're learning me something. Don't +you think too much of that shop; Death is +near and set your mind on the crossing."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175"></a>[<i>p</i> 175]</span>John's lame daughter Ann halted +into the room, and stepped up to the +bed.</p> + +<p>"Stand by the door for one minit, +Silas," John cried. "I am having my +chat confidential."</p> + +<p>From a book Ann recited the business +of that day; naming each article that had +been sold, and the cost and the profit +thereof.</p> + +<p>"How's that with last year?" her +father commanded.</p> + +<p>"Two-fifteen below."</p> + +<p>"Fool!" John whispered. "You are +a cow, with your gamey leg. You're ruining +the place."</p> + +<p>Ann closed the book and put her fountain +pen in the leather case which was +pinned to her blouse, and she spoke this +greeting: "How are you, Nuncle Silas. +It's long since I've seen you." She thrust +out her arched teeth in a smile. "Good-night, +now. You must call and see our +Richmond establishment."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176"></a>[<i>p</i> 176]</span>"Silas," said John, "empty a dose of +the medecyne in a cup for me."</p> + +<p>"There's little comfort in medecyne," +Silas observed. "Not much use is the +stuff if the Lord is calling you home. +Calling you home. Shall I read you a +piece from the Beybile of the Welsh? It +is a great pity you have forgot the language +of your mother."</p> + +<p>"I did not hear you," said John. +"Don't you trouble to say it over." He +drank the medicine. "Unfortunate was +the row about the Mermaid Agency. I +was sorry to take it away from you, but +if I hadn't some one else would. We kept +it in the family, Silas."</p> + +<p>"I have prayed a lot," said Silas to his +brother, "that me and you are brought together +before the day of the death. Nothing +can break us from being brothers."</p> + +<p>"You are very doleful. I shall shift this +little cold."</p> + +<p>"Yes-yes, you will. I would be glad +to follow your coffin to Wales and look +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177"></a>[<i>p</i> 177]</span>into the guard's van at stations where +the train stop, but the fare is big and the +shop is without a assistant. Weep until +I am sore all over I shall in Capel Shirland +Road. When did the doctor give +you up?"</p> + +<p>"He's a donkey. He doesn't know +nothing. Here he is once per day and +charging for it. And he only brings his +repairs to me."</p> + +<p>"The largest charge will be to take you +to your blessed home," said Silas. "The +railway need a lot of money for to carry a +corpse. I feel quite sorrowful. In Heaven +you'll remember that I was at your deathbed."</p> + +<p>John did not answer.</p> + +<p>"Well-well," said Silas, whispering +loudly, "making his peace with the Big +Man he is"; and he went away, moaning +a funereal hymn tune.</p> + +<p>John thought over his plight and was +distressed, and he spoke to God in Welsh: +"Not fitting that you leave the daughter +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178"></a>[<i>p</i> 178]</span>fach alone. Short in her leg you made +her. There's a set-back. Her mother +perished; and did I complain? An orphan +will the pitiful wench be. Who will care +for the shop? And the repairing workman? +Steal the leather he will. A fuss will be +about shop Richmond. Paid have I the +rent for one year in advance. Serious will +the loss be. Be not of two thinks. Send +Lisha to breathe breathings into my inside—in +the belly where the heart is. Forgive +me that I go to the Capel English. Go +there I do for the trade. Generous am I +in the collections. Ask the preacher. Take +some one else to sit in my chair in the +Palace. Amen. Amen and amen." In +his misery he sobbed, and he would not +speak to Ann nor heed her questionings. +At the cold of dawn he thought that +Death was creeping down to him, and he +screamed: "Allow me to live for a year—two +years—and a grand communion set +will I give to the Welsh capel in Shirland +Road. Individual cups. Silver-plated,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179"></a>[<i>p</i> 179]</span> +Sheffield make. Ann shall send quickly for +the price-list."</p> + +<p>His fear was such that he would not +suffer his beard to be combed, nor have +his face covered by a bedsheet; and he +would not stretch himself or turn his face +upwards: in such a manner dead men +lie.</p> + +<p>Again came Silas to provoke his brother +to his death.</p> + +<p>"Richmond shops are letting like anything," +he said.</p> + +<p>"The place is coming on," replied John. +"I was lucky to get one in King's Row. +She is cheap too."</p> + +<p>"What are you talking about? There's +a new boot shop in King's Row already. +Next door to the jeweler."</p> + +<p>"You are mistook. I have taken +her."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, you are cheated. Get +up at once and make a case. Wear an +overcoat and ride in the bus."</p> + +<p>But John bade Ann go to Richmond +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180"></a>[<i>p</i> 180]</span>and to say this and that to the owner of +the house. Ann went and the house was +empty.</p> + +<p>A third time Silas came out of Barnes, +bringing with him gifts. These are the +gifts that he offered his brother John: a +tin of lobster, a tin of sardines, a tin of +salmon, and a tin of herrings; and through +each tin, in an unlikely place, he had driven +the point of a gimlet.</p> + +<p>"Eat these," he said, "and good they +will do you."</p> + +<p>"Much obliged," replied John. "I'll +try a herring with bread and butter +and vinegar to supper. Very much +obliged. It was not my blame that we +quarreled. Others had his eye on the +agency."</p> + +<p>"Tish, I did not want the old Mermaid. +You keep her. I got the sole agency for +the Gwendoline."</p> + +<p>"How is Gwendolines going?"</p> + +<p>"More than I can do to keep ztok of +her. Four dozen gents' laces and three +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181"></a>[<i>p</i> 181]</span>dozen ladies' ditto on the twenty-fifth, and +soon I order another four dozen ladies' +buttons."</p> + +<p>John called Ann and to her he said: +"How is Mermaid ztok?"</p> + +<p>"We are almost out of nine gents and +four ladies," answered Ann.</p> + +<p>"Write Nuncle Silas the order and he'll +drop her in the Zity. Pay your fare one +way will I, Silas."</p> + +<p>Silas fled the next day into the Mermaid +warehouse and sought out the manager. +"My brother J. Owen and Co. Thornton +East has sold his last pair of Mermaids," +he said.</p> + +<p>He brought trouble into his eyes and +made his voice to quiver as he told how +that John was dying and how that the +shop was his brother's legacy to him. +"Send you the goods for this order to +my shop in Barnes," he added. "And +all future orders. That will be my headquarters."</p> + +<p>He did not go to John's house any more; +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182"></a>[<i>p</i> 182]</span>and although John ate of the lobster, the +herrings, and the sardines and was sick, he +did not die. A week expired and a sound +reached him that Silas was selling Mermaid +boots; and he enjoined Ann to test the +truth of that sound.</p> + +<p>"It's sure enough, dad," Ann said.</p> + +<p>John's fury tingled. He put on him +his clothes and seized a stick, and by the +strength of his passion he moved into +Barnes; and he pitched himself at the +entering in of the shop, and he saw that +Ann's speech was right. He came back; +and he did not eat or drink or rest until +he had removed all that was in his window +and had placed therein no other boots than +the Mermaids; and on each pair he put a +ticket which was truly marked: "Half +cost price." On his door he put this notice: +"This FIRM has no Connection with the +shop in Barnes"; and this notice could be +seen and read whether the door was open +or shut.</p> + +<p>After a period people returned to him, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183"></a>[<i>p</i> 183]</span>demanding: "I want a pair of Mermaids, +please"; and inasmuch as he had no more +to sell, they who had dealt with him went +to the shop of his brother.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184"></a>[<i>p</i> 184]</span></p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185"></a>[<i>p</i> 185]</span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186"></a>[<i>p</i> 186]</span></p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187"></a>[<i>p</i> 187]</span></p> +<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2> + +<h2>A WIDOW WOMAN</h2> + + +<p>The Respected Davydd Bern-Davydd +spoke in this sort to the people who were +assembled at the Meeting for Prayer: +"Well-well, know you all the order of +the service. Grand prayers pray last. +Boys ordinary pray middle, and bad +prayers pray first. Boys bach just beginning +also come first. Now, then, after I've +read a bit from the Book of Speeches and +you've sung the hymn I call out, Josi Mali +will report."</p> + +<p>Bern-Davydd ceased his reading, and +while the congregation sang, Josi placed +his arms on the sill which is in front of +pews and laid his head thereon.</p> + +<p>"Josi Mali, man, come to the Big Seat +and mouth what you think," said Bern-Davydd.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188"></a>[<i>p</i> 188]</span>Josi's mother Mali touched her son, +whispering this counsel: "Put to shame +the last prayer, indeed now, Josi."</p> + +<p>By and by Josi lifted his head and stood +on his feet. This is what he said: "Asking +was I if I was religious enough to spout +in the company of the Respected."</p> + +<p>"Out of the necks of young youths we +hear pieces that are very sensible," said +Bern-Davydd. "Come you, Josi Mali, +to the saintly Big Seat."</p> + +<p>As Josi moved out of his pew, his thick +lips fallen apart and his high cheek bones +scarlet, his mother said: "Keep your eyes +clapped very close, or hap the prayers will +shout that you spoke from a hidden book +like an old parson."</p> + +<p>So Josi, who in the fields and on his +bed had exercised prayer in the manner +that one exercises singing, uttered his first +petition in Capel Sion. He told the Big +Man to pardon the weakness of his words, +because the trousers of manhood had not +been long upon him; he named those who +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189"></a>[<i>p</i> 189]</span>entered the Tavern and those who ate +bread which had been swollen by barm; +he congratulated God that Bern-Davydd +ruled over Sion.</p> + +<p>At what time he was done, Bern-Davydd +cried out: "Amen. Solemn, dear +me, amen. Piece quite tidy of prayer"; +and the men of the Big Seat cried: "Piece +quite tidy of prayer."</p> + +<p>The quality of Josi's prayers gave much +pleasure in Sion, and it was noised abroad +even in Morfa, from whence a man journeyed, +saying: "Break your hire with your +master and be a servant in my farm. +Wanting a prayer very bad do we in Capel +Salem." Josi immediately asked leave of +God to tell Bern-Davydd that which the +man from Morfa had said. God gave +him leave, wherefore Bern-Davydd, whose +spirit waxed hot, answered: "Boy, boy, +why for did you not kick the she cat on +the backhead?"</p> + +<p>Then Josi said to his mother Mali: "A +preacher will I be. Go will I at the finish +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190"></a>[<i>p</i> 190]</span>of my servant term to the school for Grammar +in Castellybryn."</p> + +<p>"Glad am I to hear you talk," said Mali. +"Serious pity that my belongings are so +few."</p> + +<p>"Small is your knowledge of the +Speeches," Josi rebuked his mother. +"How go they: 'Sell all that you have?' +Iss-iss, all, mam fach."</p> + +<p>Now Mali lived in Pencoch, which is in +the valley about midway between Shop +Rhys and the Schoolhouse, and she rented +nearly nine acres of the land which is on +the hill above Sion. Beyond the furnishings +of her two-roomed house, she owned +three cows, a heifer, two pigs, and fowls. +She fattened her pigs and sold them, and +she sold also her heifer; and Josi went to +the School of Grammar. Mali labored +hard on the land, and she got therefrom all +that there was to be got; and whatever +that she earned she hid in a hole in the +ground. "Handy is little money," she +murmured, "to pay for lodgings and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191"></a>[<i>p</i> 191]</span>clothes preacher, and the old scamps of +boys who teach him." She lived on potatoes +and buttermilk, and she dressed her +land all the time. People came to remark +of her: "There's no difference between +Mali Pencoch and the mess in her cow-house."</p> + +<p>Days, weeks, and months moved slowly; +and years sped. Josi passed from the +School of Grammar to College Carmarthen, +and Mali gave him all the money +that she had, and prayed thus: "Big Man +bach, terrible would affairs be if I perished +before the boy was all right. Let you +me keep my strength that Josi becomes as +large as Bern-Davydd. Amen."</p> + +<p>Even so. Josi had a name among Students' +College, and even among ordained +rulers of pulpits; and Mali went about +her duties joyful and glad; it was as if the +Kingdom of the Palace of White Shirts +was within her. While at her labor she +mumbled praises to the Big Man for His +goodness, until an awful thought came to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192"></a>[<i>p</i> 192]</span>her: "Insulting am I to the Large One +bach. Only preachers are holy enough to +stand in their pray. Not stop must I now; +go on my knees will I in the dark."</p> + +<p>She did not kneel on her knees for the +stiffness that was in her limbs.</p> + +<p>Her joy was increased exceedingly when +Josi was called to minister unto Capel +Beulah in Carmarthen, and she boasted: +"Bigger than Sion is Moriah and of lofts +has not the Temple two?"</p> + +<p>"Idle is your babbling," one admonished +her. "Does a calf feed his +mother?"</p> + +<p>Josi heard the call. His name grew; +men and women spoke his sayings one to +another, and Beulah could not contain +all the people who would hear his word; +and he wrote a letter to his mother: "God +has given me to wed Mary Ann, the daughter +of Daniel Shop Guildhall. Kill you a +pig and salt him and send to me the meat."</p> + +<p>All that Josi asked Mali gave, and more; +she did not abate in any of her toil for +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193"></a>[<i>p</i> 193]</span>five years, when a disease laid hold on Josi +and he died. Mali cleaned her face and +her hands in the Big Pistil from which +you draw drinking water, and she brought +forth her black garments and put them +on her; and because of her age she could +not weep. The day before that her son +was to be buried, she went to the house of +her neighbor Sara Eye Glass, and to her +she said: "Wench nice, perished is Josi and +off away am I. Console his widow fach I +must. Tell you me that you will milk my +cow."</p> + +<p>Sara turned her seeing eye upon Mali. +"An old woman very mad you are to go +two nines of miles."</p> + +<p>"Milk you my cow," said Mali. "And +milk you her dry. Butter from me the +widow fach shall have. And give ladlings +of the hogshead to my pigs and scatter +food for my hens."</p> + +<p>She tore a baston from a tree, trimmed +it and blackened it with blacking, and at +noon she set forth to the house of her +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194"></a>[<i>p</i> 194]</span>daughter-in-law; and she carried in a +basket butter, two dead fowls, potatoes, +carrots, and a white-hearted cabbage, and +she came to Josi's house in the darkness +which is in the morning, and it was so that +she rested on the threshold; and in the +bright light Mary Ann opened the door, +and was astonished. "Mam-in-law," she +said, "there's nasty for you to come like +this. Speak what you want. Sitting there +is not respectable. You are like an old +woman from the country."</p> + +<p>"Come am I to sorrow," answered Mali. +"Boy all grand was Josi bach. Look at +him now will I."</p> + +<p>"Talking no sense you are," said Mary +Ann. "Why you do not see that the +house is full of muster? Will there not +be many Respecteds at the funeral?"</p> + +<p>"Much preaching shall I say?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed, iss. But haste about now and +help to prepare food to eat. Slow you +are, female."</p> + +<p>Presently mourners came to the house, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195"></a>[<i>p</i> 195]</span>and when each had walked up and gazed +upon the features of the dead, and when +the singers had sung and the Respecteds +had spoken, and while a carpenter +turned screws into the coffin, Mary Ann +said to Mali: "Clear you the dishes now, +and cut bread and spread butter for those +who will return after the funeral. After +all have been served go you home to Pencoch." +She drew a veil over her face and +fell to weeping as she followed the six +men who carried Josi's coffin to the hearse.</p> + +<p>Having finished, Mali took her baston +and her empty basket and began her journey. +As she passed over Towy Street—the +public way which is set with stones—she +saw that many people were gathered +at the gates of Beulah to witness Mary +Ann's loud lamentations at Josi's grave.</p> + +<p>Mali stayed a little time; then she went +on, for the light was dimming. At the +hour she reached Pencoch the mown hay +was dry and the people were gathering it +together. She cried outside the house of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196"></a>[<i>p</i> 196]</span> +Sara Eye Glass: "Large thanks, Sara fach. +Home am I, and like pouring water were +the tears. And there's preaching." She +milked her cows and fed her pigs and her +fowls, and then she stepped up to her bed. +The sounds of dawn aroused her. She +said to herself: "There's sluggish am I. +Dear-dear, rise must I in a haste, for Mary +Ann will need butter to feed the baban +bach that Josi gave her."</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197"></a>[<i>p</i> 197]</span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198"></a>[<i>p</i> 198]</span></p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199"></a>[<i>p</i> 199]</span></p> +<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h2> + +<h2>UNANSWERED PRAYERS</h2> + + +<p>When Winnie Davies was let out of +prison, shame pressed heavily on her feelings; +and though her mother Martha and +her father Tim prayed almost without +ceasing, she did not come home. It was +so that one night Martha watched for her +at a window and Tim prayed for her at +the door of the Tabernacle, and a bomb +fell upon the ground that was between +them, and they were both destroyed.</p> + +<p>All the days of their life, Tim and +Martha were poor and meek and religious; +they were cheaper than the value set on +them by their cheapeners. As a reward +for their pious humility, they were appointed +keepers of the Welsh Tabernacle, +which is at Kingsend. At that they took +their belongings into the three rooms that +are below the chapel; and their spirits were +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200"></a>[<i>p</i> 200]</span>lifted up marvelously that the Reverend +Eylwin Jones and the deacons of the +Tabernacle had given to them the way of +life.</p> + +<p>In this fashion did Tim declare his +blessedness: "Charitable are Welsh to +Welsh. Little Big Man, boys tidy are +boys Capel Tabernacle."</p> + +<p>"What if we were old atheists?" cried +Martha.</p> + +<p>"Wife fach, don't you send me in a +fright," Tim said.</p> + +<p>They two applied themselves to their +tasks: the woman washed the linen and +cleaned the doorsteps and the houses of +her neighbors, the man put posters on +hoardings, trimmed gardens, stood at the +doors of Welsh gatherings. By night they +mustered, sweeping the floor of the chapel, +polishing the wood and brass that were +therein, and beating the cushions and hassocks +which were in the pews of the most +honored of the congregation. Sunday +mornings Tim put a white india-rubber +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201"></a>[<i>p</i> 201]</span>collar under the Adam's apple in his throat, +and Martha covered her long, thin body in +black garments, and drew her few hairs +tightly from her forehead.</p> + +<p>Though they clad and comported themselves +soberly Enoch Harries, who, at this +day, was the treasurer and head deacon of +the chapel, spoke up against them to +Eylwin Jones. This is his complaint: +"Careless was Tim in the dispatch department, +delivering the parcel always to the +wrong customers and for why he was +sacked. Good was I to get him the capel. +Careless he is now also. By twilight, dark, +and thick blackness, light electric burns in +Tabernacle. Waste that is. Sound will I +my think. Why cannot the work be done +in the day I don't know."</p> + +<p>"You cannot say less," said Eylwin +Jones. "Pay they ought for this, the +irreligious couple. As the English +proverb—'There's no gratitude in the +poor.'"</p> + +<p>"Another serious piece of picking have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202"></a>[<i>p</i> 202]</span> +I," continued Harries. "I saw Tim sticking +on hoarding. 'What, dear me,' I +mumbled between the teeth—I don't speech +to myself, man, as usual. The Apostles +did, now. They wrote their minds. Benefit +for many if I put down my religious +thinks for a second New Testament. +What say you, Eylwin Jones? Lots of +says very clever I can give you—'is he +sticking?' A biggish paper was the black +pasting about Walham Green Music Hall. +What do you mean for that? And the +posters for my between season's sale were +waiting to go out."</p> + +<p>Rebuked, Tim and Martha left over +sinning: and Tim put Enoch Harries' +posters in places where they should not +have been put, wherefore Enoch smiled +upon him.</p> + +<p>"Try will I some further," said Tim by +and by.</p> + +<p>"Don't you crave too much," advised +Martha. "The Bad Man craved the pulpit +of the Big Man."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203"></a>[<i>p</i> 203]</span>"Shut your backhead. Out of school +will Winnie be very near now."</p> + +<p>"Speak clear."</p> + +<p>"Ask Enoch Harries will I to make her +his servant."</p> + +<p>"Be modest in your manner," Martha +warned her husband. "Man grand is +Enoch."</p> + +<p>"Needing servants hap he does."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps, iss; perhaps, no."</p> + +<p>"Cute is Winnie," said Tim; "and +quick. Sense she has."</p> + +<p>Tim addressed Enoch, and Enoch answered: +"Blabber you do to me, why +for? Send your old female to Mishtress +Harries. Order you her to go quite respectable."</p> + +<p>Curtsying before Mrs. Harries, Martha +said: "I am Tim Dafis' wife."</p> + +<p>"Oh, really. The person that is in +charge of that funny little Welsh chapel." +Mrs. Harries sat at a table. "Give me +your girl's name, age, and names of previous +employers for references." Having +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204"></a>[<i>p</i> 204]</span>written all that Martha said, she remarked: +"We are moving next week to a +large establishment in Thornton East. I +am going to call it Windsor. Of course +the husband and I will go to the English +church. I thought I could take your girl +with me to Windsor."</p> + +<p>"The titcher give her an excellent character."</p> + +<p>"I'll find that out for myself. Well, +as you are so poor, I'll give her a trial. +I'll pay her five pounds a year and her +keep. I do hope she is ladylike."</p> + +<p>Martha told Tim that which Mrs. Harries +had said, and Tim observed: "I will +rejoice in a bit of prayer."</p> + +<p>"Iss," Martha agreed. "In the parlor +of the preacher. They go up quicker."</p> + +<p>God was requested by Tim to heap +money upon Mrs. Harries, and to give +Winnie the wisdom, understanding, and +obedience which enable one to serve faithfully +those who sit in the first pews in the +chapel.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205"></a>[<i>p</i> 205]</span>Now Winnie found favor in the sight +of her mistress, whose personal maid she +was made and whose habits she copied. +She painted her cheeks and dyed her hair +and eyebrows and eyelashes; and she frequented +Thornton Vale English Congregational +Chapel, where now worshiped +Enoch and his wife. Some of the men +who came to Windsor ogled her impudently, +but she did not give herself to +any man. These ogles Mrs. Harries interpreted +truthfully and she whipped up +her jealous rage.</p> + +<p>"You're too fast," she chided Winnie. +"Look at your blouse. You might be undressed. +You are a shame to your sex. +One would say you are a Piccadilly street-walker +and they wouldn't be far wrong. +I won't have you making faces at my +visitors. Understand that."</p> + +<p>Winnie said: "I don't."</p> + +<p>"You must change, miss," Mrs. Harries +went on. "Or you can pack your box and +go on the streets. Must not think because +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206"></a>[<i>p</i> 206]</span>you are Welsh you can do as you like +here."</p> + +<p>On a sudden Winnie spoke and charged +her mistress with a want of virtue.</p> + +<p>"Is that the kind of miss you are!" +Mrs. Harries shouted. "Where did you +get those shoes from?"</p> + +<p>"You yourself gave them to me."</p> + +<p>"You thief! You know I didn't. They +are far too small for your big feet. Come +along—let's see what you've got upstairs."</p> + +<p>That hour Mrs. Harries summoned a +policeman, and in due time Winnie was +put in prison.</p> + +<p>Tim and Martha did not speak to any +one of this that had been done to their +daughter.</p> + +<p>"Punished must a thief be," said Tim. +"Bad is the wench."</p> + +<p>"Bad is our little daughter," answered +Martha.</p> + +<p>Sabbath morning came and she wept.</p> + +<p>"Showing your lament you are, old +fool," cried Tim.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207"></a>[<i>p</i> 207]</span>"For sure, no. But the mother am I."</p> + +<p>Tim said: "My inside shivers oddly. +Girl fach too young to be in jail."</p> + +<p>A fire was set in the preacher's parlor +and the doors of the Tabernacle were +opened. Tim, the Bible in his hands, +stepped up to the pulpit, his eyes closed +in prayer, and as he passed up he stumbled.</p> + +<p>Eylwin Jones heard the noise of his fall +and ran into the chapel.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" he cried. +"Comic you look on your stomach. +Great one am I for to see jokes."</p> + +<p>"An old rod did catch my toe," Tim +explained.</p> + +<p>Eylwin changed the cast of his countenance. +"Awful you are," he reproved +Tim. "Suppose that was me. Examine +you the stairs. Now indeed forget a handkerchief +have I for to wipe the flow of the +nose. Order Winnie to give me one of +Enoch Harries. Handkerchiefs white and +smelly he has."</p> + +<p>"Ill is Winnie fach," said Martha.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208"></a>[<i>p</i> 208]</span>"Gone she has for brief weeks to +Wales," Tim added.</p> + +<p>In the morning Eylwin came to the +Tabernacle.</p> + +<p>"Not healthy am I," he said. "Shock +I had yesterday. Fancy I do a rabbit +from Wales for the goiter."</p> + +<p>"Tasty are rabbits," Tim uttered.</p> + +<p>"Clap up, indeed," said Martha. "Too +young they are to eat and are they not +breeding?"</p> + +<p>"Rabbits very young don't breed," remarked +Eylwin.</p> + +<p>"They do," Martha avowed. "Sometimes, +iss; sometimes, no. Poison they +are when they breed."</p> + +<p>"Not talking properly you are," said +Eylwin. "Why for you palaver about +breeding to the preacher? Cross I will +be."</p> + +<p>"Be you quiet now, Martha," said Tim. +"Lock your tongue."</p> + +<p>"Send a letter to Winnie for a rabbit; +two rabbits if she is small," ordered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209"></a>[<i>p</i> 209]</span> +Eylwin. "And not see your faults +will I."</p> + +<p>Tim and Martha were perplexed and +communed with each other; and Tim +walked to Wimbledon where he was not +known and so have his errand guessed. +He bought a rabbit and carried it to the +door of the minister's house. "A rabbit +from Winnie fach in Wales," he said.</p> + +<p>"Eat her I will before I judge her," +replied Eylwin; and after he had eaten it +he said: "Quite fair was the animal. Serious +dirty is the capel. As I flap my hand +on the cushion Bible in my eloquence, like +chimney smoke is the dust. Clean you at +once. For are not the anniversary meetings +on the sixth Sabbath? All the rich +Welsh will be there, and Enoch Harries +and the wife of him."</p> + +<p>He came often to view Tim and Martha +at their labor.</p> + +<p>"Fortunate is your wench to have holiday," +he said one day. "Hard have +preachers to do in the vineyard."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210"></a>[<i>p</i> 210]</span>"Hear we did this morning," Tim began +to speak.</p> + +<p>"In a hurry am I," Eylwin interrupted. +"Fancy I do butter from Wales with one +pinch of salt in him. Tell Winnie to send +butter that is salted."</p> + +<p>Martha bought two pounds of butter.</p> + +<p>"Mean is his size," Tim grieved.</p> + +<p>"Much is his cost," Martha whined.</p> + +<p>"Get you one pound of marsherin and +make him one and put him on a wetted +cabbage leaf."</p> + +<p>The fifth Sunday dawned.</p> + +<p>"Next to-morrow," said Martha, "the +daughter will be home. Go you to the +jail and fetch her, and take you for her a +big hat for old jailers cut the hair very +short."</p> + +<p>"No-no," Tim replied. "Better she returns +and speak nothing. With no questions +shall we question her."</p> + +<p>Monday opened and closed.</p> + +<p>"Mistake is in your count," Martha +hinted.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211"></a>[<i>p</i> 211]</span>"Slow scolar am I," said Tim. "Count +will I once more."</p> + +<p>"Don't you, boy bach," Martha hastened +to say. "Come she will."</p> + +<p>At the dusk of Friday Eylwin Jones, his +goitered chin shivering, ran furiously and +angrily into the Tabernacle. "Ho-ho," +he cried. "In jail is Winnie. A scampess +is she and a whore. Here's scandal. +Mother and father of a thief in the house +of the capel bach of Jesus Christ. Robbed +Mistress Harries she did. Broke is the +health of the woman nice as a consequent. +She will not be at the anniversary meetings +because the place is contaminated by +you pair. And her husband won't. Five +shillings each they give to the collection. +The capel wants the half soferen. Out you +go. Now at once."</p> + +<p>Tim and Martha were sorely troubled +that Winnie would come to the Chapel +House and not finding them, would go +away.</p> + +<p>"Loiter will I near by," said Tim.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212"></a>[<i>p</i> 212]</span>"Say we rent a room and peer for her," +said Martha.</p> + +<p>Thereon from dusk to day either Tim or +Martha sat at the window of their room +and watched. The year died and spring +and summer declined into autumn, when +on a moon-lit night men flew in machines +over London and loosened bombs upon the +people thereof.</p> + +<p>"Feared am I," said Martha, "that our +daughter is not in the shelter." She +screamed: "Don't stand there like a mule. +Pray, Tim man."</p> + +<p>Remembering how that he had prayed, +Tim answered: "Try a prayer will I near +the capel."</p> + +<p>So Martha watched at her window and +Tim prayed at the door of the Tabernacle.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213"></a>[<i>p</i> 213]</span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214"></a>[<i>p</i> 214]</span></p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215"></a>[<i>p</i> 215]</span></p> +<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII</h2> + +<h2>LOST TREASURE</h2> + + +<p>Here is the tale that is told about Hugh +Evans, who was a commercial traveler in +drapery wares, going forth on his journeys +on Mondays and coming home on +Fridays. The tale tells how on a Friday +night Hugh sat at the table in the kitchen +of his house, which is in Parson's Green. +He had before him coins of gold, silver, +and copper, and also bills of his debts; and +upon each bill he placed certain monies +in accordance with the sum marked thereon. +Having fixed the residue of his coins +and having seen that he held ten pounds, +his mind was filled with such bliss that he +said within himself: "A nice little amount +indeed. Brisk are affairs."</p> + +<p>"Millie," he addressed his wife, "look +over them and add them together."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216"></a>[<i>p</i> 216]</span>"Wait till I'm done," was the answer. +"The irons are all hotted up."</p> + +<p>Hugh chided her. "You are not interested +in my saving. You don't care. It's +nothing to you. Forward, as I call."</p> + +<p>"If I sit down," Millie offered, "I feel +I shall never get up again and the irons +are hotted and what I think is a shame +to waste gas like this the price it is."</p> + +<p>"Why didn't you say so at the first +opportunity? Be quick then. I shan't +allow the cash to lay here."</p> + +<p>Duly Millie observed her husband's order, +and what time she proved that which Hugh +had done, she was admonished that she +had spent too much on this and that.</p> + +<p>"I'm doing all I can not to be extravagant," +she whimpered. "I don't buy a +thing for my back." Her short upper lip +curled above her broken teeth and trembled; +she wept.</p> + +<p>"But whatever," said Hugh softening +his spirit, "I got ten soferens in hand. +Next quarter less you need and more you +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217"></a>[<i>p</i> 217]</span>have. Less gass and electric. You don't +gobble food so ravishingly in warm +weather. The more I save."</p> + +<p>Having exchanged the ten pounds for a +ten-pound note, remorse seized Hugh. "A +son of a mule am I," he said. "Dangerous +is paper as he blows. If he blows! +Bulky are soferens and shillings. If you +lose two, you got the remnants. But they +are showy and tempting." He laid the +note under his pillow and slept, and he +took it with him, secreted on his person, +to Kingsend Chapel, where every Sunday +morning and evening he sang hymns, +bowed under prayer, and entertained his +soul with sermons.</p> + +<p>Just before departing on Monday he +gave the note to Millie. "Keep him securely," +he counseled her. "Tell nobody +we stock so much cash."</p> + +<p>Millie put the note between the folds of +a Paisley shawl, which was precious to her +inasmuch as it had been her mother's, and +she wrapped a blanket over the shawl and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218"></a>[<i>p</i> 218]</span>placed it in a cupboard. But on Friday +she could not remember where she had +hidden the note; "never mind," she consoled +herself, "it will occur to me all of a +sudden."</p> + +<p>As that night Hugh cast off his silk hat +and his frock coat, he shouted: "Got the +money all tightly?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied Millie quickly. "As safe +as in the Bank of England."</p> + +<p>"Can't be safer than that. Keep him +close to you and tell no one. Paper money +has funny ways." Hugh then prophesied +that in a year his wealth in a mass would +be fifty pounds.</p> + +<p>"With ordinary luck, and I'm sure you +desire it because you're always at it, it +will," Millie agreed.</p> + +<p>"No luck about it. No stop to me. +We've nothing to purchase. And you +don't. At home you are, with food and +clothes and a ceyling above you. Kings +don't want many more."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Millie. "No."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219"></a>[<i>p</i> 219]</span>Weeks passed and Millie was concerned +that she could not find the note, tried she +never so hard. At the side of her bed +she entreated to be led to it, and in the +day she often paused and closing her eyes +prayed: "Almighty Father, bring it to +me."</p> + +<p>The last Friday of the quarter Hugh +divided his money in lots, and it was that +he had eleven pounds over his debts. +"Eleven soferens now," he cried to his +wife. "That's grand! Makes twenty-one +the first six months of the wedded life."</p> + +<p>"It reflects great credit on you," said +Millie, concealing her unhappiness.</p> + +<p>"Another eighty and I'd have an +agency. Start a factory, p'raps. There's +John Daniel. He purchases an house. +Ten hands he has working gents' shirts +for him."</p> + +<p>Millie turned away her face and demanded +from God strength with which to +acquaint her husband of her misfortune. +What she asked for was granted unto her +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220"></a>[<i>p</i> 220]</span>at her husband's amorous moment of the +Sabbath morning.</p> + +<p>Hugh's passion deadened, and in his +agony he sweated.</p> + +<p>"They're gone! Every soferen," he +cried. "They can't all have gone. The +whole ten." He opened his eyes widely. +"Woe is me. Dear me. Dear me."</p> + +<p>Until day dimmed and night grayed did +they two search, neither of them eating and +neither of them discovering the treasure.</p> + +<p>Therefore Hugh had not peace nor +quietness. Grief he uttered with his +tongue, arms, and feet, and it was in the +crease of his garments. He sought sympathy +and instruction from those with +whom he traded. "All the steam is gone +out of me," he wailed. One shopkeeper +advised him: "Has it slipped under the +lino?" Another said: "Any mice in the +house? Money has been found in their +holes." The third said: "Sure the wife +hasn't spent it on dress. You know what +ladies are." These hints and more Hugh +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221"></a>[<i>p</i> 221]</span>wrote down on paper, and he mused in this +wise: "An old liar is the wench. For +why I wedded the English? Right was +mam fach; senseless they are. Crying she +has lost the yellow gold, the bitch. What +blockhead lost one penny? What is in +the stomach of my purse this one minute? +Three shillings—soferen—five pennies—half +a penny—ticket railway. Hie backwards +will I on Thursday on the surprise. +No comfort is mine before I peep once +again."</p> + +<p>He pried in every drawer and cupboard, +and in the night he arose and inquired +into the clothes his wife had left +off; and he pushed his fingers into the holes +of mice and under the floor coverings, and +groped in the fireplaces; and he put subtle +questions to Millie.</p> + +<p>"If you'd done like this in a shop you'd +be sacked without a ref," he said when his +search was over. "We must have him +back. It's a sin to let him go. Reduce +expenses at once."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222"></a>[<i>p</i> 222]</span>Millie disrobed herself by the light of a +street lamp, and she ate little of such +foods as are cheapest, whereat her white +cheeks sunk and there was no more luster +in her brown hair; and her larder was +as though there was a famine in the +country. If she said to Hugh: "Your +boots are leaking," she was told: "Had +I the soferens I would get a pair"; or if +she said: "We haven't a towel in the +place," the reply was: "Find the soferens +and buy one or two."</p> + +<p>The more Hugh sorrowed and scrimped, +the more he gained; and word of his +fellows' hardships struck his broad, loose +ears with a pleasant tinkle. While on his +journeys he stayed at common lodging-houses, +and he did not give back to his +employers any of the money which was +allowed him to stay at hotels. Some folk +despised him, some mocked him, and many +nicknamed him "the ten-pound traveler." +To the shopkeeper who hesitated to deal +with him he whined his loss, making it +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223"></a>[<i>p</i> 223]</span>greater than it was, and expressing: "The +interest alone is very big."</p> + +<p>By such methods he came to possess one +hundred and twenty pounds in two years. +His employers had knowledge of his deeds, +and they summoned him to them and said +to him that because of the drab shabbiness +of his clothes and his dishonest acts they +had appointed another in his stead.</p> + +<p>"You started this," he admonished +Millie. "Bring light upon mattar."</p> + +<p>"What can I do?" Millie replied. +"Shall I go back to the dressmaking as +I was?"</p> + +<p>Hugh was not mollified. By means of +such women man is brought to a penny. +He felt dishonored and wounded. Of the +London Welsh he was the least. Look at +Enos-Harries and Ben Lloyd and Eynon +Davies. There's boys for you. And look +at the black John Daniel, who was a prentice +with him at Carmarthen. Hark him +ordering preacher Kingsend. Watch him +on the platform on the Day of David the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224"></a>[<i>p</i> 224]</span> +Saint. And all, dear me, out of J.D.'s +Ritfit three-and-sixpence gents' tunic +shirts.</p> + +<p>He considered a way, of which he spoke +darkly to Millie, lest she might cry out his +intention.</p> + +<p>"No use troubling," he said in a changed +manner. "Come West and see the shops."</p> + +<p>Westward they two went, pausing at +windows behind which were displayed +costly blouses.</p> + +<p>"That's plenty at two guineas," Hugh +said of one.</p> + +<p>"It's a Paris model," said Millie.</p> + +<p>"Nothing in her. Nothing."</p> + +<p>"Not much material, I grant," Millie +observed. "The style is fashionable and +they charge a lot."</p> + +<p>"I like to see you in her," said Hugh. +"Take in the points and make her with +an odd length of silk."</p> + +<p>When the blouse was finished, Hugh +took it to a man at whose shop trade the +poorest sort of middle-class women, say<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225"></a>[<i>p</i> 225]</span>ing: +"I can let you have a line like this at +thirty-five and six a dozen."</p> + +<p>"I'll try three twelves," said the man.</p> + +<p>Then Hugh went into the City and +fetched up Japanese silk, and lace, and +large white buttons; and Millie sewed with +her might.</p> + +<p>Hugh thrived, and his success was noised +among the London Welsh. The preacher +of Kingsend Chapel visited him.</p> + +<p>"Not been in the Temple you have, +Mistar Eevanss, almost since you were +spliced," he said. "Don't say the wife +makes you go to the capel of the English."</p> + +<p>"Busy am I making money."</p> + +<p>"News that is to me, Mistar Eevanss. +Much welcome there is for you with +us."</p> + +<p>In four years Hugh had eighteen machines, +at each of which a skilled woman +sat; and he hired young girls to sew +through buttons and hook-and-eyes and to +make button-holes. These women and +girls were under the hand of Millie, who +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226"></a>[<i>p</i> 226]</span>kept count of their comings and goings +and the work they performed, holding from +their wages the value of the material they +spoilt and of the minutes they were not at +their task. Millie labored faithfully, her +heart being perfect with her husband's. +She and Hugh slept in the kitchen, for all +the other rooms were stockrooms or workrooms; +and the name by which the concern +was called was "The French Model Blouse +Co. Manageress—Mme. Zetta, the notorious +French Modiste."</p> + +<p>Howsoever bitterly people were pressed, +Hugh did not cease to prosper. In riches, +honor, and respect he passed many of the +London Welsh.</p> + +<p>For that he could not provide all the +blouses that were requested of him, he +rented a big house. That hour men were +arrived to take thereto his belongings, +Millie said: "I'll throw the Paisley shawl +over my arm. I wouldn't lose it for anything"; +and as she moved away the ten-pound +note fell on the ground. "Well, I +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227"></a>[<i>p</i> 227]</span>never!" she cried in her dismay. "It was +there all the time."</p> + +<p>Hugh seized the note from her hand.</p> + +<p>"You've the head of a sieve," he said. +Also he lamented: "All these years we +had no interest in him."</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228"></a>[<i>p</i> 228]</span></p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229"></a>[<i>p</i> 229]</span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230"></a>[<i>p</i> 230]</span></p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231"></a>[<i>p</i> 231]</span></p> +<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII</h2> + +<h2>PROFIT AND GLORY</h2> + + +<p>By serving in shops, by drinking himself +drunk, and by shamming good fortune, +Jacob Griffiths gave testimony to the +miseries and joys of life, and at the age +of fifty-six he fell back in his bed at his +lodging-house in Clapham, suffered, drew +up his crippled knees and died. On the +morrow his brother Simon hastened to the +house; and as he neared the place he +looked up and beheld his sisters Annie and +Jane fach also hurrying thither. Presently +they three saw one another as with a single +eye, wherefore they slackened their pace +and walked with seemliness to the door. +Jacob's body was on a narrow, disordered +bed, and in the state of its deliverance: +its eyes were aghast and its hands were +clenched in deathful pangs.</p> + +<p>Then Simon bowed his trunk and lifted +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232"></a>[<i>p</i> 232]</span>his silk hat and his umbrella in the manner +of a preacher giving a blessing.</p> + +<p>"Of us family it can be claimed," he pronounced, +"that even the Angel do not +break us. We must all cross Jordan. +Some go with boats and bridges. Some +swim. Some bridges charge a toll—one +penny and two pennies. A toll there is to +cross Jordan."</p> + +<p>"He'll be better when he's washed and +laid out proper," remarked the woman of +the lodging-house.</p> + +<p>"Let down your apron from your head," +Simon said to her. "We are mourning +for our brother, the son of the similar +father and mother. You don't think me +insulting if I was alone with the corpse. +I shan't be long at my religious performance. +I am a busy man like you."</p> + +<p>The woman having gone, he spoke at +Jacob: "Perished you are now, Shacob. +You have unraveled the tangled skein of +eternal life. Pray I do you will find rest +with the restless of big London. Annie +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233"></a>[<i>p</i> 233]</span>and Jane fach, sorrowful you are; wet are +your tears. Go you and drink a nice cup +of tea in the café. Most eloquent I shall +be in a minute and there's hysterics you'll +get. Arrive will I after you. Don't pay +for tea; that will I do."</p> + +<p>"Iss, indeed," said Annie. "Off you, +Jane fach. You, Simon, with her, for +fear she is slayed in the street. Sit here +will I and speak to the spirit of Shacob."</p> + +<p>"The pant of my breath is not back"—Jane +fach's voice was shrill. "Did I +not muster on reading the death letter? +Witness the mud sprinkled on my gown."</p> + +<p>"Why should you muster, little sister?" +inquired Simon.</p> + +<p>"Right that I reach him in respectable +time, was the think inside me," Jane fach +answered. "What other design have I? +Stay here I will. A boy, dear me, for a +joke was Shacob with me. Heaps of gifts +he made me; enough to fill a yellow tin +box."</p> + +<p>"Generous he was," Simon said. "Hap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234"></a>[<i>p</i> 234]</span> +he parted with all. Full of feeling you +are. But useless that we loll here. No +odds for me; this is my day in the City. +How will your boss treat you, Annie, for +being away without a pass? Angry will +your buyer be, I would be in a temper with +my young ladies. Hie to the office, Jane. +Don't you borrow borrowings from me if +you are sacked."</p> + +<p>"You are as sly as the cow that steals +into clover," Annie cried out. She removed +her large hat and set upright the +osprey feathers thereon, puffed out her +hair which was fashioned in a high pile, +and whitened with powder the birth-stain +on her cheek. "They daren't discharge +me. I'd carry the costume trade with me. +Each second you hear, 'Miss Witton-Griffiths, +forward,' and 'Miss Witton-Griffiths, +her heinness is waiting for you.' +In favor am I with the buyer."</p> + +<p>"Whisper to me your average takings +per week," Simon craved. "Not repeat +will I."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235"></a>[<i>p</i> 235]</span>After exaggerating her report, Annie +said: "You are going now, then."</p> + +<p>Jane fach took from a chair a cup that +had tea in it, a candlestick—the candle in +which died before Jacob—and a teapot, +and she sat in the chair. "Oo-oo," she +squeaked. "Sorry am I you are flown."</p> + +<p>"Stupid wenches you are," Simon admonished +his sisters. "And curious. +Scandalous you are to pry into the leavings +of the perished dead."</p> + +<p>Jane fach, whose shoulders were +crumped and whose nose was as the beak +of a parrot, put forth her head. "The +reins of a flaming chariot can't drag +me from him. Was he not father +to me? Much he handed and more he +promised."</p> + +<p>"Great is your avarice," Simon declared.</p> + +<p>"Fonder he was of me than any one," +Annie cried. "The birthdays he presented +me with dresses—until he was +sacked. While I was cribbing, did he +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236"></a>[<i>p</i> 236]</span>not speak well to my buyer? Fitting I +stay with him this day."</p> + +<p>"I was his chief friend," said Simon. +"We were closer than brothers. So grand +was he to me that I could howl once more. +Iss, I could preach a funeral sermon on +my brother Shacob."</p> + +<p>Jacob's virtues were truly related. +Much had the man done for his younger +brother and sisters; albeit his behavior was +vain, ornamenting his person garishly and +cheaply, and comporting himself foolishly. +Summer by summer he went to Wales and +remained there two weeks; and he gave a +packet of tea or coffee to every widow who +worshiped in the capel, and a feast of tea +and currant bread and carraway-seed cake +to the little children of the capel.</p> + +<p>Wheedlers flattered him for gain: "The +watch of a nobleman you carry" and +"The ring would buy a field," said those +about Sion; "Never seen a more exact +fact simily of King George in my life than +you," cried spongers in London public-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237"></a>[<i>p</i> 237]</span>houses. +All grasped whatever gifts they +could and turned from him laughing: "The +watch of the fob is brass"; "No more +worth than a play marble is the ring"; +"Old Griffiths is the bloomin' limit." Yet +Jacob had delight in the thought that folk +passed him rich for his apparel and acts.</p> + +<p>"Waste of hours very awful is this," +Simon uttered by and by. He brought +out his order book and a blacklead pencil. +"Take stock will I now and put down."</p> + +<p>He searched the pockets of Jacob's garments +and the drawers in the chest, and +knelt on his knees and peered under +Jacob's bed; and all that he found were +trashy clothes and boots. His sisters tore +open the seams of the garments and +spread their fingers in the hollow places, +and they did not find anything.</p> + +<p>"Jewellary he had," exclaimed Annie. +"Much was the value of his diamond ring. +'This I will to you,' he said to me. Champion +she would seem on my finger. Half a +hundred guineas was her worth."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238"></a>[<i>p</i> 238]</span>"Where is the watch and chain?" Jane +fach demanded. "Gold they were. Link +like the fingers of feet the chain had. +These I have."</p> + +<p>"Lovely were his solitaires," cried +Annie. "They are mine."</p> + +<p>"Liar of a bitch," said Jane fach. +"'All is yours,' mouthed Shacob my +brother, who hears me in the Palace."</p> + +<p>Simon answered neither yea nor no. He +stepped down to the woman of the house. +"I have a little list here of the things my +brother left in your keeping," he began. +"Number wan, gold watch—"</p> + +<p>The woman opened her lips and spoke: +"Godstruth, he didn't have a bean to his +name. Gold watch! I had to call him in +the mornings. What with blacking his +whiskers and being tender on his feet, which +didn't allow of him to run to say the least +of it, I was about pretty early. Else he'd +never get to Ward's at all. And Balham +is a long run from here."</p> + +<p>"I will come back and see you later,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239"></a>[<i>p</i> 239]</span> +Simon replied, and he returned to his sisters. +"Hope I do," he said to them. +"You discover his affairs. All belong to +you. Tall was his regard for you two. +Now we will prepare to bury him. Privilege +to bury the dead. Sending the corpse +to the crystal capel. Not wedded are you +like me. Heavy is the keep of three children +and the wife."</p> + +<p>"For why could not the fool have saved +for his burying, I don't say?" Annie +cried. "Let the perished perish. That's +equal for all."</p> + +<p>"In sense is your speech," Simon +agreed. "Shop fach very neat he might +have if he was like me and you."</p> + +<p>"Throwing away money he did," Annie +said. "I helped him three years ago when +he was sacked. Did I not pay for him to +sleep one month in lodgings?"</p> + +<p>"I got his frock coat cleaned at cost +price," Jane fach remembered, "and sewed +silk on her fronts. I lent him lendings. +Where are my lendings?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240"></a>[<i>p</i> 240]</span>"A squanderer you were," Simon rebuked +the body. "Tidy sums you spent +in pubs. Booze got you the sack after +twenty years in the same shop. Disgraced +was I to have such a brother as +you, Shacob. Where was your religion, +man? But he has to be buried, little +sisters, or babbling there'll be. Cheap +funeral will suit in Fulham cematary. +Reasonable your share is more than mine, +because the Big Man has trusted me with +sons."</p> + +<p>"No sense is in you," Annie shouted. +"Not one coin did he repay me. The +coins he owed me are my share."</p> + +<p>"As an infidel you are," said Simon. +"Ach y fy, cheating the grave of custom."</p> + +<p>"Leaving am I." Jane fach rose. +"Late is the day."</p> + +<p>"Woe is me," Simon wailed. "Like +the old Welsh of Cardigan is your cunning. +Come you this night here to listen to +funeral estimates. Don't you make me +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241"></a>[<i>p</i> 241]</span>bawl this in your department, Annie, and +in your office laundry, Jane."</p> + +<p>From the street door he journeyed by +himself to Balham, and habiting his face +with grief, he related to Mr. Ward how +Jacob died.</p> + +<p>"He passed in my arms," he said; +"very gently—willingly he gave back the +ghost. A laugh in his face that might be +saying: 'I see Thy wonders, O Lord.'"</p> + +<p>"This is very sad," said Mr. Ward. +"If there is anything we can do—"</p> + +<p>"You speak as a Christian who goes to +chapel, sir. It's hard to discuss business +now just. But Jacob has told he left a +box in your keep."</p> + +<p>"I don't think so. Still, I'll make +sure." Mr. Ward went away, and returning, +said: "The only thing he left +here is this old coat which he wore at +squadding in the morning. Of course there +is his salary—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, I know. I'd give millions +of salaries for my brother back."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242"></a>[<i>p</i> 242]</span>"You are his only relative?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed, sir. No father and mother +had he. An orphan. Quite pathetic. I +will never grin again. Good afternoon, +sir. I hope you'll have a successful summer +sale."</p> + +<p>"Hadn't you better take his money?" +said Mr. Ward. "We pay quarterly +here."</p> + +<p>"Certainly it will save coming again. +But business is business, even in the presence +of the dead."</p> + +<p>"It's eighteen pounds. That's twelve +weeks at one-ten."</p> + +<p>"Well, if you insist, insist you do. +Prefer I would to have my brother Jacob +back."</p> + +<p>Simon put the coat over his arm and +counted the money, and after he had drunk +a little beer and eaten of bread and cheese, +he made deals with a gravedigger and an +undertaker, and the cost for burying +Jacob was eight pounds.</p> + +<p>That night he was with his sisters, say<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243"></a>[<i>p</i> 243]</span>ing +to them: "Twelve soferens will put +him in the earth. Four soferens per each."</p> + +<p>"None can I afford," Jane fach vowed. +"Not paid my pew rent in Capel Charing +Cross have I."</p> + +<p>"Easier for me to fly than bring the +cash," said Annie. "Larger is your screw +than me."</p> + +<p>Simon smote the ground with his umbrella +and stayed further words. "Give +the soferens, bullocks of Hell fire."</p> + +<p>Annie and Jane fach were distressed. +The first said: "The flesh of the swine +shall smell before I do." The second said: +"Hard you are on a bent-back wench."</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding their murmurs, Simon +hurled at them the spite of his wrath, +reviling them foully and filthily; and the +women got afraid that out of his anger +would come mischief, and each gave as +she was commanded.</p> + +<p>The third day Simon and Annie and +Jane fach stood at Jacob's grave; and +Annie and Jane were put to shame that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244"></a>[<i>p</i> 244]</span> +Simon bragged noisily how that he had +caused a name-plate to be made for +Jacob's coffin and a wreath of glass flowers +for the mound of Jacob's grave.</p> + + +<h3>THE END</h3> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of My Neighbors, by Caradoc Evans + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY NEIGHBORS *** + +***** This file should be named 16823-h.htm or 16823-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/8/2/16823/ + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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