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diff --git a/38212-8.txt b/38212-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a5822c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/38212-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8805 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Making of William Edwards, by Mrs. G. Linnaeus Banks + +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: The Making of William Edwards + or The Story of the Bridge of Beauty + +Author: Mrs. G. Linnaeus Banks + +Release Date: December 5, 2011 [EBook #38212] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAKING OF WILLIAM EDWARDS *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Lindy Walsh, Martin Pettit and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +THE MAKING OF WILLIAM EDWARDS + +[Illustration: + +Yours Faithfully +Isabella Banks] + + + + +PUBLISHER'S NOTE TO POPULAR EDITION + + +This book appeared originally as 'The Bridge of Beauty.' But on its +re-issue in popular form it has been thought well to indicate in the new +title the purport of the story. + +[Illustration: THE SEARCH FOR THE MISSING FARMER. + +_Frontispiece._] [_See page 16._] + + + + +THE MAKING OF WILLIAM EDWARDS + +OR + +_THE STORY OF THE BRIDGE OF BEAUTY_ + + +BY +MRS. G. LINNĈUS BANKS + +AUTHOR OF 'GOD'S PROVIDENCE HOUSE' 'THE MANCHESTER MAN' +'IN HIS OWN HAND' ETC. ETC. + + +_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY W. DEWAR_ + + +SECOND EDITION + + +LONDON: +ANDREW MELROSE +16 PILGRIM STREET, E.C. + + + + +CONTENTS. + +CHAP. PAGE + + I. A THUNDERSTORM 13 + + II. WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN 25 + + III. A BOY'S WILL 36 + + IV. PAYING THE RENT 46 + + V. THE NEW INMATE 57 + + VI. LOST 70 + + VII. THE YOUNG PLAGUE 83 + + VIII. THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS 95 + + IX. THE BAFFLED AGENT 105 + + X. FRIENDS AND BROTHERS 118 + + XI. A MEMORABLE ENCOUNTER 129 + + XII. CAERPHILLY CASTLE 141 + + XIII. MAN PROPOSES 152 + + XIV. WHERE IS EVAN? 162 + + XV. A STOP-GAP 179 + + XVI. DISCOVERIES 193 + + XVII. PROPER TOOLS 207 + +XVIII. IN THE GRIP OF A STRONG HAND 219 + + XIX. WITH GRANDFATHER'S GOLD 232 + + XX. IN THE NICK OF TIME 249 + + XXI. THE FINGER OF GOD 264 + + XXII. A BLIND INSTRUCTOR 280 + +XXIII. BRIDGE-BUILDING 298 + + XXIV. PONT-Y-PRIDD 313 + +POSTSCRIPT 333 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + + PAGE + +THE SEARCH FOR THE MISSING FARMER _Frontispiece._ + +THE RIDERLESS HORSE FOUND ITS WAY HOME 17 + +MOUNTED ON THE LOW WALL, ON HIS WAY TO EVAN'S SHOULDERS 67 + +LYING IN THE MIDST OF THE HOARY CIRCLE OF GREY STONES 79 + +'SO THAT IS HOW YOU PROPOSE TO CARRY ON YOUR FARM?' +HE SAID, WITH A SNEER 107 + +HE TURNED AND SHOOK HIS WHIP-HAND AT THE CHILD 111 + +THERE WAS SOMETHING RATHER MYSTERIOUS ABOUT HER CARGO 165 + +'YOUR RENT WILL BE ADVANCED TEN POUNDS PER ANNUM +AFTER THIS DATE,' HE SAID 175 + +HE FOUND MR. MORRIS SEATED AT THE TABLE AS WELL AS +THE VICAR 243 + +LONG-LOST EVAN HAD COME BACK 253 + +BLINDED BY PASSION, HE SPURRED HIS HORSE TO THE +UNCERTAIN FORD 269 + +ELAINE PARRY 293 + +ONLY HIS WIFE CAN ENTER INTO HIS FEELINGS, AND +ALLEVIATE HIS BITTER HUMILIATION 325 + +THE BRIDGE OF BEAUTY, 1755 331 + + +[Illustration: CAERPHILLY CASTLE.] + + + + +THE MAKING OF WILLIAM EDWARDS. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +A THUNDERSTORM. + + +It was a sad day for Mrs. Edwards, of Eglwysilan,[1] when her well-loved +husband, on his return from Llantrissant market one sultry Friday in the +autumn of 1721, in attempting to cross the River Taff, failed to observe +its rising waters, missed the ford, and was carried down the stream, a +drowning man. + +Only that morning he had driven a goat and a score of sheep across in +safety, the sheep following their agile and sure-footed leader, as he +sprang from one to another of the out-cropping masses of rock, which, +scattered in mid-stream, served alike as stepping-stones and as +indications when the river was fordable, as it generally was in a dry +summer. + +But the Taff, born in a marsh, and running through a deep vale, is given +to rise as swiftly as the traditional Welshman's temper. Many are its +seen and unseen feeders among the mountain steeps; and, although there +had been but a light passing shower in sheltered hill-side Llantrissant +that day, farther north a heavy thunderstorm had burst in a deluge over +bogs and hills; and down from countless rills and rivulets the waters +had come flashing in leaps and bounds, to swell the tribute brooks and +rivers alike bore to the Taff as vassals to a sovereign. + +William Edwards was as steady a man as any farmer in Glamorganshire, but +whenever a group of them got together, at fair or market, there great +pitchers of _cwrw da_[2] were certain to be also, either to cement +friendship or to clinch a bargain, and the beverage was uncommonly +heady. + +Now bargaining was a long and thirsty process, and, although he was +thrifty and the ale was dear, when Edwards had completed the sale of +goat and sheep to his satisfaction, he had imbibed a fair share of the +common beverage; not, however, so much as to prevent other huckstering +and bargaining on account of his wife. The stockings knitted on the farm +had to be sold, or bartered for needles, pins, tapes, or shoe-latchets; +he had to purchase a sieve, a supply of soap and candles, a pair of +Sunday shoes for his little girl, and a couple of tin cans. + +By the time these were thrust into his saddle-bags, the sieve and +tinware secured to the pommel of his saddle so as to balance each other +above the bags, and a final draught of _cwrw_ swallowed as a refresher +for his journey, the afternoon had slipped nearly away, and with it one +or two impatient neighbours on whom he had depended for company on the +rough, circuitous road over the mountain ridge to the fords. + +Rough road indeed it was, little better than a beaten track worn by men +and beasts constrained to pass that way; a road unsought except in dry +weather, a rugged descent from Llantrissant to the ford of the Rhonda, +and then up and down again, with stones and tree-roots lying in wait to +trip unwary feet; for at that period the picturesque Vale of Taff was +thickly wooded and scantily populated, and the roads were little better +than deep gullies or natural stairways. + +His sturdy Welsh pony, however, was a thorough mountaineer, and, left to +himself, jogged along without stumbling or straying, whatever the hour +or the road. He took to the water and crossed the ford of the swollen +Rhonda safely enough, although twilight was falling; but the evening +shadows had deepened with every mile they trod, and grew heavier as they +descended towards the larger river, with darkening woods on either hand, +for there they rode through a veil of blinding mist. + +The mist had been gathering and the water rising rapidly, when Owen +Griffith, one of his neighbours, who had prudently quitted the market +three-quarters of an hour earlier than Edwards, finding the river +evidently on the rise, had deemed it only wise to trust his pony's +sagacity to find a trustworthy ford rather than depend on his own +eyesight. + +It was quite a matter for after conjecture, but it was always supposed +that the sagacious animal Edwards bestrode had grown restive and refused +to take the unsafe crossing, and that he,--a man doggedly obstinate and +wise in his own conceit,--unable to discern a reason for his faithful +beast's rebellion, had forcibly compelled the reluctant animal to +attempt the ford in spite of its resistance, as shown by hoof-marks +beaten in upon the bank. + +Be that as it may, the riderless horse found its way home to the +woodside farm on Eglwysilan Mountain, wet, foaming, and panting; the +saddle and saddle-bags, drenched with discoloured water, telling all too +surely that the uneasily watching wife was a widow, her four children +fatherless. In such moments the mind always grasps at the worst +suggestion. + +The distracted woman rushed shrieking to her nearest neighbour. Her +awakened boys called after her, but she heard them not. + +The alarm spread. In an incredibly short space of time, considering how +far apart lay the farms, and how few were the cottage homes, a score or +two of half-dressed men and barefooted women were running or riding to +the rescue, if such were possible. And wherever was practicable path or +foothold, lanthorns were flashing along the steep and densely wooded +banks upon the swiftly running river; but though it was seen where the +poor horse had contrived to scramble up the bank, there was no sign of +him they sought so anxiously. + +[Illustration: THE RIDERLESS HORSE FOUND ITS WAY HOME.--_See page 16._] + +The more fortunate beast had had a narrow escape. + +Not forty yards ahead the chafing Rhonda came leaping and foaming to the +deathly embrace of the Taff, and in the swirl of the confluent waters +all hope was lost. + +Yet still the despairing widow urged the wearied explorers on; and moved +by her piteous entreaties, Owen Griffith, their near neighbour, declared +he would not give up the search until the farmer was found, dead or +alive, if he had to go as far as Cardiff to find him. The man was ill at +ease, feeling as if a little more urgency on his part might have drawn +Edwards away from the market in time for safety. + +His determination arrested the steps of several others who were on the +point of turning back, and they joined him readily, but only on the +condition that Mrs. Edwards should return home with the rest of the +women, and leave the search to them. 'You will be best at home, look +you! Women have no business here!' said they, unnerved by her white face +and stifled sobbing. + +'Yes, yes, Jane,' urged the women. 'Think you of your children, do; and +come back. It's crying in the dark, and all alone they will be, yes +indeed!' + +And moved by the picture of her desolate children in their affright and +grief, the sorrowing and agitated mother was drawn homewards, by the +strong cords of maternal affection, to clasp them in her arms, and +stifle her own anguish in attempts to impart the comfort she could not +yet take to her own stricken heart. + +She was a religious woman, with a simple, unquestioning faith in the +wisdom and love of her Heavenly Father; and who shall say the effort +held for her no healing balm? + +If she wept, she also prayed; and although two of her children, William, +not yet a three years boy, and Jonet, a girl of four, were too young to +enter into the depths of her grief, or comprehend her prayers, David and +Rhys,[3] respectively nine and twelve, were old enough to understand, +and to feel how disastrous a calamity had fallen upon them unawares. + +Before midnight the three youngest had cried themselves to sleep. Only +Rhys remained, with his arms around his mother's neck, to share her +terrible night-watch, and wait for what day might bring; his overflowing +young heart swelling with unexpressed resolves to be her shield and +protector when he should grow a man. + +In the grey of the morning Owen Griffith and his helpers came upon what +they sought a few miles below Treforest, on the eastern bank of the +river, flung ashore like a weed by the inflowing current of the Rhonda, +and left there by the rapid subsidence of the temporary spate. Soberly +and reverently they laid it on an extemporised litter of boughs and +reeds, covering the face with Owen's coat, and slowly re-trod the miles +to lay the disfigured dead down on the bed from which a hearty man had +risen the preceding morn. + +There is no antidote to inconsolable grief like active employment, work +which exercises hand and brain and cannot be set aside. Such is the +daily work on a farm; and though kindly neighbours had taken care of +the poor horse and its burden, had dressed the younger children, and +volunteered assistance in other small household matters, neither the +cows nor the goats would submit to be milked by strange hands. + +Mrs. Edwards had, fortunately, no time to indulge in grief. She was a +woman of determined energy and practical piety; and after the first +overwhelming outburst of natural emotion, turned to her ordinary duties +as if awakened to the consciousness that all the care and responsibility +of farm and family rested on her individual shoulders. + +Dashing the tears from her eyes, she snatched up a milking-stool and +pail, and was off up the hill-side, Rhys darting after her with a +smaller stool and pail to milk the she-goats, not for the first time, +but for the first time voluntarily. His initiatory lessons had been +taken that summer, with his father standing over him to keep the +refractory in order, whether biped or quadruped. + +He had not taken kindly to the task at the time, having all a boy's +fondness for play, and would rather have gone bird-nesting than +goat-milking. But _now_ that his father was gone--so suddenly taken from +them--he, too, seemed to feel as if new duties devolved on him, and +that, boy though he was, he must aim at the work of a man, and spare his +widowed mother all he could. + +The idea was scarcely spontaneous. He had overheard a knot of gossips +lamenting that Farmer Edwards had not left a son old enough to take his +place on the farm, and help his mother to rear the younger ones as in +duty bound. And he had straightway resolved to prove the gossips in the +wrong. + +'If I am not old enough to take my father's place, I am old enough to do +my duty, and I shall get older and stronger every year. They shall see +what I can do to help mother; and as for my brothers and sister, am I +not the eldest, and ten whole years older than William? Sure I can take +care of them--at least I can try.' + +If this was not absolutely the boy's colloquy, it comes near enough to +its spirit. There was something of the father's masterfulness in Rhys, +and, directed to noble purposes, it might serve the widow in good stead. +And noble purpose may be shown in small things as in great; indeed, is +stronger in the lesser, where it makes no show, than in great deeds, +which make a parade and attract applause. The only danger with Rhys was +that, self-inflated, he might develop an obtrusively dominant will that +should override his better qualities. At present his sole desire was to +relieve his overburdened mother, and protect his sister and brothers--a +worthy and noble aim for a boy of his age. + +But a boy reared on a small farm in those primitive days was not the +helpless creature progress and modern manners have manufactured between +them. Very primitive indeed was Welsh farming in the last century, +primitive as the farms themselves. But no child of seven or eight was +too young for work of some kind or other, whether reared in the +labourer's windowless hut or on the farmer's own wide hearth. If only +stone-picking, weeding, or rook-scaring, there was always something to +be done, something to keep active and restless boys and girls out of +mischief before they were old enough to drive the cows to pasture, or +assist shepherd and husbandman. + +Of school-going there was little enough; even dame-schools were as +scarce in wild Wales as in rural England; but there was generally a +substitute by the fireside, and the man who could not read was far less +common in the little Principality than in the larger kingdom. + +Still more scarce was the woman or man who could not knit. When a child +was six years old, it was time to put knitting-pins into the little +fingers to learn the simple stitch. And wander where you would, over the +mountains or along the rough roads, you were sure to meet man or maid, +on horseback or on foot, stocking-knitting with mechanical precision. + +In the long winter evenings, when the only illumination was from the +culm fire, the solitary candle, or homemade rushlight, knitting and +spinning filled up usefully the darkened hours. And perchance then the +big Welsh Bible Dr. Parry had provided for his countrymen a century +before would be brought out and laid on the table close to the solitary +candle, to be read aloud or spelled out by the growing boy or girl, +under paternal instruction. On the Sabbath this was surely so. + +Under such training it was clear that Rhys at twelve years of age would +be more capable and practically helpful to his mother than a modern +farmer's son, who sees the farm only in the holidays, or out of school +hours, who handles tennis or cricket bat instead of spade and +pitchfork, and never did a day's hard work in his young life. + +When Rhys bravely resolved to work like a man, he knew what lay before +him to do and to learn. Farming on a thin, unproductive stratum of soil +in a mountain land is no child's play. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Pronounced Egloois-ilian. + +[2] _Cwrw da_, good ale. The _w_ has the sound of _oo_; thus _cooroo_. + +[3] Rhys, pronounced Rees. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN. + + +Is there any record of a catastrophe so great or appalling that it could +not possibly have been worse? + +In the first hours of her sudden bereavement, Mrs. Edwards felt as if an +overwhelming flood of desolation had swept over her, and left her and +her orphans helpless and hopeless. Not that her husband had been the +most active spirit on the farm, but she was in no condition to reason or +to weigh probabilities. She had not been wont to rely on him for advice +or action, but in losing him she felt as if all was lost. + +An apparently small matter roused her to the consciousness that there +were depths of misery into which she had not been plunged, and that even +out of her affliction she had cause to thank God for sparing a double +blow. + +When the drowned man had been discovered, he had been bruised and beaten +against rocks and stones until his grey frieze coat was torn into shreds +and tatters. But it was afterwards found that the old stocking-foot he +carried as a money bag had been securely buttoned up in his breeches +pocket, and the produce of his sales at the Friday's market was there +intact in hard coin. + +In the extremity of her grief for her one great loss she had overlooked +the probability of the smaller. Not till the saturated bag was handed to +her unopened did she realise what might have been. + +As she poured the gold and silver out on her lap, she clasped her hands +and fervently thanked God that in His wrath He had remembered mercy. + +'I had forgotten that the sheep and goat had been sold to make up the +half-year's rent. Yes, indeed I had. And what would become of the farm +and the poor children if the rent could not be paid? Pryse, the agent, +would turn us out for a better tenant than a poor widow, look you! But +he shall see what a woman can do. The good God has not quite forsaken +us.' + +She wept again at the thought, and little William and Jonet having drawn +close to her side questioning her with innocent eyes and tongues, she +clasped them both in a close embrace, and, without trusting herself to +answer, rose from her wooden stool and carried the recovered coin to a +safe hiding-place in the big chest, her sad heart much lightened of its +load. + +Barefooted David, who was still petticoated--his nine years bringing no +title to the dignity of week-day shoes or breeches,--ran with all speed +in search of Rhys, to carry the news that a bag of money had been found +in his father's pocket, and that his mother was crying over it. + +Rhys was just then feeding the pigs in a stone trough, placed where +they were walled in like sheep in a fold. He almost dropped the pail he +was emptying, he turned round so sharply. + +'Crying? What for?' + +''Deed, I think it was about being turned out of the farm,' answered +Davy, who had caught the words imperfectly, as he hurried out at the +doorway. + +Rhys looked aghast. What became of his heroic resolution to work for his +brothers and sister if they left the farm? + +'Turned out of the farm?' he echoed incredulously. Had not his father +and grandfather been born upon it? It would be like tearing up an oak +tree by the roots. + +''Deed, and she said it,' replied David, as if injured by the doubt. + +Down went the empty pail on the stones, and into the house strode Rhys, +alternately red and white with excitement. + +He could scarcely get the words out, they seemed to choke him. 'Davy +says,' he began with a gasp, 'that we are to leave the farm'--he could +not bring himself to say 'be turned out.' + +'Nay, Rhys, not now I have all the money for the rent, thank God! If +that had been lost in the river, I cannot tell what might have happened. +There would be no chance of selling cows or pigs, or the oats, or +anything before the rent-day, and Mr. Pryse would not wait an hour. "Out +you go!" would be his word. "There's a man will give ten guineas more +rent for it, and keep the land in better condition." Yes, look you, he +has been saying that these three years, and now it's he will be for +saying a woman will not be able to keep the hundred acres and pay my +lord his forty pounds. It's poor land, so much rock and bog and wood, +and he knows it, so much barren hill-side, scarcely fit to pasture the +few sheep and goats. Yes, 'deed it will take hard work to make the farm +pay now the husbandman is gone. Ah, yes, yes! We have had a terrible +loss, Rhys, _fach_.'[4] + +As she spoke the last words the poor widow's tears gushed forth again, +and would not be restrained. The flowers she was strewing over the +sheet-covered form of her dead fell to the floor, and she dropped on her +knees beside the bed, where it was her mournful duty to watch, and hid +her face with her hands as if to conceal the passion of grief she could +no longer control. + +Rhys was sobbing too, though he strove against it in his effort to be +manly. His arm went round her heaving shoulders with an unstudied air of +natural protection, and in a broken voice he begged her to be calm. Not +that he was by any means calm himself, but he was feeling early the need +for self-restraint. + +'Don't, mother, don't,' he murmured; 'you will be making yourself ill, +and then who will mind the farm or the children? I will be a good steady +boy, and will work as hard almost as a man. You shall not miss father +more than I can help, look you. And sure we have a terrible loss; but, +mother dear, it might be worse if we did lose the farm and all, as Davy +did say. You are a good farmer, so Owen Griffith do say, and you will be +teaching me.' + +'Yes, indeed, please God, and you shall be a good farmer too, Rhys,' +sobbed she, drying her eyes on her long check apron, and giving him a +look of profound trust and loving motherhood, whilst he drew himself up +with a renewed sense of importance. + +At that moment a figure darkened the bedroom doorway. In stepped a +fresh-looking young woman with bare legs and feet, short petticoats of +striped flannel, a dark blue woollen cloak, and a man's tall hat worn +over a plain linen cap, white as a snowdrop, though the stray locks +beneath it might have been more orderly had looking-glasses been more +common. She had a bundle on her left arm, a stocking she was knitting in +her hand, whilst little Willie held her fast by the other, and Jonet +clung to her cloak. + +'Ah, Ales,[5] is that you?' burst from Mrs. Edwards with an evident gasp +of relief. 'You was not expected back so soon. Had you heard of our +loss? Is your poor mother well again?' + +'Not quite well, but better, look you. She can sit up, and Mary may +manage to do for her now, perhaps.' There was a dubious tone in the +'perhaps,' but she went on to say, 'Mother would not let me stay when +she heard of your great trouble, after you was so kind as to let me go +away to nurse her. It was not right I should stay at Caerphilly when you +was being left all alone by yourself, with nobody to keep watch with +you or to help at all;' and she passed into the kitchen as she spoke. + +'Yes, _I'm_ here, Ales,' thrust in Rhys, as he followed. 'I shall help +mother now; yes, indeed!' + +'You?' ejaculated Ales incredulously, whilst divesting herself of +bundle, cloak, etc. 'Help's a little word and soon said, but it's not +much more than the saying we will be getting from you, Rhys. You never +was fond of work, whatever!' + +Rhys pulled himself up as if insulted. 'You shall see,' he said loftily, +and quitted the kitchen, where Mrs. Griffith was paring turnips for +dinner, his chin in the air. And not another word did he vouchsafe to +the young woman, his mother's hired servant. He might, by his manner, +have expected her to understand his altered position and good resolution +intuitively, but she only knew him as a lad with more liking for play +than work, and expected no more from the present than from the past. +Nay, perhaps less, now there was no father to drive him to his daily +tasks and thrash him into industry. + +It was a time of unusually painful bustle and excitement, yet there was +no cheeriness about the daily tasks. Indoors there was a hush even in +the scrubbing of benches, tables, and platters, almost in the dash of +the churn, for was not the widow still keeping her watch by the +dead--the dead who could not be buried on the third day, but must wait +until coroner and jury could be called together to verify the cause of +Mrs. Edwards' widowhood? Mrs. Griffith was there, alternately to help +Ales with her work, and to relieve the mourner--a kind, motherly sort of +woman, one to rely on in emergency. + +Out of doors Rhys kept David well employed, telling him he would have to +learn to be a man, directing him to do this or that with quite an +elder-brotherly air of proprietorship, though not unkindly. Ales +wondered what had come to him, he worked about the farm with so much +more knowledge of the right thing to be done at the right time than she +had given him credit for possessing. + +As for poor little Jonet and William, they shrank whispering into +corners out of everybody's way, or slunk out into the bit of ground that +did duty for a garden, or strayed into the orchard, where they made +themselves useful picking up windfall apples for the pony and the pigs, +and did their best to make themselves ill by eating the unripe fruit at +the same time; for although four years old Jonet was imitative in +assuming a protectorate over her two years brother, she had not herself +outlived a childish love for the crude and indigestible. They were, +fortunately, too young to comprehend the mystery of the closed room, yet +the general air of restraint affected even them, as they went about hand +in hand. + +The valley of the Taff has long been noted for its fertility. It was +otherwise in the early years of the last century, when husbandry in +Wales was so primitive that the spade did duty for the plough, and crops +had to be wrung from exhausted soil wholly by hand-labour; ignorance, +and old prejudice in favour of doing as their fathers had done before +them, standing in the way of progress, equally with the paucity of good +roads and bridges over which to convey produce. + +In places the lowlands near the river were fertile; and where the stream +was bordered by lofty slopes, and not hemmed in by precipitous limestone +crags, they were clothed with dense woods of fir and mountain ash, oak +and beech, with sallows by the water edge, all more esteemed by the +sparse population for their timber than for their wondrously picturesque +beauty. But at the top of the mountain range eastward of the vale, and +on their upper slopes, much of the ground was sour and boggy, and called +for more agricultural knowledge and appliances than had found their way +thither, even when this century was born. + +The farm of the Edwardses was so situated on the mountain-side, and +certainly enjoyed a diversity of soil capable of development in capable +hands. In Eglwysilan parish it was regarded as a fairly large farm, and +the house was the envy of the neighbours, though my modern readers may +think there was little to envy. It had not only three rooms besides the +capacious kitchen, but that kitchen could boast two glazed windows, one +on either side the entrance; a very rare distinction, except in good +houses or towns, so rare that not even shutters closed the apertures +through which air and light found their way to the two sleeping rooms or +to the long apartment in the rear, which served a variety of purposes. +These were the housing of general stores, household and farming +implements, a passage being kept clear from the kitchen midway through +to the back door and farmyard. And this was all the isolation considered +necessary for the dairy and dairy utensils, notwithstanding the purpose +to which the other half of its space was devoted. + +All these separate rooms were upon the ground floor. Stairs were almost +unknown conveniences in the cots and farms of wild Wales. Even in the +villages few were the inhabitants privileged to look down upon poorer +neighbours from upper windows. Lime, however, was plentiful in +Glamorganshire, and though walls were put together of roughly hewn +stone, they were whitewashed both inside and out with conscientious +frequency. + +In no place short of a mansion was much furniture to be found. And to +say that Mrs. Edwards had a well-scrubbed dresser filled with wooden +platters and with mugs of Staffordshire pottery; that she had not only a +large oaken table, but a linen cloth to cover it on occasion, and that +there was a chair near the chimney corner in addition to the high-backed +bench, or settle, and the three-legged stools; that a spinning-wheel +stood between the two bedroom doors opposite to the fireplace, and that +a large oaken chest stood under one window containing the family stock +of clothing, and of flannel the wheel had helped to spin, was to say +that she was for her time and place a thrifty, well-to-do woman, +somewhat in advance of her class. + +However, the great feature of the kitchen was the expansive open +fireplace, where the fire was made on a broad hearthstone, slightly +raised, the inside of the chimney, which sloped upwards towards the top +like a narrowing funnel, being set with stone seats for the elders of +the family. + +On the Tuesday following the catastrophe which had made Mrs. Edwards a +widow--although all the morning there had been the trampling through of +coroner and jurymen--a fierce fire of peat and fire-balls filled the +whole of the hearth, and two huge iron pots like witches' cauldrons hung +suspended by chains above it, bubbling and steaming. At the same time, +in the large oven built into the wall on the right of the fireplace, she +and her helpers had been baking spiced cake and oaten bread the whole of +the morning, as if providing for a regiment of soldiers. + +It was a hot day and hot work, though casements and doors stood open to +let out the vaporous fumes of cookery; and had not neighbourly Mrs. +Griffith come with her young daughter Cate to the assistance of Ales and +her troubled mistress, the former would have been unable to relieve Rhys +of his voluntary but fatiguing duty at the remorseless churn, so great, +if not unusual, were the preparations for the guests expected on the +morrow. + +Indeed, as Mrs. Edwards said, she did not know what she could possibly +have done without Owen Griffith and his wife, they had been such zealous +friends to her in her great affliction. + +She was not aware how the man's tender conscience stung him for leaving +Edwards to return home alone from Llantrissant. He was feeling himself +in some sort responsible for her bereavement. At any rate, no brother +could have served her in better stead had a brother been at hand. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] _Fach_, equivalent to the English dear. + +[5] Ales, pronounced Alis; in English, Alice. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +A BOY'S WILL. + + +As my story concerns not the dead man, but the family he left behind, I +might pass over his burial in silence, had it not been marked by +peculiar customs, few traces of which remain. Mountainous and +inaccessible regions retain their characteristic traits of life and +language long after intercourse has fused together the differing speech +and habits of dwellers on the plains, whether city or suburban. + +It was the last watch-night, and neither Ales nor her mistress had been +in bed for a couple of nights, the girl electing to share the widow's +watch beside the closed coffin of her good master, as Rhys would still +have done had his careful mother not forbidden. + +But long before the grey mists of morning had risen above the tree-tops, +or lifted off the mountain-side, Rhys was up and astir with them. There +was no leisure for indulgence in grief. There was so much to be done and +cleared away before the mournful business of the day began. There were +flowers to gather to strew upon the coffin-lid, and carry to the grave. +And, if the sheep and cattle out on the hill-side could find pasture for +themselves, the cows and ewes must be milked, the pigs and poultry fed, +or released to feed themselves. + +So Rhys and Ales were off betimes, laden with empty pails; bare-legged +Ales brushing the dew from the gorse and heather as she trudged along +with a pitcher balanced on her head, a stool tucked under one arm, a +pail on the other, her knitting, for a wonder, left behind; Rhys, by her +side, swinging a large milking-pail to balance a second stool. + +When they returned with laden pails to be emptied into the tall churn, +the fire was aglow, the porridge ready, the younger children up and +dressed in sombre suits, Davy in his first breeches, and all three stiff +and uncomfortable in shoes and stockings, neighbourly Mrs. Griffith and +her young daughter Cate having come upon the scene to set the afflicted +and harassed widow free for the rest of the day. + +Owen Griffith was also there, and by the time breakfast was over and a +clearance effected, Mrs. Edwards and Rhys had changed their garments and +assumed the sable hooded-cloaks prescribed for mourners. Then the table +was covered with a clean homespun linen cloth, and re-set with cold +beef, cake, and cheese, for all comers, along with mugs to hold the +customary draught of hot ale and _abelion_, the latter a spiced +decoction of elderberries and herbs, chiefly rosemary, huge pitchers of +which were kept piping hot on the hearth. + +Meanwhile, Owen Griffith and a companion had improvised a table of +planks, and a long bench in front of the house, piling up turf and +stones as supports, a proceeding William watched with wondering +interest. He may have puzzled where the mugs and platters came from, and +who would sit at the long boards and consume all the beef, the piles of +cake, and the great cheeses set out in halves, and what the two empty +bowls were for in the middle of each table. + +At all events, Jonet wondered, and communicated her perplexity to David, +who in turn referred to Rhys, to be answered curtly, 'Wait and see! I'm +more puzzled to know what do bring Owen Griffith here, ordering about +and as busy as if he was master.' + +The mother could have told that a distant cousinship between Griffith +and the deceased sufficed for authority to make all needful arrangements +in the absence of nearer kin, and that she was extremely grateful to him +for his kindness all through the trying time. + +Very soon the other children had their questions answered, for guests, +bidden or unsought, came trooping in from valley and mountain near and +far, not by twos and threes only, but by dozens; relatives, friends, and +mere acquaintances, for Edwards was a man held in high esteem. All were +in their Sunday best, yet very few had so much as a bit of crape, a +black kerchief, or a black pair of stockings. Their presence was +supposed a sufficient token of respect. + +In succession as they came began, not merely a clatter of subdued voices +discussing the sad accident--which might have overtaken any of them--but +a general distribution and consumption of cheese, cake, and ale +flavoured with the _abelion_, which custom may have rendered palatable, +the simple provisions rapidly disappearing and being replaced as fresh +arrivals brought fresh appetites, sharpened by journeying through the +keen morning air, and eaten in primitive fashion, each man bringing his +own pocket-knife, and converting his bread into a plate to be cut up and +eaten with the meat upon it. + +And as the widow could not be reasonably expected to provide for so +numerous and impromptu a party--_cwrw_ being rather an expensive +item--each partaker cast a sixpence or other coin into the bowl +provided, a proceeding at which the younger children expanded their +astonished eyes--all was so strange to them. + +Then the crowd, both within and without the house, made way for the +bearers with their heavy burden, and for the black-cloaked widow and her +two eldest orphans to follow. + +On account of their tender years, the roughness and distance of the road +to be traversed, it had been decided to leave Jonet and William behind, +in care of Ales. + +But silent William had had his wondering eyes and ears open the whole of +the morning; and no sooner did it dawn on his infantile comprehension +that his father was being carried away in the big box, and that his +mother and brothers were going away with it, than he insisted on going +likewise; clung to his mother's skirts, and held fast, neither amenable +to persuasion nor command to release her and remain at home with +obedient Jonet. + +No! He saw his mother and brothers in tears, and the bearers slowly +moving away with the coffin in which his father was shut up, and in his +baby-ignorance he concluded some great wrong was being done. He had been +told by Ales that he would never see his father any more, and must have +concluded the others were being taken away also; for when he was carried +into the house by main force, he fought and struggled in Owen Griffith's +strong arms, and cried with dogged persistence, 'Me will go! me shall +go!' + +Even when shut up close in the bedroom, he kicked at the door and +screamed, 'Let me out, let me out; I will go!' until, after a while, the +noise ended in a sob and a scuffle, and busy Ales concluded he had +wearied himself out and fallen asleep. + +When Ales, some quarter of an hour later, opened the door in compliance +with Jonet's piteous entreaties, the room was deserted, and William +nowhere to be found. + +Kicking at the hard door had hurt his toes, in spite of his new shoes, +so he turned round to try his heels. On so doing he discovered that the +small window-hole was wide open. In another minute he was across the +room, scrambling up on to a box lying beneath the narrow aperture in the +thick wall, a look of sudden triumph on his determined round face. + +He thrust out his head and beheld a long procession winding in and out +of the rocky and uneven road, a multitude of high-crowned hats, some +atop of women's linen caps, these rising above a medley of red and grey +cloaks, striped petticoats and dark jackets crossed with small shawls, +mingling with men's grey coats and blue ones; but it did not occur to +the child, as it might strike us, that there was any incongruity in +these vari-coloured garments on so solemn an occasion. All to him was +new. He had never seen such a concourse of people before; his sole idea +was that his mother and his brothers were being borne away after his +father, and that he was bound to overtake and bring them back. + +The window was not much more than a yard from the ground outside, but it +seemed far to so young a child. However, he managed to clamber up in +some way, and to drop outside on his feet, and, after a sly glance round +to see that the coast was clear, he trotted off as fast as his sturdy +little legs would carry him, and out at a narrow gap in the stone wall, +which did duty for a gateway; and as the descending procession moved but +slowly, and there were occasional stoppages for change of bearers, he +contrived to keep the rear of it in sight. + +Ere long his wood-soled shoes and stockings chafed and cramped his feet, +and he sat down on a wayside stone to remove them. When he looked up, +the last hat had disappeared, but, nothing daunted, he set off again at +a run, carrying his shoes and stockings in his hands, and ere long +caught sight of the nodding hats at a turn of the tortuous road. + +He had run nearly a mile, and was getting breathless and footsore, but +he went panting forward, with no thought of giving in; but soon he began +to call out for some one to stop, and tears ran coursing down his chubby +cheeks. Still he trotted on for another half mile or so; but the pace +became slower, the tears ran faster, and when the tail of the procession +again disappeared he sobbed aloud, beset with fears. + +At this juncture a man leaning over a wall, who had followed the long +train with his eyes, caught sight of the woe-begone child, in its black +frock, limping painfully along, and asked what he was doing there, and +what he was crying for. + +The answer was not very coherent or articulate, but the man was sharp as +he was good-natured. In a very short time he was out in the road, with +William Edwards mounted on a sleek ass, following in the wake of the +mourners, who after a short distance on the level began to ascend the +lofty hill on the brow of which, like an eagle on its eyrie, stood +Eglwysilan's[6] ancient church, with the modest vicarage beside it, +isolated from the widely scattered parishioners, and almost inaccessible +in foul or wintry weather. + +Local tradition assigned to this time-worn edifice a date coeval with +the apostles. But suppose we allow the apostles to have slept for nearly +three hundred years, and assign to our British St. Helena (or Elian), +the church-founding mother of Constantine, the credit of selecting the +breezy site for a structure to which she stands sponsor, we still +accredit the long-bodied, square-towered, and small-windowed church with +a most venerable antiquity, and solid masonry which might make modern +architects blush for shame. + +No sooner were adventurous William's fears of being left behind set at +rest by overtaking the slow pedestrians of the long train, than his +spirits revived. He began to look about him, and to question the kind +cottager, 'What's this?' or, 'What's that?' + +Of course he spoke in Welsh, as did all the people. I but render their +language into English for my readers. + +From his elevated seat he could overlook low walls, and glancing down +through the autumnal woods on his left, where the red ash-berries shone +temptingly bright against the russet--leaved oak and yellowing beech, +caught glimpses here and there of the shining river that had proved so +treacherously cruel to his poor father. But neither red berries nor +glancing river had such powerful attractions for him as the stupendous +pile whence boomed the tolling bell--the 'church' of which he had heard +so oft, but never seen. + +He had gone with his sister and brothers to the wooded glen which +bounded their own farm on the north, there to help, or hinder, the +gathering of ash-berries and acorns; but of human habitations he had +seen nothing hitherto so large as his own home. + +He seemed absolutely fascinated by the grey lichen-covered church, and +its low massive square tower, which he took for a huge chimney, and the +nearer they drew to it the greater became his absorption. + +Being told, in answer to a query, 'People do go there to say prayers,' +he asked again, 'Why for? We say prayers at home.' But though the man +scratched his tangled red locks, no adequate reply was forthcoming. + +At that moment there was a halt at the arched lych-gate. All the men +took off their hats, for the white-robed vicar had come to lead the way +into the church. + +The boy, who had no hat to remove, could only look on and listen in +blank astonishment, understanding nothing of the solemn ceremony, but +awed by the mysterious proceedings, and the unfamiliar aspect of the, to +him, vast interior. + +It was not until he beheld the coffin lowered into the 'big hole' that +he screamed out, and was not to be pacified, though Owen Griffith stole +gently away from the grave-side and took him in his arms for the second +time that day. + +The ceremony was soon over, and nothing heard but the sobbing of the +mourners and the dropping of small coin into the shovel the sexton held +forth for their reception; for thus were the fees of the vicar and +himself paid by general contribution, and not merely by the bereaved +relatives. It was an old custom, seldom better observed than on this +occasion; for of the motley multitude drawn thither to show their esteem +for the dead and their sympathy with his family, two-thirds were wofully +poor, had travelled far, and lost a day's earnings to be there; but few +so poor as to pass the sexton's spade without a tributary coin, however +small. Set it, therefore, to their credit, and also that all were +decently clad, and flaunted no rags, if they had no crape to mourn in. +Custom is its own law, and respect is not shown by the colour of a coat. + +But what of the little fellow who had found his way thither, and created +so much consternation by his unseemly interruption? + +FOOTNOTE: + +[6] Or, Eglwys-elian. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +PAYING THE RENT. + + +''Deed to goodness! that boy's rightly named, for he's Will by name and +will by nature!' said Ales when the child was brought home, showing no +remorse for the trick he had played her, and little but indifference to +the chiding of his mother or Rhys. + +'Me fought they was take you all away. Me said me would go. Me _did_ +go!' was all the excuse they could extract from him. + +He had made his return home triumphantly on the donkey of his stranger +friend, a peat-cutter named Robert Jones, and was not at all disposed +for humiliation. On the contrary, he was rather proud of his victory, +and excited by his introduction to new scenes. + +The man, who was hospitably received and entertained, along with a +numerous party of 'cousins,' for whose refection boiled beef and _cwrw +da_ had been again set out, was quite ready to recount where and how he +had picked up the child, and expressed his surprise at the resolute +endurance that had carried him so far on a stony, unknown road, no less +than the strong affection which had overpowered the little fellow's +natural fears and sense of fatigue or pain. + +He repeated with much humour some of the boy's queer questions and +sayings, promising to give him another donkey-ride some day. And +finally, when taking his departure, Robert Jones patted the boy's brown +head, and called him 'a little hero!' as the child ran past with Jonet. + +This was not very wise, for the tone of admiration was ill calculated to +repress the child's early developed strength of will, or to soothe the +ruffled feelings of Rhys on finding his own superlative good conduct +apparently unappreciated, and William's wilful disobedience thus +applauded. + +His chagrin did not escape the notice of the man, who, going round the +country as he did, selling peat and culm,[7] had frequent opportunities +for the study of human nature. + +'Yes, look you,' cried he from the doorway, as he saw a scornful curl on +the lip of Rhys, 'your little brother will be greater than any of you +some day--head of the house perhaps.' + +'He never will. I'm eldest, and then there's Davy. _He's_ a baby!' was +Rhys' indignant protest. + +'A great good man, or a great bad one, Robert Jones?' called out Ales +after the turf-cutter, an old acquaintance of hers. She had not forgiven +William the fright he had caused by his escapade. + +'Indeed, sure, and that depends on what you make of him among you,' the +peat-cutter called back over his shoulder, ere he bestrode his donkey +and went off. + +'The man is right, Jane Edwards,' said Owen Griffith then to the widow; +'there do be great capacities for good or evil in Willem; he will need a +firm hand to control him.' + +'Ah, sure,' she sighed deeply, her grey eyes filling with tears, 'and +now the firm hand is gone.' + +'Ah, 'deed for sure! more's the pity!' was echoed round the board. + +Rhys alone made no remark; but he set his lips close over his teeth, and +tightened his grip on his knife-handle, looking as if he thought _his_ +hand firm enough to control his baby-brother, and as if _he_ meant to +curb the wilful little one, whatever others might do. Ales saw it, if +the mother did not. + +Meanwhile William, unaware of his eldest brother's paternal intentions, +was seated under an apple-tree with Jonet, struggling for words to give +expression to all the wonders he had seen and heard that day, the 'big +house with the big chimney' more than all; whilst Davy, leaning +listlessly against the tree trunk, as if fatigued with his long walk, +crammed his mouth with bread and cheese, and smiled complacently at the +youngster's first impressions of things familiarity had deprived of +attraction for him, though over some he looked serious enough. + +Five miles away on the south-east from the mountain spur on which the +Edwards' family had held a farm for more than a century, lay, in a +broad plain among barren hills, the grand old ruins of Caerphilly +Castle, the ancient stronghold of the Despencers, and the very small +straggling market town it overshadowed, a town which had either gone to +ruin or ceased to grow, since the great castle had been despoiled and +tenantless. + +It had ceased to be a borough in King Henry VIII.'s time, but still it +clung to its fair and market, and thither came farmers and their wives +with their produce; miners or their wives, and the servants from the few +great houses thereabouts, as buyers. And there, too, came, at stated +periods, with his string of pack-horses, the travelling collector of the +hand-made goods of the district, such as knitted hosiery, linen checks, +woollen shawls, flannels, blankets, all spun and woven in farms and +cottages scattered among the mountains. He was the medium between the +English merchant and the poor producer, who in the days when there were +neither canals nor railroads, nor any facilities for swift conveyance of +goods or people, could otherwise have found no market for his wares. As +it was, the weaver might probably have obtained better prices at +Cardiff, but the miles of extra distance had to be calculated in the +reckoning. + +Early on the Thursday morning Mrs. Edwards, with a grey duffle[8] cloak +over her short black linsey[9] gown, and a black, low-crowned man's hat +above her white linen cap, her healthy face pale and worn with the +agitation of the week, stood by her egg and butter basket, debating +whether she should go to the market alone, or yield to the entreaty of +Rhys and take him along with her. + +It was likewise the rent-day. Mr. Pryse, the noble landowner's steward, +condescendingly rode all the way from Cardiff to Caerphilly to meet his +lord's tenantry at the little inn, 'The Cross Keys,' and woe betide the +poor unfortunate who failed to put in an appearance, or to bring the +full quota of coin. + +She was in no predicament of that kind, although she felt she might have +been; but, hitherto, Edwards had always paid the rent himself, even if +she had borne him company, and she rather shrank from her first +encounter with the disagreeable agent. + +'You had better let me go, mother. Mr. Pryse will find that you are not +quite alone, and may be more civil when he sees how big and strong I am, +whatever,' urged Rhys. + +(Mr. Pryse was a little, wizened, cantankerous fellow, with a skin like +shrivelled parchment.) + +Ales put in her word. ''Deed, mistress, you had best take the boy. A +little stick is better than no stick in a fight.' + +Ales had settled the question with this last remark. + +'Well, perhaps it's best to be having a witness when you deal with queer +folk,' assented her mistress; and Rhys had permission to scuffle off and +slip on his black short-tailed jacket and breeches, so as to look his +best and bravest. He was a sturdy, well-grown lad for his years, with a +firm chin and fearless grey eyes, and whether it was fancy or reality +his mother thought him taller in his new clothes. + +He certainly was developing rapidly; for no sooner was the shaggy pony +jogging along with its double load, Mrs. Edwards in front with her +basket resting on a bag of wool she had combed and spun, than he begun +to expatiate on the necessity there was now for him to learn how to go +to market, and buy and sell, if he was to be a real help to her. He +'could not be learning too much or too soon,' he said, and was not +contradicted, though a week earlier she would have laughed at him. + +The road wound in and out among the hills, where the abundant waxen +blossoms of the cross-leaved heath were fast losing their delicate blush +and fading with the season, and the rosettes of the sundew had forgotten +their dead florets a month or more. The very bracken was turning brown +and husky, and the roadway was strewed with yellow and russet leaves +that were whirled hither and thither by the wind or were trodden into +the earth by unrelenting hoofs. + +For it was also the first October fair, and there was no lack of company +by the way. Owen Griffith, farmer and weaver, had joined them early with +a great pack of flannel across his mare; and from almost every fold of +the hills came one or more on foot or horseback to swell the general +stream, every one, male or female, knitting along the road. The grimy +collier and the swart digger of tin and iron hailed each other by the +way, and the widow had many a respectful salutation as they jogged +along, and answered many an inquiry about the boy behind her. + +Her first business when they reached Caerphilly was to get over her +ordeal with Mr. Pryse, Griffith kindly taking charge of her horse and +commodities. + +The narrow entrance to the inn was crowded with tenants on their way to +the important deputy's room or from it, but all were ready with natural +politeness to make way for William Edwards' widow. Mr. Pryse might have +taken a lesson from men of lesser degree. + +From the table by the window where he sat, with an inkhorn and papers +before him, small piles of coin at his right hand, he looked up. + +Rhys had taken off his hat; the steward, to assert his superiority, kept +his upon his head. + +'So I hear you're a widow, Mrs. Edwards,' was his abrupt salutation. +'The farmer could not see his way home, I'm told, and so got drowned. +Blind drunk, I suppose?' A supercilious lift of his narrow shoulders +emphasised his brutal comment. + +Rhys flamed up. 'No, sir; my father _never_ got drunk. He could not see +for the mist, and the flood carried him away. If he had been drunk, sir, +he could not have crossed the Rhonda ford.' + +If Mrs. Edwards had been shocked by the steward's unfeeling rudeness, +now she feared her farm was in peril, and began to wish she had left +Rhys outside. + +With half-shut eyes, Mr. Pryse scanned the impetuous boy from head to +foot curiously. Ignoring the warm defence of a dead father, he drew his +sinister brows together, and asked curtly-- + +'That your son?' + +''Deed, yes, sir.' + +'How old is he?' + +'Twelve last March, sir.' + +An unpleasant smile thinned the thin lips that asked again-- + +'Your eldest?' + +'Yes, sir.' + +'Humph! And do you expect to manage the farm with only _his_ help?' + +'Not altogether, sir. I've'-- + +'What?' he interrupted. 'Come to give it up?' + +'_No_,' said the widow firmly. 'I have come to pay the rent. I can hire +a man. But _I_ shall be the farmer, please God.' + +She counted out the money on the table as she spoke, the fire in her +eyes burning up the tears. + +'And what sort of a farmer will _you_ make?' he replied with a sneer. +'You'd better give up the holding at once.' + +'You'd better wait and see, sir. When I cannot pay the rent I may give +in, not before. I am wanting the receipt, look you.' + +'Humph! Oh, ah, the receipt, sure!' + +Had he counted on her being so ignorant, or simple, or careless as to +pay rent and take no receipt, his quill pen went squeaking over the +paper so reluctantly? At all events he watched her narrowly through his +slits of eyes as she took it up and read it carefully over, before she +folded it up and stowed it away in her needle-book for safe carriage in +her capacious pocket. + +He was not quite so confident of her incapacity for management when she +left with a brief 'Good-morning,' and was followed by her son, who put +on his hat and said never a word. He was wise, for if he had said +anything there would have been unpleasantness. + +So there would have been had he heard the growl that followed them. +'Humph! the young cub's as hot and unmannerly as his pig-headed lout of +a father! but he'll get his nails cut when the widow marries again, +indeed will he.' + +'Mother, does Mr. Pryse ever cheat any one? I don't think he wanted you +to have that receipt you had to be asking for,' whispered Rhys when they +got outside. 'I felt as if I'd like to knock him down, 'deed I did.' + +'Hush, Rhys,' and the widow looked round, afraid of listeners; 'you must +not say that. He's a very hard man, and nobody does be liking him much, +but I never heard of his really cheating any one. You must be very +careful not to offend him. Your poor father did it once, and he has owed +us a grudge ever since.' + +'Then he is a bad man, and I shall hate him for the wicked words he said +of father.' + +Owen Griffith was waiting, and brief was the widow's opportunity to +impress on Rhys the sin and danger of fostering hatred. As brief was the +influence on him. Mr. Pryse, apart from the insult to his father's +memory, had touched the sensitive nerve of his own sprouting +self-sufficiency, and shown, so the boy thought, a tendency to overreach +his mother; and, without any analysis of his own motives, Rhys had +conceived on the spot an unconquerable aversion to the unprepossessing +steward. + +When Owen Griffith's turn came, Mr. Pryse was, for him, unusually bland +and gracious, much interested in his small holding and the welfare of +his family, and _incidentally_ interested in his near neighbours, the +family so suddenly deprived of its head. But though he passed the +weaving farmer through a very fine sieve, he got nothing for his pains +that could be laid up against either the drowned man or the capable +widow. + +So capable, that she had disposed of her wool, her butter and eggs, sold +a quantity of oats from a sample, hired a trustworthy young man named +Evan Evans for the farm, made her own purchases, called to see the +rheumatic mother of Ales, who lived in a small cot built within the very +ruins of the castle, exchanged messages and Christian sympathy with the +old dame, and was refreshed and ready for her return home with Rhys long +before Owen or his friends thought of stirring. + +And home they got whilst there was light to pick their way, though +clouds had been gathering in the south-west, and the first drops of a +heavy downpour caught them as they neared the farm. They were welcomed +by the joyous shouts of the little ones, and the assurance of Ales that +they had all of them been 'as good as gold,' and well deserved the +gingerbread brought home for them. Even William, of whom there had been +some doubts, accepted the 'going to market' as a common occurrence, and +had given her very little trouble, though he had exacted a promise that +she would take him some day to see 'the great big house, with the big +chimney, that they called the church.' + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] Culm, the dust of hard coal, used for fuel when mixed with clay and +peat. + +[8] Duffle, made both in scarlet and grey, was a very thick, +close-grained woollen cloth, its upper surface covered with pin-head +curly knots. It was almost waterproof. + +[9] Linsey-woolsey, a mixture of linen and woollen, is still in use. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE NEW INMATE. + + +The rain was still coming down with steady persistence when, two hours +later, Evan Evans lifted the great wooden latch of Brookside Farm, and +entered the large kitchen with a 'God save you' for greeting. + +Ales, who was giving the last stir to something bubbling in an iron pot +on the fire, whence came a steaming savour of leeks, turned round +sharply to see what sort of a young fellow had come into the house as an +inmate, and seeing, returned his salutation, as did the two lads waiting +for their supper. + +What she saw was a strong-limbed young man, about three or four and +twenty, with a good-humoured smile upon his face, as if a drenched coat +and muddy nether garments were quite minor discomforts. He carried a +lighted lanthorn in one hand, and a bundle slung on a stick over his +shoulder. + +'If you're Evan Evans,' said she, 'you'd best take off your coat, and +sit down by the fire to get dry,' a corresponding smile on her face +sufficing for a welcome, and indicating her content with the sample as +presented. + +As if to ensure her good graces, his first act was to step across the +floor, and with one strong brown hand lift from the chimney-hook the +heavy broth-pot, on the handle of which the girl had just laid both of +hers. + +'Good for you, Evan Evans; may you be always as ready,' said she, +showing her firm white teeth, and hastening to ladle out the broth the +boiled beef had supplied. + +'Always ready for a good supper,' was the prompt reply. 'One does not +always get broth every day.' + +Meat was not often boiled for broth then on small farms. Indeed, was +never cooked except on rare occasions. + +At that moment Mrs. Edwards came in from what we may call the 'dairy' in +the rear. + +'I did not expect you to-night,' said she, 'but it is well you are +here.' + +'Sure and indeed, ma'am, you would not have me come on a Friday, and I +was not myself like to come on a Saturday, and I thought you would want +me before the Monday, look you.' + +'Why not Saturday?' interrupted Rhys, waiting impatiently for his broth. + +'Sure and "Saturday's flitting is a short sitting" my Irish grandmother +was used to say, and she was a wise woman,' answered the young man +gravely. + +Superstition was so widespread and general, that no one uttered a word +of doubt or dissent to either proposition, but Mrs. Edwards remarked, +''Deed and it's quite as well you came. We have lost a week, and it's +time some of the roots was out of the ground. It will be soft for the +digging after the rain.' + +'Do you be having any potatoes among your crops?' he asked then over his +steaming bowl of thick broth. + +''Deed, no; Edwards' (a sigh) 'said they was only for the gentry to grow +in their gardens.' + +'Then I would have you try them next year. The head man at Castella says +they was the most profitable crop he had on the land. They was good for +the cows and the hogs if he had any to spare from the family table. He +was be going to plough half an acre of ground for them.' + +'Plough? What's that?' questioned Rhys, to whom the very word was +unknown. + +Evan explained to more than one attentive listener. + +'Ah, well,' said Mrs. Edwards, when he had done. 'Where I was in +England, every farmer did plough his fields. And my own father used to +be saying that the laws King Howel the Good did be making nearly eight +hundred years ago, would not allow any man to be a farmer unless he +could make his own plough, as well as guide it. But there did be only +wooden ploughs in those days, and they did get knocked to bits on the +stony ground among the mountains of wild Wales, and they did get out of +use, whatever. I did want to have a good strong plough here, but Edwards +was always be saying the spade was good enough for him. His father and +his grandfather before him had dug every rood of the land with the +spade, and what was good enough for them was good enough for him.' + +'Good enough's all very well where there's never a better,' thrust in +go-ahead Ales, with the freedom of the time. 'You didn't be thinking +your grandmother's distaff good enough for you when you bought that +spinning-wheel.' + +Both Evan and Rhys looked up from their half-empty bowls across the +table at Ales, as if struck by her pertinent shrewdness. + +'Indeed, Ales, I did not; nor did I think holes that let in the wind and +weather along with the light good enough. But till the grandfather did +die of rheumatics there could be no glass windows. And I did not think +it good for the pigs to run loose, rooting up my garden and destroying +what they could not eat, but there has never been a sty built to this +day.' + +'And what's a sty?' asked Rhys. + +'A house for the hogs.' + +Rhys laughed. 'Why, mother, who ever did see pigs with a house of their +own? All pigs run loose in the woods. Lewis did say to me he never saw +any but ours shut up in a fold like sheep.' + +'Never mind Lewis. He has never gone far from Eglwysilan. If he had been +in England as I was before I married, he would have been seeing +pig-styes on every farm. But there be plenty in Wales, and Evan will set +up one here very soon.' + +'Yes, indeed,' was the man's hearty response. + +There was some further talk over work to be done, and how it was to be +done, before Evan followed Rhys to bed, neither having a word to say +against overcrowding, although David was there before them. + +And then Mrs. Edwards and Ales, comparing notes, agreed that she had +hired a very capable man. + +It might have been said with equal propriety that the widow had shown +her own capability in the choice of a farm-servant who would live in +close companionship with her fatherless sons. + +Over the board set forth with funeral meats she had named her want among +the assembled relatives, and then had ensued a warm controversy on the +merits of various men likely to be at the Caerphilly hirings. + +Some one had named Evan Evans. Thereupon arose a general outcry that he +would ruin the farm with the notions he had picked up at Castella, where +there was an English farm-bailiff. It was admitted that he was +hard-working, honest, sober, and religious, but all these were as dust +in the balance compared with the crime of departing from the old ways, +and preferring new methods of husbandry. + +She had listened, making no comments. But she had hired the young fellow +the more readily for those very detractions. She had not found the old +ways pleasant or profitable. She meant to show Mr. Pryse what good +farming could do for but indifferent land. And she counted on Evan's +religious principles as warrants for the example he would set before her +growing boys. + +The hiring was for the year, and could only be terminated by mutual +agreement. At the same time it was renewable from year to year, and +sometimes both men and maids remained with the same master or mistress +half their lives. If any breach of contract occurred, the law was very +strict and severe. A prison awaited the servant absent without leave, or +wilfully refractory, and heavy fines the masters who ill-treated the +servants so hired. Such cases were not frequent, but they did occur at +intervals. + +Though the sky was clear, the rain was still dripping from the eaves, +and had worn little runnels in the soil and between the grey stones on +its way down hill to swell the noisy woodland brook, when Evan and the +boys turned out of their close and darkened bedroom in the morning, and +Rhys volunteered to show the former over the farm before the others were +up. + +''Deed, no,' said the man, 'that do be your mother's place. She might +not be liking us to make so free, whatever. We can make up the fire, and +set on the porridge-pot for Ales, to lose no time. Where are the +fire-balls kept?' + +This was a check to the boy's newly-born importance. Not choosing to +wait upon the man, he ordered Davy to fetch the fire-balls, and marched +out at the back in some dudgeon. Meanwhile, bidable Davy brought the +fire-balls. Evan, all unconscious of the young master's wounded +dignity, fanned the smouldering peat on the hearth to a glow, and had a +clear fire under the black pot when Ales and her mistress came upon the +scene, leaving Jonet and William still asleep. + +The morning ablutions of Evan and the two elder boys were performed in +the open air, at a spring which gushed from the stony mountain-side into +a natural water-worn basin; Mrs. Edwards and Ales in the nondescript +apartment in the rear, there being little time or ceremony wasted in the +operation. + +The rough-and-ready toilette completed, Ales went back to the kitchen; +and the sun having just risen above the mountain-top to waken up bird +and beast, and turn the lingering rain-drops into fairy gems, Mrs. +Edwards herself led Evan over the primitive homestead, from the rude +stabling and cowshed, where the fowls roosted overhead, to the +dilapidated thing they called a barn, and the sodden farmyard, where a +huge sow and her brood of piglings lay wallowing in the mire. + +Two years earlier the young man would have looked on all with +complacency as the common state of things; but then he could only shake +his head and coincide with his new mistress that there was room for +improvements that would require time, energy, and some outlay. They had +looked into the orchard, and at the stone fences, and, the survey over, +came in at the front, where Mrs. Edwards had done her ineffectual best +to copy an English garden for herbs and flowers, and to keep out pigs, +poultry, and goats. + +By this time Ales and offended Rhys were back from milking, the two +little ones were washed and dressed, and the porridge was ready for +pouring out, quiet Davy having lent a hand wherever needed, without any +fuss or assumption. He was always ready to fetch and carry at any one's +bidding, and was seldom allowed to sit still. It was he who had brought +water from the spring to wash the younger ones, and emptied it when +used; he who had laid wooden bowls and spoons on the table and brought +in the great brown pitcher of milk, and was lifting William to his seat +at the table when his mother and Evan came in at the door. Just docile +Davy, of whom nobody made much account either to praise or blame. + +Rhys, who had not yet recovered his composure, had already taken his +seat at the table in silent displeasure, and took no note of their +entrance, but both Jonet and William stared hard at the strange man, the +former shyly, the latter with open-mouthed wonder, which he put into +words. + +'Who's 'oo?' he wanted to know when Evan drew his stool to the table +beside him. + +Being answered pleasantly, he rained childish questions thick and fast +on the 'strange man,' all relative to his presence there, and was barely +silenced when grace was said over the hot porridge. There had been so +many strange men coming and going in the past week that he wondered if +Evan had been left behind. His queries only ceased with a scalded mouth. + +'If you want to learn farming, Rhys, you had better come with Evan and +me. We are going over the fields to settle what is best to be done,' +said his mother when breakfast was over. + +Had his mother asked him to go along with _her_ to settle what had best +to be done, and how, he would have risen with alacrity to share her +cares and counsels, but much as he had professed his desire to learn he +did not want Evan Evans for a teacher. Had not his interest and +curiosity been excited overnight, he might have lingered behind, so sore +was he from the morning's rebuff. As it was he rose but sullenly to +obey. + +'May I come?' asked Davy. + +''Deed, no. You will be wanted here. Get your knitting and mind Jonet +and Willem.' + +The peremptory reply served for both Davy and Jonet, though the latter +did put a pouting finger to her lips. But William had ideas and a will +of his own. + +'Me go with 'oo!' 'Me must go!' 'Me _will_ go!' 'Man, take me!' were his +persistent iterations, while his sturdy bare legs and feet went +pattering after his elders over the rain-washed stones, and he struggled +with all his little might against the attempts of Rhys to force him +back. + +Their wills were equally strong, but their strength was not. No doubt +Rhys clutched the tender arms too tightly, for William screamed and +cried out-- + +''Oo hurt me; 'oo hurt me.' + +Evan, who had reached the gateway with Mrs. Edwards, turned back, +saying pitifully, 'Don't be hurting the little man. If your mother do be +willing to let him go, I will carry him on my shoulders, look you.' + +In another minute, triumphantly, masterful William was mounted on the +low stone wall, on his way to the big man's shoulders, his mother +smiling a passive consent, whilst Rhys bit his under lip and clenched +his hands tightly in ill-concealed chagrin. + +It was the second time that morning Evan Evans, the hired man, had +thwarted him, his father's first-born. Rhys, in his own opinion, had +ceased to be a boy. He had quite decided that he was to be his mother's +right-hand man, and that they would manage the farm between them, with +underlings of course, and here was this great interloper come and +thrusting him into the background. + +[Illustration: MOUNTED ON THE LOW WALL, ON HIS WAY TO EVAN'S +SHOULDERS.--_See page 66._] + +It was with no good will he followed over grass land and arable, over +the fallow and on to the high moorland, where the cows ruminated among +the tall grasses, and the sheep nibbled close to the ground the sweet +morsels the cows had left, and the omnivorous goats browsed on heather +or anything else in the way of vegetation. He heard them talk of the +carrots and other roots to be dug up and housed at once, of the lime and +farm manure to be laid on this field or that, and the suitable crops to +be raised; but though he had a crude perception that Evan was a better +farmer than his father, he sullenly resented the change in +contemplation. All the more, perhaps, because his mother called for his +attention, with 'You hear this, Rhys?' 'Yes, Rhys; indeed, that will +be best.' + +He gloomed, whilst William, released from his perch, ran hither and +thither in high glee, chasing away the rooks and water-wagtails that +were, unsuspectedly, doing the farmer good service. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +LOST. + + +It is difficult in these days of chemistry, steam, and mechanical +contrivances for reducing labour--if not for dispensing with it +altogether--to realise the difficulties attending the farmer in wild +mountainous districts, far removed from the centres of civilisation, and +unacquainted with the agricultural implements and appliances even then +in use in more favoured districts. Places where there were no carts and +no proper roads, and where the ascents and descents were too abrupt for +anything but a biped or a mule; where every acre of the cultivated +mountain or moorland had to be turned over with the spade, and every +particle of manure laid on the land had to be carried thither in baskets +strapped on human shoulders, or in panniers borne by ass or mule. + +Yet, such were the difficulties Mrs. Edwards and other Welsh farmers had +to contend with even up to the present century, the moorland farmers of +Cumberland and the North-West Riding of Yorkshire being somewhat +similarly situated. + +The loss of a whole week's labour at the beginning of October was a +serious detriment. Even Rhys knew that, and finding that he was to take +his instructions from his mother and not from Evan, he smothered his +ill-humour and buckled to in earnest, though his brows contracted when a +new form of labour was suggested to him. + +'Rhys, do you think you could cut down the bracken at the edge of the +wood?' asked his mother dubiously. + +'Yes, surely, I can cut it. Did I not help to reap the oats? But why +should it be cut?' + +'Evan says it will save straw in the farmyard, and should be stacked for +bedding for the pigs and cattle before it do be too late. And after it +has served the beasts, it will be better for some of the land than +lime.' + +''Deed, an' Evan do seem mighty clever! Houses and bedding for pigs +indeed!' + +'Yes, indeed, Rhys, and I am not too proud or too old to learn from him. +Please God, he will be helping us to keep the farm in spite of Mr. +Pryse.' + +Not another word of scorn fell from the boy's lips. + +Bidding Lewis, the shepherd's son, follow with Breint, the pony, to +carry home the fern, as instructed by his mother, he, with a sickle over +his arm, took his way across a grassy slope towards the steep woodland, +stepping alongside the musical runnel the gushing hill-side spring sent, +as overflow from a huge stone trough or basin, across the land and down +the incline to join the tumbling brook from which the farm derived its +name. The tawny brook itself had its source high up in the peaty moss on +the mountain-top, and had worn, or found, a channel in a narrow cleft +between precipitous rocks, whose seamy sides barely afforded foothold +for fir and larch. Yet widening and deepening into a picturesque glen, +the ash and the elder hung out their red or purple-black berries over +the noisy and tumbling watercourse, and the sturdy trunks of oak and +beech uprose and spread out leafy arms to shade it from the too +intrusive westering sun, dropping in a ripe acorn or a triangular nut +quietly now and then, to float away and fructify in a future season far +from the parent tree. + +It was otherwise when the wild north-east winds came rushing and roaring +down the glen, for then ripe or unripe acorns and prickly mast were torn +rudely away along with shoals of russet leaves and flung to the ground +as offerings to the hogs and omnivorous goats, the brook coming in for +its share, as well as the fringe of feathery ferns. + +The larger portion of the farm lands were on the steep but undulating +uplands above the white homestead, the more fertile, including the +orchard and the garden-plot, lying below. + +Bordered on either side by rough stone fences, and separating the grass +land from these, a wider well-trodden path or road, which the flaky +character of the stony ground converted into a natural succession of +broad shallow steps, trended obliquely from the house to the level or +main road such as it was. Across this, some two hundred yards farther +north, the simple brook spread itself out and chafed at the +stepping-stones which barred its passage to deeper woods and the great +river that would swallow it up. Just as some thoughtless youth rushes +from the safe shelter of a home too narrow for his ambition, and +plunging into the vortex of the untried world is lost for ever. + +Some thirty or forty paces beyond the shallow brook stood the low +cottage of Owen Griffith, whitewashed like the larger farm above. Then +the lane took a turn and was crossed by intersecting roads perplexing to +strange travellers. + +The outskirts of a flourishing and busy town now cover much of the land +I have described so carefully. Even the lanes and highways have +undergone changes since the Edwardses held Brookside Farm and traversed +them. + +On that sunny October forenoon, while Rhys and Lewis cut down fern on +the borders of the wood, and Evan plied his spade to turn over the +stubble in good furrows higher up the hill, Mrs. Edwards midway, like a +true Welsh farmer's wife, resolutely dug up the long-rooted, tenacious +carrots, sparing not her toil, whilst Davy (again in petticoats) and +even four-year-old Jonet freed them from the loosened earth, and cast +them into wicker baskets for Ales to carry from the field to the barn, +poised on her head. The basket was not light when full, but she stepped +along with ease and grace, knitting as she went or came, only tucking +the rapidly increasing stocking in her girdling apron-string whilst she +emptied her load, or changed an empty basket for a full one. + +At first, imitative William insisted on helping, or hindering, Davy and +Jonet, and for a while was as busy as the rest. Then he began to trot +beside Ales as she went to and fro. After a time the little bare legs +grew weary, and when the toilers rested on upturned baskets, to take +their noontide meal of oaten cake and buttermilk, he was almost too +sleepy to eat or drink, and, resting his sunny head against his mother's +knee, fell off into a doze. + +Seeing that, Ales promptly lifted him up in her strong arms, and, +carrying him to the farm, laid him on his mother's bed and left him +there, as she thought, secure from harm. + +Once or twice, after emptying her baskets in the barn, she came down to +the house and found him sleeping peacefully. So an hour and a half must +have slipped by, perhaps more, when turning in to look at her charge, +she found the room vacant. + +Still, she was beset by no apprehensions of ill. She made up the +smouldering fire, and did one or two little household matters before she +went back to the field with her empty basket, nothing doubting but she +would find the boy with his mother. He knew his way about the farm. + +'Is not Willem with you?' she cried out as she neared the group in the +field. 'He is not in bed.' + +'Not in bed?' echoed his mother, but without alarm. ''Deed then, he will +have gone to Evan or to Rhys. That will be it. He will have met Lewis +with the pony, and got a ride in one of the empty panniers.' + +'Sure, and that's most like.' + +But on her next journey to the barn she saw Lewis bringing up the pony +laden with the panniers of bracken, but no child. Hastily ridding +herself of her load, she waited until he came near. Then she called +out-- + +'Have you seen Willem?' + +''Deed, no! Is he lost again?' came back in reply. + +'Lost? Name o' goodness, I hope not! Mistress will go distracted if he +is. Empty your bracken, and keep a look-out; I'm off up the hill to +Evan.' + +And away she sped at flying speed, straight as an arrow, over field and +fallow. Her heart sank as she came in sight of Evan digging away as if +his life depended on his day's labour, companioned only by feathered +searchers for the worms he brought to light. + +'Evan!' she screamed, affrighted at last, 'have you seen Willem? We +cannot find him anywhere, whatever.' + +Down went the man's spade, and over the freshly-turned ground he came +bounding, in spite of his wooden-soled shoes. 'You don't mean to say the +child is lost?' he cried. + +But she was already running back to her mistress, who took the alarm as +soon as they came in sight, and clasping her hands in sudden terror, +shrieked out, 'Oh, what is it? What has happened to my boy? Where is my +darling Willem? Oh, if I lose him too, I shall go crazy!' + +Her only thought was that the child, in seeking Rhys, had fallen over a +rock and been killed. + +Her shriek, her unbidden tears, communicated her fright to Jonet and +Davy, who clung to her skirts and cried for companionship, Jonet hardly +knew why. + +There was a general rush to meet Rhys. + +'Sure, he will be in the orchard,' said he confidently. + +But he was not in the orchard, not anywhere on the farm. + +''Deed, and I think he will be for going to the church,' put in Davy. +'He wanted to be going yesterday, look you!' + +The idea was instantly caught up. Evan and Rhys were off in search, and +Lewis after them. Ales in vain endeavoured to persuade the mother to +remain behind, whilst she went up to the moor, to see if he had strayed +thither after the sheep. 'Don't fret,' she said, 'they are certain to be +bringing him back soon. His little legs would not carry him far.' + +'Oh, Ales,' expostulated her mistress, 'how can you ask me to sit still +while my darling Willem may be dead or in danger?' + +'Mother,' said Davy, with a gulp to swallow a sob, 'I will stay and take +care of Jonet if you both go. You will be good with me, won't you, +Jonet?' + +'Yes, indeed,' replied the little girl, as his arm stole protectingly +round her shoulders, and he kissed her tear-stained face, 'I will be +very good.' + +So, with strong injunctions not to go away, the two children were left +alone in the house, with only a grey cat and a rough dog to bear them +company. + +At first they sat still and waited expectantly, clinging to each other. +Then the silence and solitude became oppressive. Presently Jonet began +to cry for her missing playfellow, and when brave-hearted Davy failed to +console her, his own tears began to fall. A dreadful fear began to creep +over him lest William should be lost like his father, and they might +never see him again. How long the time did seem to those two children +left alone with a new fear! + +Ales was the first to return. She found the two seated on the stone +stile in front that commanded a view of the steep path, anxiously and +with beating hearts watching for some one to come. + +She brought them no good news, and was off again with stool and pail, +for the cows were lowing to be milked. But her very coming had broken up +the dreary silence and monotony. And when she went she left them milk +and cake, and the consciousness she was not far away. Then, at her +suggestion, Davy began to teach Jonet to knit, and in the occupation +time passed less painfully. + +Ales came back with her milk-pails, and commended them for being good; +made up the fire and set on the pot for supper. And so long as the +setting sun shone redly in through door and windows they were passive, +and she bustled about her household affairs, hiding her own fears. + +But the sun set, and dusk came down, yet never a foot came near the farm +to say the boy was found. + +Then Evan came up for lanthorns to renew the search. He said he had been +to the very church gates, but could find no trace of the child. Owen +Griffith had left his loom, and his wife had kept watch to give each +returning seeker news of the others. Mrs. Edwards was then at the +weaver's in pitiable distress, and Rhys rushing hither and thither +almost as wild. + +The two children, unwilling to go to bed, had fallen asleep huddled +together in the chimney corner, when, between nine and ten o'clock, +restless Ales thought she heard a shout, and before she could get to the +door in burst Rhys, crying out, 'He is found! he is found!' and close at +his heels came Evan with the poor wanderer in his arms, limp and +helpless, his hair and his clothes saturated with heavy dew or mist, his +little bare feet cut and bleeding, his lips and hands stained with the +juice of purple berries. + +The woods and every possible nook and corner seemed to have been +explored, when Evan chanced to question a young man upon the Merthyr +Road. The stupid fellow stared vacantly, then blundered out, ''Deed, an' +sure I did hear something about an hour ago up by the Druid Stones, but +I took it for a stray lamb bleating for the ewe.' + +'Well, sure, and it _might_ be a child crying. I didn't go to see,' he +replied stupidly to a second question. + +[Illustration: LYING IN THE MIDST OF THE HOARY CIRCLE OF GREY +STONES.--_See page 78._] + +Evan stopped to hear no more. Without seeking a regular path, he made +his way through bush and bramble, over rock and hollow, and there in the +very midst of the hoary circle of lichen-covered grey stones, which +seemed to sentinel him round in upright double file, the light of the +lanthorn revealed the child lying in a heap under the overhanging +shadow of the great rocking-stone, his head pillowed on the arm that +rested against its conical base. Had the child mistaken those grey +stones for the upright slabs in the churchyard? + +The first rejoicing over, and the boy in bed, Rhys and Ales were both of +opinion that he should be 'well whipped in the morning to teach him +better than to put people in such frights.' And no doubt Evan was of the +same mind, though he made no remark. + +But the tender-hearted mother could only thank God for his restoration, +and say that he had punished himself quite sufficiently. He was not +likely to stray again. + +Not for some time, for though all his garments were woollen, as were +those of his elders, the damp, the exposure, no less than his childish +terror, laid him up with a feverish illness that lasted for weeks. + +As well as could be made out from his disjointed confession, Davy's +conjecture had been the true one. + +He had wakened, found himself alone, and had set off to 'see the big +church,' nothing doubting he should find Robert Jones and his donkey to +help him on his way. He had gone splashing through the shallow brook, +and past Owen Griffith's unseen, but when he came to the bisecting roads +his memory failed; he hesitated, turned to the right instead of the +left, trudged on manfully northward, then took a by-path up-hill, as he +fancied to the church, got bewildered among walls and winding ways, and +out on the wild moor, stopping here and there to rest or gather +blackberries, for he was growing both weary and hungry. But he never +felt the solitude oppressive whilst there was a bird or a stray sheep +about. And it was not until the dusk began to gather and he sank utterly +exhausted under the great rocking-stone, that his courage forsook him, +and he cried piteously in his hungry loneliness and desolation, cried +himself into the insensibility of sleep, with only night and the +everlasting arms around him. + +In losing himself had he lost his childish craving to see once more that +wonder of wonders--the big church? + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE YOUNG PLAGUE. + + +Thankful as was Mrs. Edwards, the mother, for the restoration of her +missing darling; as a farmer, sorely behind with the autumnal +field-work, the loss of half a day's labour to every useful hand upon +the farm chafed her no less than it irritated Rhys. But when the child +was absolutely ill, and required careful nursing or watching, she was +torn with a double anxiety. The life of her child was at stake, and so +was her possession of the farm. There was so much to be done before +November set in, and so few hands to accomplish all. The outdoor work +could not be neglected, or the live stock and the crops would suffer. +Yet _some one must_ remain indoors to watch the child, restless with +fever. Davy was willing, but Davy was too young, and lacked strength to +overcome resistance to nauseous draughts. + +She was at her wits' end; could not neglect her child, dared not neglect +her farm. + +In this emergency, Rhys made a suggestion that Mrs. Griffith might +perhaps be willing to spare her daughter Cate, a stout, red-haired, +good-looking lass about his own age, who had already shown her active +ability to make herself useful. + +After some slight hesitation on the part of the girl's mother, it was +agreed that Cate should be at the farm early every morning, provided she +returned home in the evenings before nightfall. Her temporary services +were to be repaid with cheese made from the mixed milk of cows and ewes, +or other farm produce, a customary mode of payment for casual service. + +Owen had suggested to his wife that the farm would be a good school for +their girl. She would see things done there, both by Mrs. Edwards and +Ales, that she had no chance of seeing at home, and she could have no +better training for future service. + +The girl proved quite an acquisition. She was just as willing as Davy, +and more efficient. When not wanted beside William, she was ready to +relieve Ales at the churn or the scouring of pots and pails. Then she +had a fairly good temper and persuasive ways that made her a capital +nurse for a sick child with a resolute will. + +Jonet took to her amazingly. She brought some pieces of striped flannel, +the refuse of her father's loom, and dressed up the little one's wooden +doll like a real Welshwoman. And she brought green rushes from the +brookside, and wove toy-baskets for her. + +Or, while Davy was away in the fields filling baskets with freshly-dug +roots, or clearing the ground of stones (which many farmers in those +days believed to _grow_, just as surely as weeds), and Jonet was ready +to whimper for a playfellow, she would set down her knitting, or other +work, to play at cat's cradle or push-pins; and, finding that Davy had +tried to teach the little fingers to knit, she cast on stitches for a +doll's belt, and, with a little patience on both sides, the feat was +accomplished, and Jonet wonderfully proud of her new acquirement. + +By thus amusing the healthy child longing for a romp, she preserved +quiet by the bedside of the sick one, whom an apothecary, brought all +the way from Caerphilly, pronounced 'in a critical state.' + +Mrs. Edwards, anxiously coming and going, saw what a capital nurse she +made, and judged she was of better use there than in the fields. Rhys, +too, would put his head in through the open window now and then to ask +how his brother was getting on, and satisfied himself that he had shown +his discernment in suggesting Cate to his mother. + +And when William began to recover, which was not until November had well +set in, no one was more willing to admit her obligations to the girl +than was Jane Edwards. Nay, she went so far as to send Rhys to light +Cate home when the shortening of the days caused her to be kept after +dark, and Rhys never raised any objection. + +She had helped him on her first coming to strip the apple and pear trees +of their late fruit, and to separate such as were to be saved for the +market from those to be thrown into the mash-tub and crushed for cider. +And on the first day that William was allowed to sit at an open door, he +watched her and Rhys preparing the winter store of fire-balls, so +willing was she to help in any way. Propped up in bed, he had seen +Robert Jones once or twice lead a mule and an ass up the steep path with +heavily-laden barrels slung across; but though he called faintly to the +man through the open window, and was as usual inquisitive, he was little +wiser when told they 'brought culm and clay for fire-balls.' + +Fire-balls were familiar things. Not so the culm or the clay, and to +satisfy his persistent curiosity he was promised if he would keep quiet +he should witness their conversion into the hard balls. + +A few yards from the house he saw on one side a great heap of black dust +(the refuse of hard coal). This, barefooted Cate was riddling through a +wire sieve (the very sieve Breint had brought safely home, though he +lost the buyer), flinging away into a separate heap all that was too +coarse to pass through the sieve. At a distance on the other side was +laid a quantity of yellow clay, portions of which Rhys was moistening +with water, beating and turning over with a spade, and when of the +proper consistence adding, a spadeful at a time, the fine black dust +Cate had sieved, to be again mixed and kneaded like dough, and finally +worked with the hands into round hard balls, which he set aside to dry +for fuel. + +The eagerness with which the pale little adventurer watched these grimy +processes, his questions and quaint remarks, quite amused the two +workers, but his searching interrogations speedily posed both of them; +and when he wanted to know what _was_ coal, and what was clay, and why +they mixed the two together to make them burn, he was greeted with fresh +laughter, and an impatient, 'Oh, don't bother,' or its Welsh equivalent, +from Rhys. + +But the little inquirer, who sat with his head on one side, resting it +on his hand, was not contented with the put-off; and when Robert Jones +came with a load of peat that afternoon, he was plied with the same +questions. + +The man smiled. His own information did not go very far, but he did his +best to reach infantile understanding; told him that the clay was a kind +of earth dug from the river-side, and that coal grew underground, and +was brought up in baskets out of a deep hole by a horse that was always +walking round and round to wind them up to the top by a rope that wound +round a thick wooden post.[10] + +This was a puzzler for William. He wanted to be taken there and then to +see the horse go round and round. + +Ales, coming at that moment to pay the man, hoping to put a check on the +child's new notion, exclaimed-- + +'Name o' goodness, do you want the black man to carry you away down the +dark pit-hole, where you would never see us any more whatever?' + +'Me don't fink they 'ood. They don't take man down,' replied the child +sturdily; and at length the 'man,' ready to go about his business, +promised to take him to see the horse go round 'some day.' + +''Oo said 'oo 'ood take me to see church, an' 'oo didn't,' then said +William in high dudgeon, and lapsed into sullen silence. In all his long +illness he had not forgotten the church he had seen but once. + +'Never mind, Willem _fach_; if you are a good boy, perhaps mother will +let you ride with her to church on Breint next Sunday,' said Rhys in a +consolatory tone. + +'Sure?' asked William, his face brightening. + +'Not _sure_, but I will ask her.' And with that the little fellow seemed +satisfied. + +The three youngsters were in bed when Rhys made his suggestion over the +frugal supper-table. It brought on a sharp controversy, in which Ales +joined very freely. + +Mrs. Edwards was undecided. She 'feared the child would not be strong +enough to sit through the service after the long ride.' + +''Deed, there's no fear o' that,' put in Ales; 'but it's Jonet's turn to +go to church, before a babe that can't make head or tail of a word +that's said; and more like take Davy than either. There's no good of +humouring children.' + +'Well, I don't know what queer fancy he has got into that curious head +of his,' argued Rhys; 'but I think it would be best to humour him this +time, lest he should be setting off again, and'-- + +'Humour him, indeed! More like be giving him a good whipping,' +interrupted Ales. 'There's no end to his queer fancies. It's master +over us all he will be soon, I'm thinking.' + +Evan had been silent. He agreed with Rhys. 'It is never too soon to +learn the way to church,' said he. 'I will carry him there on my +shoulders.' + +There was a sigh of relief from Mrs. Edwards. 'Ah, then,' she exclaimed, +'Jonet and Davy can take turns on Breint. If it be fine,' she added. She +was disinclined to be severe with William at any time, and after his +long illness she felt unwilling to thwart him. Yet she had misgivings +about indulging the obstinate self-will, 'so like his poor father's,' +she told herself, with another sigh. Evan's proposal was hailed as a +compromise that would, at least, content Rhys. + +Not altogether. He was not content that Evan should usurp his +prerogative. _He_ was the one to carry his brother if he must be +carried. He considered his own proposal the fittest; but, perhaps, +ashamed of his foolish jealousy, and remembering the boy's weight, kept +his opinion to himself. + +November though it was, Sunday happened to be fine. Whatever mist there +might be on the mountain-tops, there was no thick smoke to blacken it, +and down in the valley it was clearing off. + +William and Jonet were in high glee. The little girl had not yet been to +church, and he had led her to expect something marvellous. After illness +children pick up their strength more rapidly than adults. The week had +done wonders for the boy, who had been trotting indoors and out for two +or three days. + +He saw Jonet seated on a pillow in front of his mother on Breint, but +was very much too much of a man to accept the proffered shoulders of +Evan. + +'Me walk well as Davy and Rhys,' maintained he proudly, and trudged on +sturdily so long as the road descended and had been clean washed by +rain. But little legs cannot keep the pace with long ones, any more than +can short purses with long ones, and after a time the weary little limbs +were glad of a mount on the big broad shoulders. Yet even then he made +the excuse of 'uncomfrable shoes an' 'tockings.' + +He did not talk much as they went, but cast his eyes from side to side, +evidently taking note of wayside landmarks. Other people in their Sunday +best were also on the road, and exchanged greetings in passing. He was +apparently on the watch for Robert Jones, whose cottage of rough stone +he recognised at a glance. He expected the 'man' and his donkey to be +there also, and expressed his disappointment. But it was not until they +passed under the shade of the dark firs that lined the roadside boundary +of the vicar's glebe lands, when the lych-gate and the church, with its +long body and massive square tower, were full in view, that he became +demonstrative. + +Breint had been left at a small inn at the foot of the hill, and then +William was pleased to dismount from his perch, and, with quite an air +of patronising superiority, to take his sister by the hand as if to lead +her up the hill, and over the stone stile to astonish her sight with all +that had astonished him. + +The bells were swinging and ringing over their heads, as they had been +ringing for nearly half an hour, but they were early, and whilst Mrs. +Edwards and Rhys walked together to their new grave, William stood still +with his eyes fixed on the great church tower with childish awe and +admiration. + +Presently he startled Evan with the strange questions: 'How did it get +there? Did it grow?' + +His pointed finger showed to what it referred. + +'Grow, child? No. It was built.' + +'What is built?' + +'Men brought stones, look you, and put them together.' + +'How?' + +''Deed, William, you do be asking queer questions. I will, maybe, show +you how it was built next week.' + +'Will you? Could me build big church if me was big man?' + +''Deed, and perhaps you might help.' + +'Then me _will_.' + +At that moment, to Evan's relief, Mrs. Edwards caught her little boy by +the hand to lead him inside, Davy having taken charge of Jonet. + +Church, clergyman, congregation, service--all were strange to the girl. +Her head turned this way and that; now with a smile as she recognised +some familiar face; but ere long she wearied, and, not being allowed to +talk, she fell asleep, and slept, with her head against her mother's +cloak, throughout the sermon. + +Not so William. The service was no more intelligible or interesting to +him, but his unsatisfied, wide-awake eyes were everywhere exploring the +sacred interior; his little mind lost in large wonder at the length of +the building and the lofty roof overhead, so much larger to a child's +imagination than its actuality. And how far his crude speculations went +must remain a mystery to the end of time. + +The service over, Mrs. Edwards, holding Jonet by the hand, joined the +stream of worshippers on their way to the porch, nothing doubting that +she was followed by her boys. Once in the wide churchyard, dotted with +upright slabs of stone, over which two magnificent yew-trees had stood +sentinel for centuries, the congregation broke up into groups and family +parties, to greet each other, and discuss alike the affairs of +individuals, of the nation, and of the widespread parish--so widespread, +indeed, that families whose ancestors lay all around lived too far apart +for the meeting of kith and kin, except on the seventh day and on the +common God's acre. Young people too--cousins and friends--clasped hands +and blushed, or looked shyly at each other when only that was possible. +The old vicar, too, when disrobed, would saunter from one group to +another, shaking hands and inquiring about asthma, rheumatism, crops, +and sweethearts, with genial impartiality. Here he would admonish one, +there advise another; now his voice was low in condolence, anon cheery +in congratulation; and, unless when there was some dispute over tithes, +none ever turned towards him the cold shoulder. + +He greeted the widow thus: 'Ah, Mrs. Edwards, I observe you have brought +your whole family with you to-day. That is as it should be. "Train up a +child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart +from it."' + +'Yes, sir,' she answered respectfully, 'I brought them all--Willem'--she +looked round; 'Rhys, where is Willem?' + +'Ah, indeed, yes, where is the little fellow? I heard he had been very +ill.' + +Another assent, another look round, the boy was nowhere within sight. +But Evan was seen stalking towards the porch, and in a couple of minutes +out he came leading the boy by the hand. + +He had found him standing in front of the communion-table, looking with +awestruck eyes down the whole length of the church, but he suffered Evan +to lead him away without demur. + +By that time, however, the vicar had gone, and Rhys, who had been round +the church to look for the absentee, came back cross and ill-tempered. +He had promised Cate to walk home along with her and her father, and had +not been too well pleased to see them pass out over the stile beside the +lych-gate, whilst he was still seeking what he could not find. + +'Where had you got to, you young plague?' he cried, with a frown on his +face, taking the boy by the shoulders and shaking him angrily. 'You are +always running off somewhere. But I'll thrash you if you do it again.' + +The mother interposed, but the harmony of the hour and the peace of the +sacred place were alike disturbed, and Rhys marched off sullenly in +advance, hardly caring whether he overtook the weaver and his daughter +in his ill-humour. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[10] This was the old method of drawing coal and pitmen to the surface, +until superseded by machinery. Wells and mills were similarly worked. +And still horses are so employed to draw up yachts on the sea-shore, the +rope passing round a block. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS. + + +Evan was one of those capable individuals, who, through making good use +of eyes and ears, can turn their hands readily to anything. In those +days, before the 'division of labour' had been formulated into a creed, +the class was more common, and still in remote country places +individuals of the type may be found. In addition to his field-work he +had helped the shepherd to mend the stone fence of his sheepfold, and +had made the ragged roof of the cattle-shed wind and weather proof with +the heather Rhys had cut down. He had yet to demonstrate his 'all-round' +faculty in the performance of a promise made, in the first place, to +Mrs. Edwards, and secondly, to little William. + +It was quite a common thing in Wales, as it is in Ireland to this day, +for the pigs to wander over the farm, or out in the roads, poking their +snouts into the proprietor's kitchen as a matter of course, and making +free with root-crops meant for human beings. But as it happened that +Mrs. Edwards and Evan had experience of a better state of things, they +were agreed as to its adoption. + +Consequently, at the beginning of the week, William, who had begun to +follow Evan about like a small shadow, was delighted to watch him and +Lewis clear away a large space among the outbuildings, and Robert Jones +came two or three times with loads of rough stones from a local quarry, +which his two patient beasts drew on the singular sleds or sledges that +did duty for wheeled carts in those mountain regions. + +But it was the process of piling and fitting these loose and shapeless +stones on one another, so as to bind together in a firm and compact wall +without cement, that kept William dancing with excitement unfelt by +either passive Davy or Jonet, to whom a stitch more or less in their +knitting appeared of vastly more importance than the raising of a common +wall. It might suit William to caper about, or to stagger under a +voluntary load of stone, and fancy he was helping, it did not much +interest them. + +Yet these children were no blinder than the world at large to 'the day +of small things.' + +But when they noticed the rising walls shaping into two adjoining square +enclosures with little doorways, across which he placed long, flat +pieces of wood to support the upper courses of stone, and beheld a +conical roof rise over each in genuine Welsh form, and learned that the +two small houses were for the pigs to live in, Davy himself set up an +exclamation of surprise, as Rhys had done before him. And, no doubt, +Evan would have been equally surprised had he been told that the beehive +form was as ancient as the habitations of those early British ancestors +who fled to the Cambrian mountains for refuge from the Roman and Saxon +invaders. + +Astonishment was exhausted when Williams, the Eglwysilan carpenter, on +the Wednesday, brought a couple of stout wooden troughs and gates, for +by that time each conical sty had been supplied with a small walled +forecourt of its own, and Evan had covered the earthen floors with a +thick carpet of dry fern for the pigs to lie upon. And whilst the man +was at work fixing up the gates, he made a broom of ling, and began +scrubbing the dirty old sow vigorously, to make her fit for her clean +abode. The pigs grunted and the children laughed. So did Williams, the +carpenter, to whom pig-scrubbing was a novelty. And so did Rhys, who +came up the yard at the time, his lip curling with fine scorn. + +But Ales, who had lived with her mistress long enough to imbibe her +advanced notions of cleanliness, and had, besides, a natural vein of +good sense in her composition, called out from the unshuttered dairy +window, where she stood drawing a knife through and through the +newly-churned butter to remove accidental cow-hairs before making up: +'Them as likes good bacon should be caring for the swine. There's fools +as would rather be sticking in the mud than mending the roads.' + +Having delivered this oracular rebuke to the scorners, she resumed her +butter-making with renewed energy, none the less for the swift glance +and smile of approval she had seen on Evan's quickly upturned face. + +She and Evan were becoming as good friends as he and William, and he did +not affect to despise an additional friend on the hearth where Rhys was +silently hostile. Beyond the bounds of the farm he felt he could defend +himself, if necessary. + +But it would be as easy to defend oneself from a fog as from the +whisperings of envy or the shrugs and jeers of ignorance. + +Already was the voice of prophecy upraised among the Sunday gossips that +Evan Evans would bring ruin on Brookside Farm with his foolish new ways. + +The very carpenter who had taken the order for the woodwork of the new +sties had tuned saw and plane to laughter, and hammered down his +conviction that 'Mrs. Edwards would be finding out the folly too late.' +And listening lag-behinds shook their shock-heads and fell back on the +old Welsh proverb: 'Ah, a widow's goods will soon be gone.' + +When these whisperings reached the widow in the guise of advice from +well-meaning cousins in all degrees of affinity, she put them down with +a short, decisive answer: 'Look you, I do have my ways, you do be having +yours. Keep your own spade for your own farm.' + +She wondered how the petty details of new management had reached so many +ears, and gave Lewis a sharp hint not to gossip about what did not +concern him. But she never suspected Rhys of dropping the word-seeds +that rose up around them as ill weeds of speech and thought. + +She had seen Rhys kick over wantonly a miniature wall that William was +attempting to 'build' across the threshold with Evan's refuse stone +chippings, and she had rebuked him sharply when he flung out angrily the +small collection the child had brought indoors to 'build' with--just +such a heap as a modern boy's box of bricks--not taking his pretence of +'a litter' as an excuse. She had gone so far as to insist on the +restoration of the 'poor darling's playthings'; but just as she failed +to hear him delegate to Davy the task of picking up the scattered +treasures William was crying for, so she failed to suspect her eldest +born of any ungenerous feeling towards Evan, or any unworthy comment on +private affairs to strangers. + +So long as roads were passable, and skies at all propitious, Mrs. +Edwards was certain to ride to Caerphilly market, companioned by Rhys, +less for protection than for his instruction. When Aquarius was reckless +with his water-pot, Evan alone bestrode Breint, and seldom failed to +make a good market. + +Equally, when Sundays were fine, Mrs. Edwards went to church, and with +her Rhys and one of the younger ones; Evan's shoulders being always at +the service of William rather than disappoint the boy. Yet, when the +broken weather kept the house-mother and children from Sunday service, +Ales was prompt and ready to accompany Rhys and Evan, even when the +morning mist became a drizzle or a blinding fog. Umbrellas were unknown, +and, therefore, unmissed. Cased in her thick, dark-blue cloak, its large +hood drawn over her low-crowned, black-felt man's hat, and the white +linen cap under that, she seemed to heed the weather as little as her +companions in their heavy coats, and generally came back, after her long +barefooted walk, as rosy and bright as if the sun had been shining +overhead, and the pathway of velvet sward. + +If Rhys started with them, he had a trick of deserting them, and joining +Owen Griffith and Cate. But he was so far his own master, and, as they +made no complaint, Mrs. Edwards had no suspicion of his defection, or of +an intimacy so close as to have become confidential. + +And, although Owen had been one of the first to follow Mrs. Edwards' +lead in the matter of whitewashing and window-glazing, and had been a +very good friend and adviser to the widow in her hour of sorest need, +and would have been the first to rise in her defence, neither his wife, +nor Cate, nor it may be himself, was above the bird-like propensity to +pick up stray crumbs of confidence, or to drop them for other +well-meaning, bird-like chatterers to pick up. So it came about that +little was done on the farm that was not discussed half over the parish. + +Yet, notwithstanding proverb or prophecy, the widow's goods were in no +danger from unthrift. + +Whether rain or fair, whosoever went to church or stayed at home,--and +as the winter advanced the roads became impassable,--no sooner was the +kitchen cleared after the simple dinner, than the big Welsh Bible was +laid reverently upon the table, and either Mrs. Edwards or Rhys read a +chapter or two aloud, she venturing to expound the text to immature +understandings. + +Theologians might have smiled, or shaken their wise heads over her +expositions, but she was a clear-headed woman, and seldom dived below +her depth. + +She never allowed anything to break into this Sunday custom. It was a +family bond drawing them all closer together; even the youngest bringing +their low wooden stools nearer, and listening with attention not common +where books and other objects of interest are many. + +In the wet and snowy winter months, when outdoor labour was restricted +and the days short, indoor work was at its busiest. Doors would be +closed to keep out the cold winds, Evan would bring fresh squares of +peat and fire-balls to keep the hearth aglow. He would take the place of +Ales at the churn, or would hang up the big porridge-pot, or (if +cheese-making was about, though there was little cheese made in the +winter) the great whey-pot, with hearty goodwill to help her. Then a +candle would be alight, and whilst the cat and dog lay basking in front +of the fire, all, down to the youngest, would have some useful or +profitable occupation. + +It was then Mrs. Edwards' spinning-wheel went round the swiftest, and +sang its song of industry the loudest. + +In former days her husband had combed the wool, and was teaching Rhys +how to fling the tufts of greasy and matted wool over the heated iron +combs set in an upright staff, and to draw them out like the long locks +of a woman's hair. She had always sorted her own fleeces. We are all +familiar with the sign of 'The Golden Fleece.' Well, just so the fleece +of a sheep hangs together after it is sheared away, but in every fleece +are several different qualities of wool, and the sorting and separating +those qualities calls for a discriminating touch. This continued to be +her task, though Evan took the wool-combing in hand, Rhys having an +occasional turn with the coarser sorts. + +Ales, in generous rivalry with her mistress, having no second +spinning-wheel, took up her distaff, as did half the women in the +Principality, and set her spindle dancing on the floor as she drew out +her thread of wool or linen. + +Knitting was taken up by any one of them when not otherwise employed. + +Thus Rhys plied his knitting-pins with ease and certainty, and the long +blue or black woollen stockings grew under his fingers, whilst he +proudly exercised his dead father's function, and taught his sister and +brothers to read. + +It was a tedious occupation; and he might not have taken it up from +choice, or accepted the office willingly, but the monotonous drawl of +the learners sounded an undertone to the musical hum of his mother's +wheel, and set his heart aglow with the feeling that, however and +wherever Evan had superseded him, in _that_ at least _he_ represented +his dead father, and was, in his own opinion, the head of the house, +having authority over the younger ones. + +It made him more patient with them than he otherwise might have been. +And it kept under his reluctance to teach little William his letters, +when the child, with a laudable desire to look big and do what Davy and +Jonet did, insisted on an introduction to the painted characters on his +sister's battledore.[11] + +'Me tree years old,' Willie had pleaded, when Rhys asserted that he was +too young to learn, and when that did not serve, 'Me ask Evan, Evan +teach me,' was quite sufficient. Rhys drew his dark brows together, but +he put down his knitting and pointed to the letters without another word +of objection. + +Having thus, as it were, compelled his brother to teach him as a favour, +he stuck to his self-imposed task with unflagging determination, as if +he had something to master that must be mastered. And, perhaps, not the +less persistently because, with all a sharp child's acute perception, he +saw he was having his own way in spite of Rhys. Having his own way also +in being free to build walls and houses on the great chest under the +window with his accumulating bits of stone. + +That is, until Ales came at an early hour and swept his building +materials into a corner, and swept him and Jonet off to bed with equal +promptitude, barely waiting whilst they said their simple prayers. + +Work (the knitting, spinning, and wool-combing) did not cease until the +general supper-time, about eight o'clock; but conversation lightened it, +the distance between mistress and servants being scarcely felt or +perceptible, though one directed and the others obeyed. + +Sometimes Evan might have occasion to look after a sick beast, or Ales +to prepare a warm mash, or the shepherd might come in to report the +condition of his flock; but so, with little variation, went on the +routine of the farm, until renewing spring brought fresh activities and +outdoor occupations. + +Spring, too, brought wizened Mr. Pryse, the agent, intrusively prying +round the farm, his half-shut eyes scanning homestead and tillage with +eager craving to discover signs of the mismanagement over which rumour +had been busy. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[11] An oblong board about ten inches long by eight wide, on which the +alphabets and simple syllables were painted. It was furnished with a +handle. In many cases the letters were printed and covered with a +transparent slice of horn. It was then called a hornbook. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE BAFFLED AGENT. + + +Mr. Pryse mounted his horse and trotted away from the farm, biting his +long nails as he went in sheer vexation. His survey had not been as +satisfactory to himself as he had anticipated. The land was in good +cultivation, and every one was at work upon it. In one brown field lime +lay in round, white heaps; compost, from the farmyard, showed in dark +patches, ready for distribution on the grass land. In one field Evan was +sowing oats; in another plot, where the spade had turned over the ground +in well-defined furrows, Rhys was dibbling holes for planting, and Davy +followed, dropping in something he carried in a small basket, which +would have baffled the sharp optics of the observer, had he not come +across Ales, besides a heap of seed potatoes, cutting them up into +pieces where the eyes were beginning to shoot, and seen Davy bring his +empty basket for a fresh supply. + +'Mrs. Edwards do be in the house, sir,' said the young woman, as a hint +that his inquisitorial observation was unpleasant; and, after a sneer at +what he called 'experimental farming,' the hint had been taken. + +He had already been on to the moorlands to inspect sheep and goats, and +put the shepherd through the fine sieve, and had come back over +newly-sown crops, or springing shoots of green ones, heedless where the +hoofs of his horse might fall. Had he been lord of the land in full +possession, he could scarcely have been more indifferent; had he been +tenant, he might have been more careful. As he neared the homestead, and +saw barn and outbuildings in good repair, where he had expected +dilapidation, he pressed his thin lips close together, but when he came +upon the newly-erected sties, the thin lips spread, and made an abortive +attempt to curl. + +'So that is how you propose to carry on your farm, is it? Aping the +gentry!' he said, with a sneer, addressing Mrs. Edwards as he +dismounted, the sound of hoof-beats having brought her to the dairy +door. 'Do you imagine it will pay _you_ to house your hogs? You will be +for putting your goats into limbo next.' + +[Illustration: 'SO THAT IS HOW YOU PROPOSE TO CARRY ON YOUR FARM?' HE +SAID, WITH A SNEER.--_See page 106._] + +''Deed, and I wish I could,' was her response. 'They do so much damage +to the trees and thatch.' + +'Ugh! And pray where did _you_ see hogs so accommodated? Not in the Vale +of Glamorgan, I know. We don't house pigs as snugly as our labourers.' + +'Sure, sir, it was in England, when I was in service there. And at +Castella and Llantwit. But, perhaps, sir, you will be coming in and have +a glass of cider and a bite of bread and cheese?' + +He looked snappish enough to take a bite at her--or her farm--as he +answered: 'England, indeed! Surely Welsh ways are best for Welsh +people. You will not find English ones prosper here.' + +Nevertheless, he followed her into the house, noticing as he went that +the dairy had been enclosed and partitioned off close to the jamb of the +outer door, and was shut in by its own door on the left, so as to +preserve it from the dust of traffic across, and from the open storage +on the right. + +'Is that another of your English ways?' he asked, as he passed on. + +'Yes, sir.' + +'Humph! And your wheel, and your glass windows, and your potatoes? You +will not find many imitators, Mrs. Edwards.' + +''Deed, sir, and I don't be looking for imitators, whatever; unless, +perhaps, my children and my servants may be for teaching theirs, as I do +be teaching them.' + +She had spread a clean, homespun linen cloth on the table under the +cheese and the jug of cider, even though she disliked the agent and +suspected his errand. Private feeling must not interfere with +hospitality. + +He, for his part, accepted her attentions as a right, making as free +with the cheese and bread and cider as if they had been ordered at an +inn, with the relishing consciousness they would not have to be paid +for. + +'Perhaps,' said he, after a good draught of the cider, 'you learned to +make _that_ in England too?' the old ugly smile on his thin lips. + +'Partly, sir. In Herefordshire.' + +Narrowed as were the slits between his eyelids, nothing escaped his +roving eyes. + +'What's that?' he ejaculated, pointing with his riding whip, as he rose +to depart, to a rudely-constructed tower William was raising on the oak +chest with his stone chips. The boy had backed into a corner in front of +his sister Jonet, as if he recognised a foe in the stranger. Shyness he +had none. + +His mother explained. 'Willem's building a Tower of Babil.' + +'Humph! If he can do that, he might be set to something useful. There,' +said Mr. Pryse, 'that will find him employment,' and, with a stroke of +his whip, he swept down the boy's tower, a malicious chuckle shaking his +skinny throat as he strode out of the kitchen to mount his horse. + +As he rode away he heard a boy's passionate scream behind him, and felt +the sharp pelting of a couple of small stones between his shoulders. He +turned round in his saddle, and shook his whip-hand at the child, who, +with face aflame, cried after him-- + +[Illustration: HE TURNED AND SHOOK HIS WHIP-HAND AT THE CHILD.--_See +page 110._] + +'You bad man! bad man, you!' + +But he only chuckled, as if the incident amused him. + +His satisfaction was but temporary, and before he had well reached the +level he began biting his nails with vexation, for he saw only signs of +improved husbandry, nothing on which he could pounce as betokening ruin. + +After a few days came a more welcome visitor to the farm, in the guise +of a travelling packman, with his string of mules, on his rounds to +collect the stockings, flannels, blankets, and linseys, knitted and +woven in the farms and cottages scattered among the mountains or grouped +in villages. For these he was willing to pay in coin, but he preferred +to exchange for the English goods with which his beasts were laden, not +so much of ribbon and laces, gaily-coloured gown-pieces, or cheap +trinkets, as of useful hardware, knives, forks, spoons, crockery, pots +and pans, needles, pins, tapes, and buttons; such goods as were in +general demand for household use. Very rarely did he display any more +gorgeous drapery than a silken neckerchief, or a bright ribbon for a +bow. The Welsh still clung to their national costume, and, with few +exceptions, were clothed entirely in woollen of native growth and +manufacture. Still he carried hats with him, and the flannels or duffle +collected in one part he could dispose of elsewhere. + +The jingling bells on his leading mule proclaimed his arrival. There was +a general rush to surround him and inspect his wares, the children +crowding in with the rest, and the clack of tongues was indescribable. + +His periodical visits were the great events of the year. The first duty +was that of hospitality. Oaten bread and cheese and milk were set before +him, and the winter's pile of knitted stockings and mittens brought out +whilst he refreshed. These, as the man knew of old, had to be examined, +priced, and paid for before Mrs. Edwards would allow one of his packs or +panniers to be unloaded. Then ensued the bargaining for bright-coloured +mugs and bowls; there was no need of teacups and saucers, for no one +drank tea. It was almost an unknown luxury there. Jonet and William +were favoured with a mug apiece, adorned with waves of bright blue on a +yellow ground. Rhys had a new hat. Davy plucked at his mother's skirts +and reminded her that he was to be finally breeched when the packman +came round, and he was not disappointed. + +Something was wanted and bought for house and everybody. + +Ales, who had smartened herself up of late, invested in a +bright-coloured cotton kerchief or shawl to be worn crossed over her +short jacket, and a stout comb to keep her tangled locks in order; the +need for which she learned by surveying her own good looks in a +red-framed looking-glass Evan had given to her--a glass not larger than +his own right hand, but it was better as a mirror than the broken water +under the spring, and might be taken as an earnest of his especial +goodwill. + +The ensuing rent was paid duly; and, in spite of prophecies and +forecasts, it was as duly paid in succeeding years. + +But Mr. Pryse grew no more civil; indeed, he seemed ever on the watch +for some pretext to turn the widow and her children off the farm she had +done so much to improve. He had never forgiven Edwards for saying of +him, 'he was too grasping to be altogether honest,' and, when the farmer +was drowned, rejoiced as only an evil-minded curmudgeon could do. + +It was no satisfaction to him, as years went by, to see one whitewashed +cottage after another stand out like a pearl among emerald fields and +foliage, and know whose house had been the model. Nor could he hear of +Owen Griffith and others venturing on a potato crop without a sneer. And +he positively snarled when he heard the prices the widow's piglings and +bacon brought in the market. Not that he ascribed the prosperity of Mrs. +Edwards to her own good management. No; he set that down to Evan Evans +and his previous initiation on the Castella estate. He owed the +farm-servant a grudge accordingly. He rejoiced when he heard that Rhys +regarded Evans as an interloper, and never missed an opportunity, by +subtle sneer or insinuation, to fan the supposed antagonism into an +active flame. + +As years rolled on, and he saw the down of incipient manhood darken on +the lip of Rhys, ever his mother's escort on rent-days, his innuendoes +became broader and stronger. There was an air of self-sustained +mastership about the sturdy young fellow that suggested ripe soil for +his weeds. + +'Humph!' said he, when Rhys was about eighteen; 'I should have thought a +stout chap like you might have saved your mother the cost of a _head +man_.' + +At a later date: 'Well, young man, I never expected your father's son to +submit to a servant's rule so long.' + +Had there been any _submission_ in the case, Rhys would have taken fire +at once. No hints would have been needed to provoke rebellion that would +have led to the ousting of Evan. But the latter had never presumed to +_give orders_, and, of late, had deferred to Rhys as his 'young +master.' + +Whatever suggestions he made in farming matters were made to Mrs. +Edwards. Command rested with _her_. + +Then Rhys had conceived a mortal antipathy to the agent that first +rent-paying day, and he suspected a sinister motive in every word that +fell from the ill-natured, thin lips. + +And it had been made a condition, by the shrewd widow, that Rhys should +bridle his tongue, and allow nothing said by Mr. Pryse to provoke hasty +reply, or she must take Evan in his stead as witness. Yet it was hard +sometimes for either to listen quietly to the agent's coarse and +insulting speeches, of which his noble employer had no suspicion. + +Some of his sharpest bullets were fired from a double-barrelled gun. +'Well, Mrs. Edwards, I hear you and Evan Evans are about to make a match +of it at last. How soon is this fine young man of yours to have a +step-father?' + +A frown darkened the brow of Rhys, and an indignant retort was on his +tongue, but, before a second word was uttered, the frown changed to a +significant smile at a look from his mother. + +It was an open secret at the farm that Ales and Evan were courting, and +only waited until they had saved enough money to set up housekeeping and +farming for themselves, as husband and wife. + +Had Mr. Pryse but known it, there _was_ an element of disquiet and +rebellion at Brookside Farm, of which he might have taken advantage. + +But he never gave a second thought to the boy whose walls he had +levelled so wantonly. He had not seen that same boy, his passion over, +pick up every scattered bit of stone, and patiently raise his walls once +more. + +He had no suspicion how the strong will and pertinacity of that three +years child would come later into collision with the mastership of his +eldest brother, or the important part these stone chips would play in +William's life, or how they might affect the welfare of the whole +county, or make an enduring name when his own was forgotten. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +FRIENDS AND BROTHERS. + + +There was no necessity for Mr. Pryse to suggest 'employment' for little +William. In the last century, and far into this, children were set to +work and expected to earn their own living at a wofully early age, and +that long before machinery came into use and drove them into factories +to be the slaves of brutal overseers, who scored their six and eight +year old backs with weals from whip or stick on the slightest +provocation. William Hutton, the historian, tells how he, a small child +of seven years, was apprenticed, in 1730, to an overseer of Lombe's silk +mill, in Derby, how he had to wear high pattens to reach the machine, +had to rise at five in the depth of winter and hurry to work, slipping +down on the ice as he ran, and how he was beaten till his back was all +festering sores. And this was no uncommon case. I, who write this, can +remember when the little barefooted children went to the cotton +factories and print works at five in the morning, and worked till seven +or eight at night. + +The boys and girls of this generation have no conception how children +were trained and treated a few generations back. Not the poor only. The +children of even rich parents had to endure painful punishments both at +school and at home, and were fed sparely on coarse food for their +health's sake. The late noble Lord Shaftesbury related how he and a +sister were well-nigh starved in their childhood through the negligence +of parents and servants. + +History and biography teem with such instances. So that when I state +that William Edwards and Jonet were sent into their mother's fields to +weed, and pick up stones, and scare the birds away from newly-sown lands +before the boy was six years old, I cast no reflection on his mother, +who had no experience of a different state of things. + +Nay, for her time, she was enlightened, and being a woman with good +natural feeling, she was careful they were not taxed beyond their +strength, as she and her husband had been; but that children should +spend their hours in play, when they were old enough to be of use, had +never dawned on her imagination. She considered she was doing her duty +by them in setting them early to work, especially as she was careful +they should be taught to read also. + +Davy worked in field and farm, alongside Rhys, without a murmur of +hardship. And when Jonet was first set to feed the chickens, or to look +for the eggs of hens that laid away, to pull peas or beans, or to shell +the latter for the pot (peas were boiled in the pod), imitative William, +always at her heels, and wanting to show his own cleverness, set himself +to do likewise. + +And so long as he set himself voluntarily to work to assist Jonet, he +was busy as a bee, and proud of his doings. Or when his mother or Ales +sent him hither or thither to fetch or carry, or directed him to perform +small services, he was as willing and amenable to order as most boys of +his age. But no sooner did Rhys take advantage of his precocious +industry, and exercise an assumed right to command, and bid him do this +or that, than William began to rebel. + +He was docile enough to his brother as a teacher. He was more eager to +learn to read than Rhys was to instruct. Davy and Jonet took their +spelling and reading lessons as compulsory tasks--Davy placidly, and +Jonet with uneasy disfavour--but William with an absolute desire to +_know_. + +He no sooner discovered that the Ten Commandments painted up in the +church, and the inscriptions on the upright gravestones in the +churchyard, were just made up of the alphabetical characters on his +painted battledore, and that the big Bible his mother read aloud to them +was all a mixture of the same letters, than a craving to penetrate the +mystery of these combinations seized him. He felt he had achieved +something when he made his first grand discovery on a headstone taller +than himself; but when, at his request, Evan read out the inscription, +his perplexity and curiosity increased. + +It was singular to see the little fellow--he was short for his +age--Sunday by Sunday tracing letter or word, with tiny finger, on some +grey old slab, while his seniors were gossiping all around. + +'I tell you what,' said Rhys to him one Sunday when so employed, 'you +might have been born in a stone quarry. I'm sure you ought to live in +one, you do be so fond of the dirty rubbish.' + +'What's a stone quarry?' put in William, with wide-open eyes. + +'Oh, bother! It's a place where stone grows,' was the impatient reply. + +'Grows like trees?' and the wondering eyes of the six years old querist +opened still wider. + +'Oh, what a plague you do be! No, grows like coal;' and away strode Rhys +to avoid further questioning--a common but very unsatisfactory way of +dealing with an inquiring child. + +'I'll be asking Robert Jones, he will tell me,' said William to himself. +'Rhys do be caring more for Cate Griffith than for me, whatever,' his +aggrieved looks following his well-grown brother as he strode over the +grassy mound to join the weaver's wife and daughter under the +patriarchal yew-tree, with all the importance of incipient manhood. + +The following day William was missing from the farm, but as this was not +uncommon, only slight uneasiness was felt until evening. + +The boy had long before struck up a strange friendship with the +red-haired peat-cutter, who, in fulfilment of his early promise, had +taken him on his ass when bound to a colliery across the river for culm, +and there let him see the horse plodding round and round in a circle to +wind up coal and grimy colliers from the dark, deep pit-shaft, and let +down the empty tubs to be refilled. There the child had looked round in +wonder at the great black heaps of coal, and at the half-naked children +sent down the terrible dark hole, to work in the bowels of the mine, as +Robert Jones explained to him. + +Later he had taken the little fellow to see how peat was cut with long, +narrow, flat shovels, 'shaped like a marrow-spoon,' from the boggy top +of Eglwysilan Mountain. And when his sled was loaded, he had placed the +child before him on the end of the sled, and gone sliding down the steep +mountain-side with him swiftly and securely, to the youngster's infinite +delight. He was too young to dream of danger, and to the man, long +practice had made the perilous descent safe and easy, swift as was the +downward motion, and sharp as was the jerk at the bottom. And many a +ride on the turf-cutter's sled did William have after that. + +The man had no children of his own, and, perhaps, that was the reason he +took so kindly to the lad; answering his strange questions to the best +of his untutored ability, and frequently giving him a mount on one of +his patient beasts between tubs or panniers when going for loads, or +carrying them for sale not too far away. To him the child could open all +his wondering heart, fearing neither repulse nor ridicule, of which he +had too much at home; and so their friendship grew. + +On that particular Monday morning, Robert Jones had started on a long +round, and nothing remained for the young inquirer, who had sought him +at his ordinary haunts, but to limp homeward in the afternoon, hungry, +footsore, and disappointed. + +Cate Griffith, returning from the brook with a pitcher of water on her +head and another in her hand, caught sight of him as he was passing her +father's door. + +'Name o' goodness!' she cried, 'what brings you here this time o' day? +Look you, father, here's little Willem Edwards!' + +The weaver, then changing his shuttle, looked out from his casement +window, and in two minutes was at the door questioning the wanderer. + +Without any shyness or reservation the boy told where he had been, and +for what; his brother's initiative remarks with the rest. + +Cate, now a rosy-cheeked, buxom lass on the borderland of womanhood, +began to laugh outright, as she had often laughed before when Rhys +amused her with some story of William's out-of-the-way questions. + +Her father checked her sternly. 'What do you be laughing at?' + +''Deed, he do be so queer. Rhys do say he be always at play with bits of +stones. And now he asks if they do grow like trees. Oh, Willem, you are +droll!' + +Again her laugh broke out. William, child though he was, crimsoned to +the roots of his brown hair. He seemed to comprehend that Rhys had made +a jest of him, and no one is more sensitive to ridicule than a child of +tender years. + +'Carry your pitchers into the house, and stay there!' cried her father. +Then turning to the boy, who hesitated whether to linger or walk on, he +said kindly-- + +'Never mind Cate, my little man, she talks foolishness. Come and sit on +this bench beside me. I'll try to serve instead of Robert Jones.' + +William's face lit up. He climbed to a seat by the weaver's side, +content to find he was no longer laughed at. And very intently he +listened to Owen's simple explanation that the mountain was nearly all +stone, and that a quarry was the place where strong men broke away the +stone for building walls and houses, and that the mountains had been +there ever since God created the world, so that he did not think stone +grew. And if Owen's was not a learned geological definition, it was all +the better adapted to juvenile comprehension. But, simple as it was, a +shower of whys and hows were rained on the exponent during its course. + +Then William rose to depart, but something in his face, or in his +lagging gait, or a casual word, caused the weaver to interrogate the +boy. This elicited the admission that he had strayed away from home in +the morning, and that no one knew, and, moreover, that he was very +hungry. + +Owen looked grave. He called for Cate to bring some bread and a cup of +milk, and began to read the boy a lesson on the inconsiderate wrong he +had done, and the anxiety he would cause his mother. + +'You should never leave home without permission, Willem. Your poor +mother will be fretting and crying for fear lest you have fallen over +the rocks, or got into the river and been drowned, or lost your way on +the mountain as you did four years ago, when Evan found you asleep under +the Druids' rocking-stone. It is very cruel and wicked for a child to +stray from home without leave.' + +William hung his head. 'I did not mean any harm,' he began; 'but,' in a +changed tone, 'what's the Druids?'-- + +'Oh, you're here, are you? A fine hunt you have given us all, you young +plague,' came in an angry shout from Rhys, who had crossed the brook and +was advancing at a run. + +William's question died away unanswered. He got down from his stone seat +inclined to be penitent for his misbehaviour. Owen Griffith had shown +him that he had done wrong. He might have gone home and told his mother +he was sorry. But Rhys, who had been as much alarmed at his absence as +the rest, now he was found, caught him by the shoulder and shook him +roughly. + +'Look you, if you do be running off again, I shall give you a good +thrashing.' + +''Deed you won't,' was thrown back at him defiantly by William, whose +penitence was at an end. + +'Won't I? You'll see. Sure, I've half a mind to do it now.' + +'Nay, nay,' interposed Griffith. 'Willem is sorry. He did not know he +was doing wrong.' + +'Then he will have to learn. It's quite time he made himself useful. +Jonet did before she was his age. And so did I. We can have no idlers +on our farm, whatever. Ah, Cate, is that you?' His voice had brought the +girl to the open window. She leaned out, blushing like a peony. He +joined her, and said something which made her giggle and provoked reply. +Then ensued some whispering and laughter. Rhys apparently forgot all +about William and his mother's anxiety whilst occupied so pleasantly, +for there was no doubt Cate had more than a third-cousinly attraction +for him, and chance opportunities for seeing her except on Sundays were +not frequent. + +When his errand recurred to him, William had disappeared, and +notwithstanding Rhys' longer legs, the fatigue of the small ones, the +gathering dusk, and the steepness of the ascending path to the farm, the +truant crossed the threshold first. + +At once uneasiness resolved itself into displeasure. He was scolded on +all sides, and threatened with the loss of a supper if ever he ventured +to give them such a fright again. + +'I wanted Robert Jones,' was all the excuse he made. The scolding was +received with stolid silence, which was called sullenness. + +Yet he had not forgotten Owen's picture of his mother's distress, or his +grave reproof for straying away, and had he been differently received, +he might have been contrite and sued for pardon. + +It is a difficult matter, even in these analytic days, to search out the +inner workings of the child-mind, or to understand all that influences +wayward moods. How were those rudely-cultivated farmers to penetrate +beneath the surface, to see the undeveloped oak in the immature acorn? + +'Robert Jones do be spoiling that boy,' said Mrs. Edwards, when the +child was in bed. 'I wonder what he wanted with the man?' + +'Wanted? Sure, he wanted to ask if stones do grow like trees,' said +Rhys, in a tone of impatient scorn. 'It was only last week he did be +asking me if the trees made the wind, because it was always windy when +the trees tossed about.' + +'Well, _don't_ they?' queried stolid Davy, amidst a roar of laughter, in +which even the mother joined. + +'Now, don't you be as silly as Willem. I never before knew you ask such +a foolish question,' said Rhys dogmatically. + +'No, Davy,' explained his mother, without stopping her busy wheel, 'it +is the wind that blows the trees about,'--an answer which sufficed for +him. He was not curious to learn what caused the winds, or whence they +came, as William had been. He accepted facts as they were, untroubled by +vain speculations. + +Undoubtedly William--the father's namesake, her youngest born--was the +mother's darling, in spite of his odd ways. And however cross she might +have been overnight, in the morning, when the others had dispersed, she +took him to task for straying away without leave; not angrily, but +sadly, showing him the trouble he was likely to cause, and the anxiety +she had had, remembering the time when he was lost before. + +It was a very effectual supplement to Owen Griffith's lecture; the +sensitive boy's feelings were touched. He threw his arms around her +neck, begged forgiveness, and promised the best of behaviour for the +future. + +Alas, for a child's promises! William went to work beside Jonet like a +little man, helped in seed-time and harvest, and won commendations from +Ales and Evan. But he had his dreamy hours; he continued to pile up +stones in odd corners, and was alternately ridiculed and rebuked by +Rhys, whose interference he resented. + +This went on for about two years, trying the patience of both, and then +came a more serious outbreak. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +A MEMORABLE ENCOUNTER. + + +William's rebellion had begun to show itself in sullen disregard of his +brother's orders. He was always active and willing when his mother or +Evan called him--Davy might convey a message, but never had an +independent order to give--he was Jonet's obedient bondslave, but when +Rhys demanded his services or attention he generally turned a deaf ear. +For this, Rhys--who considered his ten years' seniority quite a warranty +for control as his mother's deputy and his dead father's +representative--took him to task imperiously, not with any desire to be +knowingly overbearing, but from a stern sense of his own duty to a lazy +lad. + +At length, one bright day in early spring, when William was little more +than nine years of age, he stood lingering after the midday meal close +beside the stone gate-posts of a field where Davy and Jonet were already +busy weeding a freshly springing crop of corn. His arms rested upon the +coping of the wall with his chin upon them, whilst he, looking down into +the fertile vale below--where glimpses of the shining river were +discernible like twinkling stars, through the tender green shoots which +veiled the swaying boughs on its densely-wooded banks--seemed lost in a +dreamy mist of speculative thought. The boy's reverie was rudely broken. + +'Now then, lazyback! What do you be doing there?' called out Rhys, who +carried a spade on one shoulder and a wicker basket in his hand, which +he tossed down at his brother's feet. No answer coming, he called out +again, 'What do you be doing there?' + +'I do be thinking,' came composedly from William. + +'Thinking, indeed! I wish you would be thinking about your work. What +can you have to think about, whatever?' + +''Deed, nobody knows my thinks,' replied the boy, without turning round. + +'You will very soon know _my thinks_,' retorted Rhys, 'if you do not +pick up your basket, and get to your weeding. You are one of the "late +and lazy who will never be rich." Come, stir you.' And, as if to enforce +obedience, Rhys raised his disengaged hand and struck the other a sharp +blow across the shoulders. + +At once William turned round, his cheeks and eyes aflame. Rhys thought +he was about to strike him back again. + +Instead, he gave the empty basket a kick that sent it flying over the +ridges, and was out at the narrow gateway in an instant, with a defiant +air that seemed to dare Rhys to lay hands upon him again, or attempt to +draw him back. + +That day he was seen no more upon the farm until nightfall, when he was +sent to bed supperless as a punishment. + +He was up betimes in the morning, and had the fire alight before any one +else was astir. He was having a wash at the spring when Ales came into +the farmyard. + +'Name o' goodness!' exclaimed she, 'what's got you out of bed so soon? +Want your breakfast, I suppose?' + +William nodded in assent, on his way to the common towel. + +'Do you think you be deserving any?' + +'Does Rhys be deserving any?' + +Ales had a proverb ready, 'Who does well, deserves well.' + +'Is it doing well to call names and be striking his brother?' + +Ales had no direct answer to that. 'Rhys says you are idle and should be +made to work. You do be playing with stones when you should be weeding +or knitting. _He_ does always be working hard,' she replied evasively. + +Prompt was the retort, 'A big man should work, I will do better work +than Rhys when I am as big. 'Deed I will.' + +This conversation had taken place during the hasty ablutions of Ales, +who had latterly grown uncommonly anxious to present 'a shining morning +face' to Evan when he appeared. As she combed out her hair at the +diminutive looking-glass he had bought her, as a hint, and which hung +beside the storehouse door, she began in an insinuating tone-- + +'And where did you be going yesterday, Willem? Did you be with Robert +Jones?' + +'Never be you minding,' said the boy, walking past with a pitcher of +water for the porridge. And no further information could she or any one +else extract from him. + +After that, whenever Rhys and he came into collision he disappeared, and +none could say whither he went or with whom. Cate or Owen Griffith might +see him pass the cottage door, and exchange a 'good-day' greeting, but +beyond that his wanderings were unknown. + +In a mountainous parish like Eglwysilan, where was no village community, +where farms and cottages were mostly solitary and far apart, there was +little chance of encountering many strollers out of the main highway, +except on market-days. + +Wandering aimlessly in his blind passion, on the day when Rhys had +struck him, hardly noting the way he went, he found himself all on a +sudden on what appeared to be a short, grass-grown roadway, bordered on +both sides by upright blocks of stone, more stunted and less shapely +than the slabs in the churchyard, but planted there with so much method +in their irregular intervals, they might indeed have been dwarf guards +to some great giant turned suddenly to stone by the magic art of a still +greater necromancer of the olden time, as he had heard. + +Such legends were common on the domestic hearth. So that, although it +was a bright spring afternoon, an eerie feeling crept over the +passionate boy, especially when he found himself within a wide circle of +such stones, surrounding, in double file, a huge angular mass of like +stone, narrowing downwards from a flat top, capped by a second stone, +and delicately poised on the rounded point of a small conical base in a +hollowed depression of the natural rock, and in some sort bearing out +the simile of the petrified giant's throne. + +As William looked upon this unshapely mass, some dreamy recollection +floated through his mind of having visited the spot before, when the +stones had seemed alive, and making mouths at him. Without nearing the +central stone, but keeping his eye upon it, he walked slowly round +within the inner circle, and, as he went discovered a second path +(leading north) corresponding with the one by which he had entered from +the south. + +Then it dawned upon him this must indeed be the spot where he had lain +down faint and tired, when he was, oh, such a little boy, and had been +so frightened by the grim aspect of the stones, as the dark night had +come on, and he could not rise to get away. + +Soon he ventured to touch the large central stone that had terrified him +before by giving way on the pressure of his tiny hand. It swayed and +rocked to and fro, and he drew back instinctively, but it did not fall. +And now he knew it surely for the great rocking-stone, and no longer +feared that it would fall and crush him so long as he was good and true, +for so the legend ran. + +But now other doubts and fears oppressed him. These would be the very +Druid-stones Owen Griffith had named, and Robert Jones had warned him +not to seek, lest some great harm should come to him. + +Was it true there were once men called Druids, and did they come to life +at midnight and nod to the moon, and to the big nodding-stones? Robert +Jones and Ales both said they did, though they had never ventured there +at midnight to see. They only looked like ill-shaped stones, too little +for men. But had they not made faces at him when he was a bit of a baby +crying there in the dark? + +The boy's heart sank. He was not proof against the grim and weird +recollection. He took to his heels and ran out of the memory-haunted +circle by the stone-guarded avenue next to him, nor stopped until he had +left the desolate and barren spot far behind. + +But where was he? That was not the way towards home. He stood on a wild +heath, high above the valley of the Taff, with the mountain rising and +stretching far away on his right hand, with here and there labourers +tilling the red-brown upland fields, and children at work beside them, +as he should have been working 'but for Rhys,' he told himself. + +He did not know, and could not see it, but the Merthyr Tydvil road, such +as it was, lay sunk between the heath and the receding mountain. He had +only to gain that, and turn completely round, to find his way homeward. + +He looked to the wooded declivity on his left, where birds were calling +to their mates under the swelling pinky buds or pale-green opening fans, +and the odour of wood violets came sweetly fresh in every breath he +drew. A rabbit rose and scuttered past him, and made for the underwood, +where the golden crosiers of trooping ferns were uncurling in their +beauty. The river ran far below, ran with an inviting rush. One moment, +and the boy had plunged into the wood. 'He would _not_ hurry home to be +struck by Rhys.' + +He could easily find his way back with the river to guide him. + +So, now slipping, now catching at the trunk of a tree to maintain a +foothold, he scrambled nearer to the river's brink, where was no more +perceptible path than what had been made by intruders like himself. Once +there he fancied the water was more than commonly disturbed; it was here +and there flecked with foam and swirled in eddies. 'Surely the river +must be in flood,' he said to himself. + +A little way off a well-dressed young man was seated on a stone, fishing +with rod and line. + +William had no shyness. 'Why does the water make such a noise to-day, +and be so rough?' he asked. + +'Don't you know? It is from the falls. The river is always noisy here. +It is louder higher up the stream.' + +'Oh,' said William; 'what are the falls?' + +'Indeed you had better go on a bit farther and see for yourself, my lad. +But be careful how you go.' + +The spirit of adventure was on the boy. He thanked the man and did 'go +on,' until he stood still with amazement, for there the full river came +leaping down, in broken falls, from rock to intercepting rock, some +fifteen feet in all; but they might have been fifty for what the +home-kept boy knew. + +Strange is the fascination of living, leaping water. He stood there +gazing spellbound, lost in admiration, listening to the tumultuous +uproar, as the swift waters came rushing and flashing downwards, +striking themselves against the rocks into angry foam that William +mentally compared to suds when Ales was washing, only he never had seen +washing on so large a scale. If there were finer cascades in the world +he had not seen them. He was fascinated by what he did see, and lingered +long. + +'I wonder if Rhys or Davy ever saw these falls?' he said to himself; +'they never told _me_. They tell _me_ nothing. But I will find out +things for myself.' + +The fisherman was rising from his stone when William again drew near. He +had his rod and basket in hand prepared to go. + +'Well, what do you think of the falls?' + +'Oh, 'deed, and they was wonderful--and terrible. I was thinking how +soon they would drown a man.' + +'Yes, or a boy either. Which way are you going?' + +'By the riverside, through the wood as far as the ford.' + +'That will not be safe at this hour. You might slip into the stream. You +had best go back the way you came.' + +'I--I dare not,' stammered William. + +'Dare not? Yet you are not afraid to go through these pathless woods by +the riverside at dusk, though a false step might be fatal. Come along +with me; I'll see you on a safe road.' + +William followed through the ascending wood cautiously as before, ready +to brave anything with such a companion. + +The sun had not set when they stood upon the heath above, and then the +stranger inquired-- + +'Well, my boy, of what are you afraid?' + +'Of going past the Druids' stones, sir.' + +'So you are superstitious? What harm can a few old stones do to a stout +boy like you?' was asked with a broad smile. + +William felt half-ashamed of the confession, how he had been lost when +quite little, and had seen the stones make faces at him, adding the +current stories he had heard, and his fright that afternoon. + +By this time they were descending a slope from the barren heath to the +Merthyr Tydvil highway, thus avoiding close proximity to the dreaded +circle, although the roadway passed on a lower level. As they went, the +stranger did his best to disabuse the boy's mind of his foolish terrors, +and gave him to understand that long before there were any Christian +churches in the land, or any Christian clergymen, the Druids were the +priests, the priests of Baal, and set up those stones for their temples. +Yet he said nothing of their horrid rites or human sacrifices, lest he +should confirm the boy's dread of the stones. + +William listened with wide-open ears, putting in a question here and +there, as was his wont, and, to his delight, receiving intelligent +replies adapted to the capacity of a thinking child. He was very anxious +to know something more about the priests of Baal, but, after a brief +identification of them with the idolatrous worshippers of the sun, the +stranger, having ascertained that he could read, referred him to the +Bible for further information. + +They had reached the well-trodden turning to the ford. The sun had by +this time set, and twilight was closing in. + +'I presume our ways part here,' observed the tall stranger. 'Good-bye. +Do not forget what I have told you. Brave boys who fear God, and do +their duty to their fellows, do not dread the aspect of a few grey old +stones.' + +'I'm not afraid of stones, sir. I've got a heap, and I build with them. +But Rhys kicks them over and says I waste my time.' + +'So you build with stones, do you? And, pray, what do you build?' asked +the gentleman, with a comical smile, unseen in the twilight. 'Do you +think you could build a bridge over this treacherous river? You would do +good service if you could,' he added, _sotto voce_. + +William felt abashed. He had an uncomfortable suspicion he was being +laughed at. + +'I am only a boy, sir. I can only _try_ to build. But when I am a man, +Rhys shall see!' + +'And who is Rhys?' put the other, resuming his walk when he found the +boy did not turn towards the cottage by the ford. + +'Rhys is my big brother. But, if you please, sir, what do be a +_bridge?_' + +Without evincing any surprise at the ignorance of a boy of his class +and age, who could not have travelled far from home, the other answered +promptly, 'A bridge is a roadway built _over_ a river so that people may +walk or ride across without wetting their feet. Bridges are sometimes +built of wood, sometimes of stone or brick. A bridge is sadly wanted +hereabouts, my boy. I narrowly escaped being swept away at the ford this +morning.' + +William drew in his breath. 'Oh-h-h! Would a bridge have saved my father +from being drowned?' + +'It would preserve any one who had occasion to cross.' + +'Then I'll build one when I'm a man, 'deed I will,' came promptly. + +The stranger, amused by William's earnestness, put some few questions, +in his turn, respecting his father's death, his name, and occupation, +ascertained whence arose his peculiar fancy for building, and suggested +that if the church had attracted him so much he should contrive to visit +the ruins of Caerphilly Castle, which he would find much more wonderful +as a building; adding that he would have to cross a drawbridge to get +into the castle. + +'Why, mother and Rhys go to Caerphilly market every week. They never +told me of the wonderful castle, whatever! But I'll go myself,' cried +William, his imagination fired, and his indignation rising under the +supposition that he had been kept wilfully in the dark. It did not occur +to him that familiarity had taken the wonder out of the ancient pile for +his elders. + +They had reached the foot of the steep ascent to the farm, which +William pointed out with some pride as his home, and there the +stranger--who said he was on his way to the vicarage--took leave of him, +saying that his name was Morris, and perhaps they might meet again some +day, for he was interested in stone, but it was ironstone and not for +building. However, before he went, he gave the boy a word or two of +advice. + +'Remember,' said he, 'you have a character to build before you think of +building houses and churches, and a _boy_ may begin to build that.' + +'How?' was asked, William's grey eyes opening wide. + +'By fearing God, and doing his duty. But there are bad characters as +well as good ones, and every act of disobedience, of untruthfulness, of +indolence, goes to build up the evil in place of the good.' + +He had left William something to ponder. That was a memorable +encounter. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +CAERPHILLY CASTLE. + + +A country vicar in the last century bore little or no resemblance to a +clergyman of any status in this. He was a much more homely and +patriarchal character, especially among the Welsh mountains. + +Whatever his learning or his eloquence, he did not hesitate to till his +own glebe-lands, or to perform offices from which the pastor of to-day +would shrink as derogatory to his cloth. As a rule, his stipend was +small, and necessity compelled him so to labour. He came, however, +nearer to his flock in consequence. + +When Mrs. Edwards, the Sunday following William's escapade, besought the +Rev. John Smith to admonish her refractory son, who perversely and +sullenly refused obedience to his eldest brother, idling and playing +with stones when he should be at work on the farm, and wandering no one +knew whither when reproved, she was surprised to hear him say-- + +'Um, ah, yes, I wanted to have a word with that boy of yours. But which +am I to admonish, the eldest, who should set an example of brotherly +love and consideration, or the youngest, who resents what he regards as +petty persecution and overbearing assumption?' + +''Deed, sir, Rhys has only set a good example to the rest. He do work +hard upon the farm all day, and teach them to read at night; and he do +have a right to expect them to look up to him, and do what he tells +them; for you see, sir, he do be grown quite a young man, and a good +farmer too, look you.' + +'Um, ah, yes, yes. I see. I understand all about it, Mrs. Edwards,' was +the vicar's running comment; 'I'll admonish the offender,' the twinkle +in his genial blue eyes, as he turned to accost another parishioner, +puzzling her greatly. + +However, as there was peace between the brothers for a considerable +time, the widow congratulated herself on bespeaking the good vicar's +interference. + +She was not aware, for Rhys did not think proper to say, that, after +asking him confidentially if the gossip he had heard about himself and +William was true, and what were the rights of the case, the vicar, out +of his own mouth, had convicted him of a want of brotherly kindness and +forbearance, and had 'admonished' him to remember what a lazy lad _he_ +had been prior to his father's death, and had asked how he would have +liked an elder brother to come hectoring over him in those days? In +short, he read Rhys an informal homily on arrogant assumption, and the +need to exercise a degree of lenity towards a brother so much younger, +who was in all probability no worse than he had been himself. It was +something like a pinprick to an inflated balloon. + +Rhys did not hold his head quite so high as usual when he joined Cate +and her father at the churchyard stile; and was so quiet during the walk +homeward that Cate tossed her hat-crowned red head about in offended +pettishness, and Owen looked at him askance, wondering what the good +vicar had said to take all the brightness out of him. + +William was no less reticent. But, child though he was, he lived in a +dream-world of his own, and had ceased to reveal his inner self on the +domestic hearth, scared by the loud laughter and mockery that greeted +his curious inquiries and precocious remarks. + +In his silence, therefore, there was nothing to surprise his mother, who +had fallen in with the general opinion that he was sullen. She had seen +the vicar lead him aside, and took the reprimand for granted. + +The opening words of his conversation with the nine years boy did not +seem much like a reprimand. + +'So, William, I hear you are going to be a great builder? And Mr. Morris +tells me you want to know all about the Tower of Babel and Solomon's +Temple, the Druidical temples, and St. Helen's Church here, with bridges +and I do not know what beside. Now which of all these are we to talk +about first?' + +He had unlocked the boy's heart as with a magic key. Here was some one +else who did not laugh at him. Their conversation lasted little over a +quarter of an hour, and William was frequently the catechist, but it +broke off like a serial story, 'to be continued.' And though it had been +chiefly about building and builders, the vicar had not let the boy go +away without a few words of gentle advice on his duty to himself and +others--a lesson referred back to the two tablets of stone delivered to +Moses amid the fiery terrors of Sinai. + +After that there was generally a Sunday morning chat in the churchyard, +and on one occasion the vicar took the boy home with him to dinner, a +distinction that puzzled Mrs. Edwards exceedingly, and made Rhys no less +jealous. + +The vicar, a small man surmounted by a big clerical wig, had simply +shown the boy a few architectural pictures in illustrated books, with a +brief description of his own, the letterpress being English, and the +boy's education stopping short at Welsh. + +There was a water-colour drawing upon the parlour wall of a ruined +castle with a tower that had been rent from battlement to base, and +appeared in the act of falling. It was too remarkable to escape +William's observation. He eyed it intently for some minutes. At length +he asked, 'What place is that, sir?' + +'That? Oh, that is Caerphilly Castle, the oldest fortress in Cambria. Do +you not know it?' + +'No, but I mean to go there when the tailor comes to make me some proper +clothes. The packman let me have the cloth for the stockings I have +knitted, look you.' + +'Um, ah. So you are in a hurry to discard the ancient Cymric kilt are +you?' + +'They make one look so like a girl,' was William's shamefaced answer. + +'Yet there are grown men both in Wales and in Scotland who still cling +to the kilt, and are proud of it. You will be for casting off the old +Saxon smock-frock next.' + +''Deed no, sir. Men wear smock-frocks, women don't. Rhys wears one and +Evan too.' + +But, ancient or modern, no sooner had William a chance of an exchange +for a short-tailed coat and a pair of knee-breeches than he felt he had +made a step towards manhood, much as Davy had done before him--Davy, who +went plodding along from day to day and from week to week, with scarcely +a thought that did not centre in the farm, and who never troubled +himself about 'whys' or 'wherefores.' + +'William is not at church to-day. How is that?' remarked the vicar to +Mrs. Edwards on the Whitsunday, as he took his customary stroll among +his parishioners in all the importance of his wig and three-cornered +hat, noting each newly flower-decked grave as he went, and perhaps +making a kindly remark in passing. + +''Deed, sir, I thought he would be here. He was dressed before any of +us. Ales said he was proud as a peony of his new clothes, and had gone +off first to show himself. He do be a strange boy.' + +'Did Rhys say anything to him about them?' + +'Yes, sure, he told him that now he was being dressed like a man he +hoped he would cease to be playing with stones like a baby.' + +'Um, ah, yes, yes. I thought as much. You need not be alarmed if William +is not home until late. I can partly guess where he has gone. He is not +doing any harm, my good friend. He is in much less danger than Rhys, I +can assure you.' + +Mrs. Edwards looked up in the vicar's expressive face, and following the +glance of his pleasantly twinkling eye, her own rested on her eldest +son, carefully handing Cate Griffith over the tall stile. + +She knew nothing of electricity, but certainly something like an +electric shock passed through her, with its instantaneous enlightenment. +A moment she stood dazed, then turned to address the vicar, but he was +gone, and talking with a grey-haired old couple of a son who had been +lost at sea, who had no grave to be dressed with flowers that +Whitsuntide. + +William was forgotten in the newer care. There was no mistaking the +attitude, the tender expression in the face of Rhys, or the coquettish +aspect of the ruddy maiden as she placed her plump brown hand in his. + +'Sure,' said the widow to herself, 'Cate could get over a stile without +help. I've seen her climb a tree or get over a wall before now. _That's_ +why Mrs. Griffith's been so ready to let Cate come to the farm to help +at harvest-time, or whenever we were pushed. I see it all now, and the +fear lest she should go home by herself after dark, as if the road did +not be straight enough. And him a boy, not twenty yet. What do the woman +be thinking of? Do she be thinking I would let Cate come on the farm as +Rhys' wife, when Ales and Evan get married? Oh, Rhys, Rhys, and me a +widow with three younger ones to rear, look you!' + +Jonet and Davy, standing close beside her, during her brief colloquy +with the vicar, had no clue to the significance of his hint or his +glance; but they could read the trouble on their mother's puckering +brow, without suspicion of its cause. + +'What be the matter, mother?' asked Jonet anxiously, sidling up to her +and slipping a small palm into the larger one. 'Do you be uneasy about +Willem?' + +''Deed, Willem's all right. The vicar said so. You need not fret over +him,' said Davy placidly. 'He will be gone to show Robert Jones his new +clothes.' + +'Yes, yes, sure, that will be it,' assented the widow, smoothing her +ruffled countenance with an effort, unwilling to share her discovery +with either Davy or Jonet, although the former was by this time quite as +old as Rhys had been when he felt himself entitled to assume a general +protectorate of the family. + +Taking Jonet by the hand, she made her way across the churchyard more +hastily than usual, barely nodding in recognition of an acquaintance who +advanced a step or so in expectation of a chat. Her desire was to keep +Rhys and Cate in sight, and so confirm or dispel her newly-aroused +suspicions. + +But there were others before her at the stile, a father and mother, with +three or four young children, to be helped up the steps on one side and +down the other, and by the time her turn came, Rhys and the Griffiths +were well in advance, and lost to sight by a bend in the road. + +Davy was always inclined to saunter along, and Jonet, however brisk at +starting, began to drag heavily after the first mile on the return, +encumbered by her Sunday shoes. + +For all that neither William nor Rhys were at home when they got there, +and the rare Sunday's dinner of boiled meat and potatoes was on the +table, with buttermilk to wash it down, before the latter came hurrying +in, his cheeks aglow. + +The uneasy look on Mrs. Edwards' face had not been set aside with her +hat and cloak--worn in all seasons on account of uncertain skies--nor +had she found it as easy to conceal her displeasure with a smile, as it +was to cover her best linsey-woolsey skirt with a fair linen apron. + +'Has not Willem come in?' asked Rhys, glancing round the kitchen. + +'No!' said his mother curtly, 'and _you_ have not been hurrying +yourself.' + +'Owen Griffith kept me talking about the success of his new crop of +potatoes. He says that his brothers, and Roberts, and Lloyd are all for +trying them next year.' + +'Potatoes, indeed!' his mother jerked out, and he looked up at her. But +he set her evident ill-humour down to the absence of William, as did +both Evan and Ales. + +And where was William rambling that bright Whitsunday morning, when he +should have been helping his mother to dress his father's grave with +flowers? + +Had he gone, as suggested, to parade his manly suit before his friend +Robert Jones? + +Not he; that would hardly have accounted for his absence from church, +since the turf-cutter's cottage was on the direct road-side. + +No. When the vicar was giving out his text, William Edwards was studying +a 'sermon in stones,' his text being Caerphilly Castle, and he standing +in blank awe and amazement beneath the barbican towers of the only +drawbridge time has spared out of the original thirteen, much as he had +stood in infancy overpowered by the comparative vastness of Eglwysilan's +church when he was first brought face to face with it. + +And now it was but a dumpy boy of nine who stood transfixed by that +approach to a stronghold, 'of which the very ruins are stupendous,' a +boy unread in history, who knew nothing of the Romans, or of Beli Gwar, +or of Robert Fitzhamon, or of any of the conjectural first-founders, or +of Edward the First who added so largely to its strength and size. He +could see that it stood encircled by water in a wide plain surrounded by +dark and barren mountains, but had any one informed him that it occupied +an area equal to Windsor Castle he would have been no wiser, never +having seen a castle before, or heard of any Windsor except the lord of +the soil around his home. + +With mountains he was familiar. Their grandeur did not oppress him. They +were the work of the infinite God who made the whole world, who set the +sun and the moon and stars high in the heavens to give us light. The +creation of the universe by the Almighty hand was no new idea in the +boy's mind. But that men, only _men_, should have put that vast pile +together, its towers, its massive walls that had outlasted hundreds of +years, was suggestive of possibilities and capabilities that took his +breath away. + +He stood there long, not so much because he was tired with his +five-miles' rough walk that hot morning, but to overcome his first +sensations of awe. Then he passed between the two great towers, and +traversed courts and alleys, citadel, hall, chapel, whatever the +pillared areas, the vast walls and arched windows, may suggest to +antiquaries. To the boy they suggested only a marvellous enigma it was +his fixed determination to solve _some_ day. + +In his explorations he had to scramble over the fragmentary ruins of a +second drawbridge between flanking towers, over which the friendly ivy +had thrown an evergreen mantle. Here he stood gazing astonished at the +mass of solid masonry which had walled the castle in, and at a great +arched gateway under which he passed. He groped his way down to an +underground chamber where had been a smelting furnace and a mint; and +from that wonder of wonders, a staircase to the turret-top. + +But nothing held him so spellbound as the leaning tower, which, with +chambers and passages complete, and outer walls full ten feet thick, +overhung its base nearly four yards, a threatening mass that so had hung +in mid air since the convulsion that had rent the tower in twain +centuries before, yet held aloft as surely as the tower of Bologna or of +Pisa. + +Nothing knew William of these, or of battles or sieges, or of the force +of water let in on molten metal; but he could wonder how the stones held +together, and he could argue with himself that what had been done might +be done. + +Aladdin's enchanted garden of precious stones was nothing to what +Caerphilly Castle was to the boy William Edwards. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +MAN PROPOSES. + + +Although, being warned by previous experience, William had stuffed his +new pockets with bread before leaving home in the morning, he found that +was a sorry substitute for a hearty dinner, and when he limped home in +the waning light of the long summer evening, supper at the farm was over +and cleared away. It was a doleful prospect, for there was an aching +void in his interior that all the wonders of Caerphilly Castle had not +served to fill. + +He had left home jauntily enough in the morning, but give any lad of his +years a ten-miles' walk on a hot summer day, on a rough road up hill and +down dale, and add a couple more miles of scrambling over ruins, and I +venture to say all the jauntiness would be taken out of him. He would +look as dusty and limp and jaded as did William Edwards, and his secret +enthusiasm would not prevent a wistful look at the table, bare of all +save crumbs and milky rings where mugs had been. + +Rhys had stood propping up the door-post as he ascended the stony lane, +and entered the enclosure in front of the house by the stile. + +'What do you mean by coming home at this time of night?' he cried +sharply, catching his brother by the shoulder. 'Where have you been all +day, you vagabond, wearing the shoes off your feet?' + +'I've not been after Cate Griffith,' was flung back in retort, and, as +if a stone had struck him, the grip of Rhys on the shoulder relaxed, to +let the 'vagabond' pass in. + +The empty table was not more expressive to him than was the averted +countenance of his mother, who sat on the high-backed settle, her brow +clouded, her unseeing eyes steadfastly gazing at the low hearth where +the embers were smouldering into white ashes. Probably she did not see +him as he dropped wearily down on a three-legged stool opposite. + +Davy sat at the table, half asleep, his face hidden on his folded arms. +Evan was busy in the farmyard. He could hear his wooden shoes clattering +over the stones. Ales was going in and out. + +Jonet, who had been watching for William's return, with her light-brown +head and half her body stretched out of the bedroom window, came +noiselessly across the wide kitchen. Her arm stole lovingly around his +neck. 'You are tired, Willem; do you be hungry?' + +He gave her hand a squeeze and nodded. Her bare feet were off towards +the dairy. + +There was a whispering in the passage. In a few minutes Ales brought in +a mug of buttermilk and a great hunch of brown bread. + +'Here,' she cried, 'eat that; though you don't deserve it, going off no +one knows where.' + +He thanked her for the unhoped-for supper, but he did not tell her where +he had been, though he knew she had an old mother living somewhere in +Caerphilly. Whereabouts he did not know, and, having no news of the poor +rheumatic old woman, he munched his bread in silence. + +His mother never raised her head. If she saw him she made no sign. Rhys +had been away all the afternoon. That lay heavier on her heart than any +wanderings of William, though _he_ thought otherwise. There was no +red-headed Cate lying in wait for her youngest born--no one seeking to +steal his heart away from her. She was hesitating whether to take Rhys +to task, or, as Ales suggested, to 'wait and let the waters pass.' + +But Jane Edwards had not a passive nature. She was more inclined to be +up and doing than to wait. 'Yes,' she communed with herself, 'the waters +may pass, but they may carry my Rhys with them. I want no Cate ordering +about here; the artful jade!' + +As if the very thought had been a stimulus, she rose abruptly, and, +passing out into the moonlight, joined her son, who was bending over the +low stone wall, looking intently down the rugged slope. + +'What are you looking for, Rhys?' + +He gave a sudden start as she went on, 'Do you be watching the moonlight +on the river, and thinking how different was the night that took your +father from us?' + +She put her arm within his as she spoke, and laid her head, in its white +linen cap, against his shoulder. + +'Ah, Rhys, that was a terrible time, a terrible time. But, thanks be to +God, we won through it. And it made a man of you, my dear boy. Well do I +remember how you came to comfort me, and promised always to be a good +son, and do your duty by me, and by the children, and by the farm, in +the sight of God. And you have always done it, Rhys, _fach_, always-- +And--and--it would be breaking my heart, Rhys, if--if--you should be +caring more for some one else than for your promise--or for your +mother--and--and for Jonet--and the others.' And there she paused, but +he made no response, and she continued. + +The latter half of the sentence was sobbed rather than spoken, and Rhys, +who had a tender heart, notwithstanding his contempt for William's +day-dreams, was deeply moved by her emotion. + +For the moment, Cate and his own day-dreams were lost sight of. + +'Mother, dear,' said he, not perhaps so truthfully as might have been, +though he felt at the time that all he said _was_ true. 'Mother, no one +can ever come between us, or make me forget my old promise. What makes +you be thinking so to-night? Have I not done my duty so far?' And now +his strong arm went round her with more than the old protectorate. + +'Yes, yes, indeed, Rhys, you have always been a good son; but--but--you +have been something different of late--and--I thought, perhaps, Elain +Lloyd--or--or--Cate Griffith might have been looking out for you, and +for stealing your heart away from us all, look you.' + +He began a fresh disclaimer at the mention of Elain Lloyd, but stopped +short, and she could feel him wince and hold his breath when the name of +Cate Griffith followed. + +The denial died upon his lips. There was a pause. Early or precipitate +marriages are not common in Wales. The consent of parents must first be +obtained, and he had not yet spoken of marriage to Cate, but he knew the +anticipation lurked in both their hearts, and there was a momentary +struggle between two loves--two duties. + +His mother's emotion had moved him as no angry words could have done, +and so moved him that at the moment he would have given up Cate or any +one to console her. + +'Yes, yes, mother, _fach_; Cate is a nice girl--and we are very good +friends, the best of friends; but you need not be afraid; I am not going +to bring her, or any one else whatever, to disturb you, indeed no.' + +If there was a mental reservation, 'at least not just yet,' the words +were unspoken. + +And so, with a kiss of peace between mother and son, the disturbing +spirit was laid at rest. + +At rest--that was, on the surface--and for the time being. + +True to his promise, and with an unappreciated effort, Rhys confined his +attentions to Cate to the walk home from church, and was apparently less +desirous to loiter with her in the rear of her parents. With commendable +self-repression--seeing that his own inclination ran counter to his +filial bond--he found occupation on the farm when otherwise he might +have had an errand that should take him across the shallow brook and +past the weaver's cottage. Or, if he had really business that way, he +showed less disposition to linger at open door or window. + +Cate resented this with pettishness, and the transference of her winning +smiles to Robert, the young brother of Elain Lloyd, until the coolness +became coldness mingled with pique, and the two passed each other at +church or on the road with affected indifference. + +Had there been an absolute quarrel, it might have spent itself in +reproaches, or been made up when the storm-cloud had passed, but this +unexplained reserve went on for months and months, and the breach +continued open. + +Mrs. Edwards ought to have been satisfied with the result of her +interference, and for a time she was. But somehow the temper of Rhys had +not improved. His assertion of mastership became more pronounced. He and +William came into frequent collision as the weeks and months rounded +into years, and the harmony of the household was disturbed. Jonet +appealed to her mother against his dictatorship, and even Davy roused +from his passivity and objected 'to be ordered about like a hired +labourer.' + +There was no denying that Brookside Farm had materially improved under +the new system of cropping and manuring Evan Evans had introduced, or +that half the farmers in the parish had begun to plant potatoes since +the root had proved so profitable there. Then there was land under +cultivation that had formerly lain waste, and Mrs. Edwards was no longer +in dread of the rent-day, or of Mr. Pryse, let him scowl as he would. + +She was always ready to give Evan the credit, and to pay him well for +his services. But her eldest son, having profited by the man's +instructions through a succession of years, began to think himself wiser +than his teacher, and either argued against or disapproved most of his +suggestions, whether for the cultivation of the land or the treatment of +the stock. Rhys had been a mere boy when Evan came upon the farm, and +the others quite children. It was scarcely likely that he who had seen +them grow up was to submit to the young fellow's rule as if their ages +were reversed. + +Night after night, when Evan and Ales sat up together courting after the +rest were in bed, as was the old custom, he would talk over some fresh +slight or indignity received from Rhys, and declare his intention to +quit the farm and get married at the next yearly hirings. + +''Deed, and it is not that I would like to be doing Mrs. Edwards an ill +turn, in taking you away before Jonet is old enough to supply your +place, in some sort, Ales, _fach_, or in going and leaving Rhys to do as +he likes; but I am too old to be ordered about and taught my business by +him, whatever. His good mother did never be doing it--and it's time we +was be thinking of that little cottage at Castella, with the nice bit of +land that would serve for a pig and a cow. We would soon be wanting +another field and another cow, Ales, and we could have your mother over +from Caerphilly to live with us--yes, indeed.' + +'Yes, indeed, Evan; but I do be thinking Jonet do not be strong or tall +enough to lift the dasher of the big churn, and it would come hard on +Mrs. Edwards if she did be having to make the butter come. We do better +be waiting a bit longer, or there's Rhys would be bringing Cate Griffith +here to plague his mother's heart; yes, sure.' + +And so from time to time it was proposed, and from time to time put off, +Evan growing more and more dissatisfied at being thrust into the +background, until, at length, when nearly three more years had spun +their uneven thread, Ales consented to quit Brookside for the cottage at +Castella, and Mrs. Edwards, weary of adjusting differences, endeavoured +to persuade herself that now her sons and her daughter were growing up +around her, they should be able to manage well without them, and, +indeed, save something in food and wages. + +At the first announcement of their decision, Rhys brisked up +wonderfully. He shook Evan by the hand as if there had never been a +difference between them, and congratulated him on his sensible choice, +and on his prospect of happiness, with quite friendly interest. + +William was the only one at all depressed by the proposed changes. Evan +and Ales had frequently stood between him and overbearing Rhys; he had +become attached to them, and felt he should lose two good friends when +they married and went away. So there was a note of regret in his +congratulations. + +The thatched cottage at Castella was taken, duly whitewashed within and +without, and the earthen floor relaid and left to harden. But Evan had +promised Ales that she should have glass windows, and for these, and for +his farming implements, he would have to make a journey to Cardiff. He +had engaged a local carpenter to make a bed, a wooden settle, a table, +and platter shelves. Ales herself had a pretty fair collection of useful +articles in the shape of pots, bowls, and mugs, stowed away in the barn, +having added to her store whenever the packman came his rounds. And she +had, besides, a goodly pair of thick blankets, of which she was not a +little proud, having spun the wool in spare hours when her other work +was done, to say nothing of flannel and linsey-woolsey for wedding +garments--under-linen was then and there of no account. Mrs. Edwards had +promised Ales a new felt hat and a shawl for the auspicious occasion, +and they bade fair to make a good start according to the ideas then +prevailing. It would be thought little of nowadays, when art has found +its way into the humblest abodes. But what had never been known or heard +of could not be missed, and the absolute wants of nature are really very +few. + +As their yearly servitude happened to terminate alike at Martinmas, Mrs. +Edwards kindly proposed their continuance on the farm whilst Ales +completed some needful preparations, and Evan made his important journey +to Cardiff. The wedding was to take place soon after his return, for the +Rev. John Smith had been notified, and read out the banns, for the first +time, on the last Sunday in September, the faithful pair looking down +and blushing crimson as the eyes of the whole congregation turned +towards them. + +They left the church together, feeling half-married, nothing doubting +that the ceremony would be completed three weeks later. + +But they had calculated without Mr. Pryse. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +WHERE IS EVAN? + + +The difference between a full-face portrait and a profile is not so +great as the different aspect the same individual may present to +different people. To his noble employer, Mr. Pryse was the very +beau-ideal of a shrewd business man,--clear-headed, active, and +indefatigable in his interests and that of the large estate under his +control,--a man on whom he could rely, for dealing conscientiously alike +with himself and his tenants, in his absence. + +Those tenants saw only a hard, grasping, unscrupulous agent, who +extorted high rents, made no allowance for bad seasons or failing crops, +and who stifled complaints with an extra turn of the screw. They knew +that all repairs and improvements, made at their own cost, would be +wrested to the advantage of the noble landowner in the long-run, and +were disheartened. There was an unwhisperable suspicion afloat that +these said repairs went down as deductions from rents in the accounts +submitted to his lord; but who ever had a chance of overhauling those +accounts, or questioning crafty Mr. Pryse's unimpeachable integrity? + +And about the time when William Edwards first found his way to +Caerphilly Castle, which was in the year after George II. ascended the +throne, the first faint breaths of a graver suspicion were wafted +northwards, from Cardiff, in unaccountable and mysterious undertones. + +Cardiff, now a flourishing and busy seaport, was then, in spite of its +great castle, but a small, mean, and unimportant town, hardly to be +called a port, its ancient prestige having fallen away like its gates +and walls. + +But about this period Mr. Pryse ceased to collect his lord's rents +regularly at Caerphilly, and required that they should be brought to his +office in Cardiff. This was a woful grievance to the bulk of the +tenants, especially to elderly or infirm persons, or others remote from +the county town. Had his lordship been at the Castle, no doubt his irate +tenants would have sought his presence in a body, and made common cause +against the common oppressor; but no such opportunity occurred. + +Neighbours who dreaded the toil of a nineteen or twenty miles' journey +along bad roads in bad weather, with Mr. Pryse at the end, and as +wearisome a return, would meet and agree to trust the bravest of the +party with the separate rents of two or three, having no fear of robbery +by the way, whilst so many other travellers would be fallen in with, all +bent on the same errand. + +Some of these adventurous wights, who had never been so far as Cardiff +in their lives before, brought back the news, either gathered on the +spot or on the road, that a strange craft had begun to frequent the +river, and to anchor off the old sea-wall. It was said that the vessel +had been a privateer during the wars of the previous reign, and that +although she came thither ostensibly for coal from his lordship's +collieries, and Mr. Pryse was in close communication with the captain, +there was something rather mysterious about her cargo. + +[Illustration: THERE WAS SOMETHING RATHER MYSTERIOUS ABOUT HER CARGO. +--_See page 164._] + +It was darkly hinted that the barrels which came pannier-wise on long +strings of horses from the Caerphilly colliery laden with coal, and were +hauled on board to be emptied, were not returned empty, but, when again +slung across the backs of the patient beasts waiting on the old quay, +seemed no lighter than before; and knowing ones surmised, from the care +with which they were handled, that smaller kegs were slipped inside the +open coal barrels. At all events, it was whispered that the teamsters +lingered long at roadside inns, and that some of them struck into +by-ways instead of making direct for the colliery with their empties. +And it was certain that foreign spirits could be procured by the +initiated where only _cwrw da_ or cider had been hitherto obtainable. + +This had been going on for three years when Evan, the +bridegroom-expectant, prepared for his journey to Cardiff, whence he +proposed to bring Ales her golden wedding-ring, as well as a number of +small articles--not included in the 'furnishing list' of cumbrous +goods--to be ferried across the river for after-conveyance to his new +cottage. + +To Mrs. Edwards the enforced journey to Cardiff for the payment of rent +had been a trouble and a grievance. She had not cared to send hot-headed +Rhys by himself into a town which she pictured as full of temptations +for young men, neither had she cared to go thither alone. Twice had she +taken her son with her; once she had made the toilsome journey in +company with Owen Griffith; at other times she had entrusted him with +the rent-money. But now that Evan was bent thither on business of his +own, her natural thrift suggested the employment of him as her deputy, +so as to save the toil of the journey, and innkeeper's charges for +herself and her beast. + +Owen Griffith, too, was glad of a trustworthy substitute; so that when +Evan kissed Ales, and shook hands with the rest as he bestrode good old +Breint at the farmhouse gate, he carried a goodly sum under his new +frieze riding-coat, in one pocket or other, nearly all the savings of +Ales, in addition to his own, and the two rents. + +His departure was quite an event. Owen Griffith and Cate had walked up +the hill to hand him the money and see him off, though the hour was +early, and a drizzling rain had begun to fall. But rain was no new thing +among the mountains, and nobody cared for that, though, doubtless, they +would have preferred fair weather as more auspicious. + +However, Ales flung an old shoe after him, and called out-- + +'For luck, Evan!' + +He looked back over his shoulder to nod his thanks in reply; whereupon +she threw her apron over her head and ran into the house ready to cry +because he had 'spoiled his luck' by looking back. + +Mrs. Edwards, too, would have been better pleased had he gone on with +face set forward, but she cried, 'God keep him, and bring him safe +back!' as if to counteract the untoward prognostic. Yet a cloud was +gathering on her own brow, for though Owen Griffith walked beside the +horse down the stony incline, Cate remained leaning against the stone +gate-post talking earnestly with Rhys, the flush on her countenance +deepening as he bent his head and lowered his voice to meet her ear +only. + +'The bold-faced huzzie!' the mother ejaculated to herself, as she turned +to go indoors. 'Can she not let Ales get out of the house before she be +coming a-seeking Rhys to worm herself in! Sure, and she do be in a +mighty hurry to make up the old quarrel, and secure Rhys, and Owen do be +as bad as his girl. But Ales is not gone yet!' she jerked out +half-aloud, then checked herself, wondering what could have put those +ill-timed words into her head. + +She was mistaken. Cate Griffith was not quite so bold as she imagined. +The quarrel had been made up some weeks, and, what was more, made up by +Rhys, with a plain-spoken offer to make her his wife when Ales was +married and gone away. + +What he had been saying, as Evan rode away down hill, was singularly +enough, 'We shall not have long to wait now, Cate, darling. Ales will +soon be gone, and mother will be missing her so much she will be glad to +see me bring so clever and smart a wife home to fill the vacant place. +Jonet could not do it. No, really! We shall not have long to be waiting, +Cate, _fach_.' + + + 'The best laid schemes o' mice an' men + Gang aft agley.' + + +Centuries before Burns crystallised the sentiment into verse its +profound truth had been established. Who, besides Noah and his family, +calculated on the Deluge? + +Were the tears Ales shed, when her long-loved Evan turned his head, +premonitory of another deluge? + +She was a strong, healthy young woman, not a puling sentimentalist +afflicted with 'nerves.' She might well cover her face, ashamed of her +starting tears, when he would be back with her in four days--or five, at +the furthest! + +Yet she was unaccountably restless those days. The outdoor work of the +farm went on pretty much as usual, though the weather was unsettled. +Rhys and Davy were thrashing and winnowing in the barn, and William, +endeavouring to do the work of two, fed and foddered the cattle, and +took the place of Ales at the churn, whilst she washed and ironed, and +put little finishing touches to her simple wedding finery, sighing, +every now and again, for the Evan she missed every hour of the day. When +candles were lit, and at meal-times, the blank caused by the absence of +his smiling face and good-humoured observation, was felt by all, from +Mrs. Edwards down to William. + +And somehow, as the days went by, Jane Edwards began to share the +fidgetiness of Ales, and, when the fourth passed, and the fifth wore +slowly away, could not help frequent ejaculations, such as, 'It's time +Evan was here!' 'What do be keeping Evan so long?' 'Sure to goodness +nothing's gone wrong!' Ales growing still and white, with a strange fear +that began to creep about her heart. + +Evan had gone away on the Monday morning. Ere nightfall on Friday, +William slipped out and hurried to the ford, as if to meet him, passing +Owen Griffith at the foot of the hill, on his way to the farm to express +his own surprise at the messenger's delay. + +William waited and waited, but there was no sign of Evan. He got back to +hear Griffith questioning Ales as to the various business her sweetheart +had on hand, the conclusion being that he had not been able to make all +his purchases, or get them conveyed to Castella, as readily as he had +calculated, and that he must be allowed another day. + +But Saturday came and went without a sign of the traveller, and Ales +seemed to feel the alarm of all in her own aching heart. + +Neither Evan nor Ales was at church on the Sunday to hear the banns read +the second time. + +But people were there to testify that Evan Evans had reached Cardiff in +safety, and had been seen to enter the office of Mr. Pryse. + +On that, Owen Griffith and Mrs. Edwards breathed more freely. Their +fears that he had been waylaid and robbed were set at rest. It was clear +his own affairs had alone detained him. + +William, on his own inspiriting, had betaken himself to Caerphilly, and +brought Ales back the comforting news that her Evan had carried the +basket of butter and cheese to her old mother, and arranged for her +removal to Castella with them. + +So far all was right. But when another week went by, and no Evan came to +claim her, or to bring the rent receipts, the heart of Ales sank lower +and lower; every whisper in the house was suggestive of doubt, and +pierced her bosom like a stab. + +Owen Griffith was there nightly making fresh inquiries, often bringing +Cate along with him, when Ales' heart was wrung with undertoned +suspicions of her true love's fidelity--not to say his honesty. + +At the three weeks' end, when the poor tortured girl had resolved on +walking all the way to Cardiff, to set doubt at rest, the climax came. + +It came like a thunderbolt, in the person of Mr. Pryse, to make an +authoritative demand for the half-year's rent, then overdue. + +It was in vain Mrs. Edwards declared it had been paid; that she had sent +the money by Evan Evans. + +'In that case you will have the receipt. Produce it,' said he, with a +sneer. + +'I cannot,' replied she, in much perplexity. 'Evan has not yet returned. +But he was seen to enter your office; yes, indeed!' + +'Oh yes, he did come to my office to pay your neighbour Owen Griffith's +rent, and to beg a fortnight's grace for you. I have been good enough to +give you three weeks, and now I _must_ have the rent--one way or other.' + +The evil smile of triumph on his wicked old face, as he said this, was +lost on Mrs. Edwards in her consternation. + +'Beg _what_? I did want no fortnight's grace. I did send the golden +guineas!' + +Mr. Pryse's thin lip curled. 'Then your man kept them. And it is rather +strange he should pay Griffith's rent if he meant to make off with +yours. There must be lying and dishonesty somewhere.' + +'Yes, indeed,' broke from Ales, in a passion of indignant wrath. 'But +not from my mistress or Evan Evans; they do both be God-fearing and +true.' + +An ominous scowl drew down the brows under the English three-cornered +hat. + +'Silence, you impudent jade, or I'll have you cast into jail for your +vile insinuations. Wait until your _honest_ Evan comes back before you +venture to asperse his lordship's deputy.' And he raised his +riding-whip as if to strike her. + +Rhys had come upon the scene in the midst of this altercation, brought +thither by a word from Lewis, who had seen the agent ride up the hill, +with a sinister smile upon his face, and a ruffianly fellow in his rear. + +At once the hot-blooded young farmer, in a smock-frock showing many an +earthy stain, interposed between his mother's faithful domestic and the +steward, unawed by the gold lace or ruffles visible under the open +riding-coat. + +'Nay, nay, we don't take whips to women in Eglwysilan, Mr. Pryse. What +is all this uproar about? And what do be your business here, sir?' + +His mother attempted an explanation. Ales had shrunk back overawed. + +'I have come for the unpaid rent, and the costs attending this +application,' Mr. Pryse thrust in, heedless of Rhys' disclaimer that +'nothing was owing'; 'and, as no cash appears to be forthcoming, I take +possession of the farm in the name of his lordship, and leave this man +in charge of the premises, and I warn you against removing stock or +stone. Take the inventory, Morgan'--to the man who had edged himself +into the kitchen, and now put on a truculent air. + +William had come rushing in from the potato-field, but he stopped short, +as much paralysed as his elders. + +His mother was the first to break the spell. + +'Paid or unpaid,' she cried, with the dignity of truth and honesty, +'that wretch shall take no inventory here, whatever. I do not be without +the means to pay your demand, though I protest that it is unjust, and +will have to be returned to me when Evan returns with the receipt, look +you.' + +'Ah, _when he does_. But you may take my word for it, the bird has flown +away with your golden feathers, and is far enough from Wales by this +time.' + +And again the sinister smile lighted the evil face, much as if he had +good reason for knowing that Evan was far away, and that his word might +therefore _be_ taken. + +'I am glad to see you are so well provided,' he added, as the widow +proceeded to count out upon the table the sum demanded, leaving still a +nest-egg in the grey stocking-foot. 'Your farm must be flourishing, and +I herewith give you notice, in the presence of my man, Morgan, that your +rent will be advanced ten pounds per annum after this date.--I will send +you a receipt.' + +[Illustration: 'YOUR RENT WILL BE ADVANCED TEN POUNDS PER ANNUM AFTER +THIS DATE,' HE SAID.--_See page 174._] + +'No, sir,' put in Rhys promptly, 'you will give my mother one now. I see +your follower there has an inkhorn and paper.' + +Mr. Pryse bit his under lip, but thought well to take the hint. + +'And now, sir,' said Rhys, when he had assured himself the receipt was +correct, 'you do be threatening to raise the rent. You cannot do that +until the lease expires.' + +'Show me your lease,' demanded the agent loftily. + +'We can do that when necessary, sir. His lordship will be having a copy +you can consult,' replied Rhys quite as loftily. + +And, seeing that he had a full-grown man to deal with, not a woman he +could intimidate, Mr. Pryse turned on his heel, and mounted his horse, +muttering something surly as he went, his disappointed functionary +following at his heels. + +Once again he bit his nails as his horse carried him down the stony +track, for even the coin he bore away did not cover his baffled rage at +defeat. Presently his thin lips spread into a smile of +self-congratulation, and his eyelids nearly met as he communed with +himself. + +'It was lucky I did not call on Griffith for _his_ rent first. I +clinched the nail on Evan's dishonest flight in acknowledging _that_. A +clever idea of mine his begging grace for Edwards' widow. Covers his +call at my office. I suppose that forward jade is the woman he was going +to marry. She will wait a long while for a husband if she waits for Evan +Evans, look you. And as for that cock-crowing Rhys, I'll cut his comb +before I've done with him. He shall not crow over me with impunity; no, +indeed. I've bled the old woman pretty freely this time. She'll not get +over it in a hurry. The farm will go to the dogs now that long-headed +farming-man is gone. Lease, indeed! I defy any power in earth or heaven +to keep them on their farm when I am ready to turn them out. Yes, +indeed!' + +A strong defiance _that_, Mr. Pryse, crafty and potential though you may +be! + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +A STOP-GAP. + + +As soon as Mr. Pryse was gone, Mrs. Edwards sank down on the oaken +settle exhausted with the conflict of disturbing thoughts, and the +harassing scene in which she had just borne a part. The old +stocking-foot, which had been her only possible savings bank all the +years of her thrifty widowhood, lay, with her limp hand, in her lap, in +a corresponding state of collapse. Only three weeks before it had been +plump and pleasant to contemplate, a testimony to industry, and a pledge +of future prosperity. Now, within those three short weeks, the full +half-year's rent had been a second time withdrawn, with exorbitant costs +in addition, and the residue had ample space to chink. + +There was a troubled aspect of careworn bewilderment on her countenance +as she sat there, gazing abstractedly on her diminished store, +endeavouring to reconcile the irreconcilable. And all the while Rhys was +pacing the kitchen floor, with noisy tramp, in his wood-soled shoes, +chafing and fuming over the cruel insolence of Mr. Pryse, as well as +over their loss, yet wondering vaguely if there could be any truth in +his allegations. + +He did not altogether trust Mr. Pryse, but he had never had his mother's +unbounded confidence in Evan, and, as Owen Griffith had suggested, so +much money in his hands all at once might have proved too great a +temptation, or he might have got drunk and lost it, and been ashamed to +return. (But Evan did not drink.) + +Now and then a sharp, jerky expletive gave expression to his crude +doubts and suspicions, but he could not wring from his mother any word +to strengthen his suspicions. + +'I do not be knowing what to think, Rhys!'--''Deed, Rhys, Evan has +served us well, and Mr. Pryse is a bad man, your father said it.'--'Yes, +indeed, it is a serious loss, but Evan helped us to get the +money.'--'Yes, yes, Rhys, I do be aware you have worked hard too; but +Evan, he did teach us new ways--and--after all,' she concluded, rising +slowly to replace the depleted stocking in the coffer, 'we may thank God +we had the money saved, or our farm would have gone from us, and we +should have lost everything. Think of poor Ales, and don't be letting +her hear you.' + +Poor Ales! William had found her in the dairy, bent down over the tall +churn, with her head on her bare brown arms, sobbing as if her heart +would break, less for herself than the aspersion cast on her true and +faithful Evan. She had shrunk away, not from Mr. Pryse's whip, but from +an evil tongue and a threat that cut worse than a whip-lash. + +Prisons were horrible dens before John Howard spent his life in +dragging their iniquities to light, and purifying their foulness. 'Jail' +was a word to daunt the strongest, for everywhere tales were rife how +unscrupulous power thrust innocent men within their pestilential walls +to perish, for no crime greater than debt or unguarded words. + +William comforted in vain. + +'Jail, Willem! He said he would send me to _jail_, only for standing up +for honest people. But he is a rogue, Willem--a bad, wicked rogue, +Willem.' She sobbed and shuddered as she gasped out the words. 'Yes, +'deed! it will be that cruel Mr. Pryse that do be robbing the widow of +her money--and--and my poor Evan of his good name. Yes, sure, and me of +my dear husband that would have been this day! Oh, Willem _fach_, my +poor heart will be breaking.' + +'Hush, Ales dear! don't say so,' implored the sympathetic boy, laying +his hand tenderly upon her shoulder. 'Unkind words are hard to bear, I +know'--and he sighed--'but nobody here will think Evan took our money +and yours, and ran away from _you_.' (He might have altered his opinion +could he have heard through the stone wall what Rhys was saying.) 'Cheer +up; it will all come right when Evan gets back; yes, sure.' + +Ales startled William with the quick, energetic way she flung up her +head and spoke-- + +'Come back? He will not come back unless I can seek out what that wicked +wretch has done with him. Would he be so sure of it, or dare to come +here to rob your mother--yes, to rob her--if he did not know what he had +done to keep my Evan from me? He may have put _him_ in jail to rot +there. Oh!' (and she wrung her hands, brown and hard with honest +toil)--'oh! or he may have had him _murdered_. He is bad enough for +that!' + +'Hush, hush, Ales! Mr. Pryse would hardly do that; though he _is_ a bad +man, and looked, oh, so wickedly pleased when he knocked down the Tower +of Babel I was building. I'm afraid, Ales dear, he would not stick at +much,' William added, after a moment's cogitation. + +'Name o' goodness, boy! He would stick at nothing whatever!' she cried, +rising to her feet, and taking her cloak from a peg in the storeroom +outside the dairy. 'But I am off to Cardiff to find Evan, or search out +the truth; and do you pray for me, Willem, that I may succeed, and that +no harm may come to me before I do.' + +'Stay, stay, Ales,' exclaimed William, catching at her cloak in the +doorway; 'you cannot go all that way on foot, and alone, or at this time +o' day.' + +Her voice was strangely quiet and determined as she answered-- + +'The sun has not set. I shall reach Caerphilly before night, and can +stay and rest with mother until morning.' + +''Deed, now, you had best be staying where you are till morning, and you +shall have a horse to ride on. And if there is no one else to go with +you, I will go myself, sure.' + +After some persuasion, Ales consented to the first proposition, +absolutely declining to accept his proffered escort, saying, 'Now Evan +be gone you cannot be spared. And, now the money be gone, you must give +up playing with stones, and work well to keep the farm from the sly old +fox. Ah, sure, and the fox might be glad to catch the young goose near +his hole. No, no, Willem, _you_ must not run into danger. There be no +need to break your mother's heart as well as mine. If God speed my +errand I shall not be alone. Better God's arm than man's army.' + +As her cloak went back to the peg, William slipped out through the +farmyard, and was off down hill as fast as his legs would carry him. +Davy and Jonet, returning from the potato-field where they had been +industriously at work, undisturbed and unaware of the overwhelming +trouble nearer home, called out to know where he was going; but if he +heard he did not answer. + +Supper--the old frugal meal of stiff leek porridge and milk--was on the +table cooling when he returned out of breath, and whispered to Ales, as +she carried out the porridge-pot, that their mutual friend, Robert +Jones, had business of his own in Cardiff, and if she would join him at +seven in the morning, where the roads met, she could ride all the way on +one of his team. He did not tell her all he had said to enlist his old +friend in her service, or how heartily the turf-cutter had responded, +or that the man's errand was chiefly on her account. + +Robert Jones knew more of 'old Pryse' than she did, and hated him as +sincerely. + +There had been some previous talk between Ales and her old mistress +about the young woman's continuation on the farm unless Evan returned to +claim her. + +'I'd rather serve you for nothing than go away before Evan's good name +was cleared, 'deed I would. And it will be cleared some day, I know it +will, whatever some folk may think.' + +She had said this with a full heart, meaning all she proposed, but Mrs. +Edwards was too just to accept service on such terms from a tried and +faithful maid in her hour of deep affliction. Besides, she had a feeling +that whilst Ales was there, well-trained and active, Rhys would have +less excuse to bring Cate on to the hearth. Motives are always more or +less complex. + +The objections of Mrs. Edwards to Cate Griffith certainly were so. She +would have conceded that 'the girl was good-looking, quick of foot, and +ready of hand,' but she would have added also, 'ready with her tongue, +and not quite straightforward in her ways.' Then, if she must be deposed +by her eldest son's wife, she would have been better pleased had he +looked higher, and gone courting where there would be a little money to +come home with the bride. Cate would have none to bring. + +With such feelings uppermost, she did not contemplate the temporary +absence of Ales with too much favour, anxious as she was for some news +of Evan and of her missing money. + +Mr. Pryse had disorganised the work in field and house for the one day +utterly. All was now behind-hand. She was herself upset, and a woman far +on the wrong side of fifty does not recover her balance too readily. The +sudden departure of Ales at this inopportune juncture was another upset. + +But she would not confess her weakness to Rhys, lest he should make it +an excuse for bringing Cate to her assistance. + +Yesterday--Tuesday--had been baking-day. In their trouble the oven had +been allowed to grow cool, and the dislodged terrier, who had shown a +set of angry teeth at Mr. Pryse, had gone back to his repose underneath +it. The barley and oatmeal for the bread lay in the brown crock, as Ales +had left it, with the bit of last week's dough in a bowl ready to leaven +it. Mixing, kneading, and baking was not light work, yet it must be +done. Thoughtful Davy had again driven away the dog from his hole in the +ash-pit, and lit the oven fire in readiness. + +Then it was _Wednesday_, the churning and butter-making day. How was she +to bake and churn the same morning? for both required attention, and +when once the long-handled dasher was set in motion, up and down it must +go until the butter came, however long that might be, or all would be +spoiled. + +Jane Edwards, persistent as her children, was at her wits' end, but she +could not call Jonet in from the field, for they were late in digging up +the potatoes, and if the frost came before they were in the pits, the +whole crop would be ruined. + +Then dinner had to be thought of. It was a relief to her, whilst +kneading the mass of dough, to hear Davy scrubbing away with a ling +besom at the dinner potatoes in the stone hollow under the spring. But +she heard the quick voice of Rhys recalling him to his field-work, and +the passive 'I be coming,' which marked his subjection to his elder +brother. + +At noon, when her family came in to dine, expecting the Wednesday's meal +of buttermilk and potatoes--still new enough to be something of a +treat--though there was a pleasant odour of baking bread in the kitchen, +and there were anticipations of a dough dumpling in the pot, there were +unmistakable grumblings and sour looks because there was only fresh milk +to go with the esculent root. (The difference is only to be estimated by +a trial on a farm where the buttermilk is fresh.) + +Jane Edwards was overtired, and lost her temper. 'You could not expect +me to be baking and churning at the same time,' she jerked out angrily, +feeling already warm with her morning's work. + +Here was the opportunity Rhys had looked for. + +'You had better have had Cate here this morning to churn. Then you would +not have been so hurried, and our dinner would not have been spoiled.' + +'Spoiled, indeed! I have seen the time you would all have been glad of +hot potatoes and salt, without milk at all,' was retorted. + +William and Davy rushed to the rescue, rightly interpreting the mother's +frown. 'I'll stay and churn for you,' they cried in a breath. + +'You'll do nothing of the kind. If those potatoes are not all in, and +covered up, they will be ruined. There was a touch of frost this +morning. And who's to do the milking?' said autocratic Rhys. + +Jonet and William proffered their services, only to be rebuffed. This +was followed by a sharp altercation between the two brothers, widening +the existing breach, and--though William, out of consideration for his +mother, who interposed, did not bounce off and absent himself as +usual--it ended in the despatch of Lewis with a message to Cate, and the +speedy arrival of the girl, as if she had expected the summons. + +Mrs. Edwards was taking a loaf of bread out of the oven when Cate came +in at the open door, and possibly set the harassed widow's red face down +to the heat of the oven--not to her temper. + +'Lewis do be saying you do be wanting me to churn. I shall be glad to +help you any way, whatever,' Cate began demurely, just as if she had not +exchanged a syllable first with Rhys over the wall by the gateway. + +'Yes, yes, sure. Mr. Pryse stopped the baking yesterday, and Ales be +gone to Cardiff, so we are late; and I must have the butter ready for +to-morrow's market.' + +Cate had her hat off with the first words of assent; her bare feet +tripped lightly across the stone floor. She obtained from the pot on the +fire a pitcher of warm water, to raise the temperature of the milk, as +deftly as Ales could have done, and presently the dasher could be heard +plashing in the churn with regular beat, as if lifted by strong, firm +hands. + +Mrs. Edwards, washing up the dinner things, sighed heavily, as if only +half-satisfied, for a new perplexity had arisen in debating with herself +who should go to Caerphilly market on the morrow. Whether she went or +Rhys, she foresaw the necessity for Cate or _some one_ to remain and +take the place of Ales. She, however, did not care to leave the girl as +her own deputy with Rhys at home to come and go at will. + +The question was still unsettled when Cate called out that the butter +had come. + +At once Mrs. Edwards stepped into the dairy, and, as if ready for all +contingencies, bare-legged Cate snatched up a milking-stool and pail, +and was off, singing as she went; while the other collected the butter +out of the churn, washed, salted, and moulded it into shape for market. + +Back she came in due time, the full pail on her head, the stool tucked +under one arm, her knitting-pins clicking as rapidly as if she was +unencumbered. + +Mrs. Edwards, moulding her butter at the dairy window, could but admit +to herself, as she watched her cross the yard with light, firm feet, +that Rhys might have chosen worse. + +That night Cate remained on the farm. It was settled that Rhys was to +attend Caerphilly market. He was to load the pony and sled with potatoes +for sale--they were sure to fetch a good price, if only for seed, as +other farmers were beginning to plant them. He himself was to go on foot +bearing the egg-and-butter basket, since Breint, who would have carried +all, was gone. + +Cate was up before the lark. Milking was done, breakfast ready, and she, +bright, brisk, and clean as a new pin by the time Rhys and the rest were +ready for the morning meal. + +She was certainly on her mettle, and Rhys could barely have reached the +bottom of the hill before the relics of the meal were cleared away, +fresh fire-balls added to the peat on the hearth, and she ready, as she +told Mrs. Edwards, to take the place of Ales in the field. + +William chuckled, and rubbed his hands together with glee, when he saw +his mother so reinforced. + +He whispered to Jonet, as she followed to pick up the roots he dug out, +and remove the haulms, which really called for another hand. + +Jonet nodded an affirmative. + +'Mother,' he cried, 'if Cate will take the spade, you can sit still and +remove the haulms as Jonet gathers them up. I've got some work to be +doing that Rhys will not let me undertake. He says I don't know how, +whatever.' + +He had thrown down his spade, and was out of the potato-field, +overleaping a wall, before his mother had time to question or +remonstrate. + +Evan had kept his eyes here, there, and everywhere. If the troublesome +goats butted against a wall, and displaced a stone, he repaired the +breach at once to prevent further damage. Rhys had been less wary, and, +in his obstinacy, would not allow his youngest brother to see or know +more than himself. + +Consequently, an old greybeard Billy had been allowed to make a gap in +the garden wall, and, though driven away with a stout broom-handle when +Ales or her mistress might be there to see, had played havoc among the +English herbs and flowering plants she was at such pains to rear. Then +Mr. Billy and his friends had tried their horns on the empty sty, now +the swine were turned to feed in the autumnal woods, and had done some +fine damage there. + +If Cate handled a spade with the skill and vigour of experience, William +handled the unhewn stones with the inspiration of genius and long +practice 'in play.' And he worked as if his life depended on his speed +and skill. + +Rhys made a good market, and came home with self-satisfied complacence +at a late hour, to sup and turn over his gains to his mother, along with +the news of the day. But he had no chance of a private word with Cate, +who had gone home with her father before eight o'clock, well pleased to +have earned the honest commendation of Mrs. Edwards, in addition to the +customary 'payment in kind.' + +Morning came, noon came, and afternoon was speeding before Rhys +discovered that the broken-down wall and pig-stye were as whole and +sound as when new. + +He stood before the latter in blank surprise. He had given no orders for +the repairs. + +'Has Morgan the mason been here?' he bawled out after Jonet and William, +who were off with milking-stools and pails. + +'No,' came quickly back over Jonet's shoulder. + +'Who has been at work here?' + +No audible answer came back this time, but, with a wondrous twinkle in +her expressive eyes, and an unmistakable grin on her face, Jonet pointed +with outstretched arm, in silence, to the younger brother striding on +well in advance. + +It was a revelation to Rhys. His countenance fell. The wisdom of the +world did not rest on his individual shoulders. He stood there amazed, +hardly sure whether to be vexed or pleased, angry or grateful. Content +he certainly was not. He had been slyly circumvented, and that was +irritating, however necessary the repairs had been. + +Into the house he strode in quest of his mother. He heard her at work +outside. Here a fresh enlightenment awaited him. She was endeavouring to +set her garden beds in order, behind a good firm wall. Her task was no +longer hopeless; she could sing over her work. + +There was little need for Rhys to ask over again 'Who hath done this?' + +Still less need for frowns and sullen looks. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +DISCOVERIES. + + +Robert Jones was a childless widower when he first picked up little +William crying in the lane, and gave him a lift on his donkey. He was +much older than Ales, but he was not too old to wish he had as smart and +capable a helpmate on his own hearth, where was only his half-blind +mother to keep all things fresh and clean. Many had been the sharp play +of words between him and Ales during her progress from girl to woman, +and, had not Evan come upon the scene when he did, Robert would +certainly have made a bid for her favour. + +He was one of the first to perceive that the younger man had quite +spoiled his chances, and was generous enough to stand on one side, and +keep his disappointment to himself. + +So generous was he, that, instead of hailing Evan's mysterious +disappearance with satisfaction, he stamped about and shook his fist at +an imaginary 'old Pryse,' as he listened to William's recital, and +proffered his services to 'poor Ales,' as if the recovery of her lost +lover did not mean the extinction of the last spark of a chance for +himself. + +William could not have found for Ales a better safeguard on her way, or +a more zealous and capable assistant in her anxious quest. + +In fact, from the time they landed in Cardiff, and he found her a +lodging with a dealer in peat, etc., who had her supplies from him, he +took the business pretty well out of her hands, having, during their +journey, made himself acquainted with Evan's errand and plans. + +He argued with her that a strange young woman could not go about the +streets of a seaport town--though, apart from castle and old monastery, +Cardiff was but a very small place in 1733--without exciting attention +by her inquiries, and defeating her own purpose, whether Evan was +keeping out of the way, or was kept out of the way by others, even if +she escaped personal insult. + +Whereas he, well known, and with his customary load of peat to dispose +of, could go from place to place and pick up, in gossip, without +exciting the suspicion of Mr. Pryse, or any one else, facts which might +be withheld from direct inquiry. + +And so well did he fulfil his mission that, when the last rays of the +setting sun crimsoned the river and the fading woods of the Taff Valley +on the Friday evening, Ales, weary and dispirited, but no longer +ashamed, rode up the stony hillpath to the farm, on the back of good old +Breint. + +Robert Jones had turned off towards his own home, with his team and his +return load, after a very curious disclaimer of thanks. + +Part of that load consisted of a new turf-cutting spade and a small +glazed window for his hut. His newly-discovered need for these took him +among dealers in hardware and carpenters, until he found what else he +went for. He drove hard bargains, and paid in part with winter store of +peat; but he carried away more than the dealers supposed. In the one +place he observed a full set of implements for husbandry put aside, and +roughly labelled, 'Evan Evans, Castella, _Paid_,' and was told they had +so lain, 'lumbering up the place,' for fully three weeks, the buyer not +having turned up to claim them, although he had stated he intended to +take them up the river by boat when the tide served. + +A crusty carpenter, who had two glass windows exposed for sale, was glad +to let one of them go as a bargain, seeing that the man for whom they +were made in a hurry three weeks before had disappeared mysteriously, +and not even gone back to his inn, on St. Mary's Quay, for his horse. + +That bit of information about the inn had sent the turf-cutter tramping +across the town with his beasts, sure, at least, of much-needed rest and +provender, all houses of the kind, in those days of horseback travel and +pack-horse conveyance, having ample stable accommodation. + +A warm supper, more plentiful than dainty, had been supplied to him in +the common room, odorous of tobacco-smoke, rum, _cwrw_, tar, and salt +water. + +Presently a voice he knew hailed him from out the smoke-reek. + +'Do that be you, Robert Jones? 'Deed, you're the very man to tell the +landlord here who owns an old horse left here three weeks ago by a +farming-man, who called himself Evan Evans, of Eglwysilan, and went off +without paying his score, look you!' + +'Ah, how did he go off?' + +'Queerly. He said as he was going to hire a boat to carry the horse and +some goods of his, as he was be taking to Castella, across the river in +the morning, but he never did come back here.' + +'No,' chimed in the landlord, 'nor never did mean it, or he would not +have been going off in the _Osprey's_ boat, as he surely did.' + +''Deed no! not if he did go of his own free will,' came from a feeble +voice in a corner; 'but I've heard as'-- + +'Sure, and didn't Mr. Pryse be saying he was be running off with a lot +of money?' again struck in the landlord, drowning the words of the +previous speaker. + +On this ensued a warm controversy, in which some dark hints were thrown +out respecting the _Osprey_, and Mr. Pryse's connection therewith, all +bearing on the strangeness of Evan's disappearance. + +Listening Robert Jones had come to the conclusion that the landlord was +under Mr. Pryse's finger and thumb, and cautiously made no comment. But +he kept his eye on the owner of the feeble voice, and, when he went out, +followed. + +He had found the man shifty, timid, and unwilling to give an unspoken +opinion to a stranger. + +So, too, were the tarry loungers upon the quay the next morning. + +'Evans _might_ have been kidnapped and carried off against his will, the +crew of the _Osprey_ were a queer lot, look you; or he might be running +away, as Mr. Pryse did say--they could not tell.' + +Mr. Pryse might have frozen free speech, but Robert Jones had noted +shrugs and nods more expressive than words. Then the application of two +silver pennies to the palm of a timorous lad opened his lips to tell +that he had seen a strange man, looking for a big boat, hustled into the +boat of the _Osprey_, and held down whilst the crew rowed out to the +schooner in the bay. And, when Ales herself discovered that Evan had +bought both a wedding-ring and a brooch for her, the conclusion was +obvious. + +She had shed her tears in the three weeks gone. She returned to the farm +in tearless, but gnawing, uncertainty as to her Evan's fate, yet proud +of her ability to clear his honest name. + +She was somewhat incoherent in her story, but Robert Jones an hour or so +later backed it up with fuller details, and his own convictions. + +'Yes, yes, indeed, Evan Evans did go about his business like an honest +man. There be still the spades and things he paid for, and I have a +glass window he left his God-penny[12] on. He would have kept all the +money if he intended running away. No, no, he did be paying all the +rent, Mrs. Edwards, whatever Mr. Pryse do say.' + +''Deed, it do seem like it. But why should he be "pressed" on board?' +she queried. 'There be no war now.' + +'Why should any wicked deed be done?' put in Ales. 'A bad man do have +his reasons ready.' + +'Yes, yes, and one evil head moves many evil hands, Mrs. Edwards,' added +Jones, 'if, as is hinted by them as daren't speak their minds, Mr. Pryse +do have dealings with the gruff captain of the _Osprey_ for something +fiery besides his lordship's coal. Then, smuggling a stout-limbed fellow +or two on board might be winked at, if it was no part of the bargain. +And I do be telling Ales not to think they would kill Evan. They want +living men for sailors, not dead ones.' + +'Then God may bring him back to me some time, and I will pray day and +night for him. Yes, yes, though the day be long it will have an evening. +And let not Mr. Pryse be thinking to escape-- + + + "The later that God's vengeance is, + The heavier far and sorer 'tis,"' + + +broke from Ales, her eyes and cheeks kindling as with a spirit of +prophecy, as she hurried from the kitchen into the dark storeroom beyond +to contend with her own agony in secret. + +Then came a reckoning with Jones for Breint's keep at the inn (Ales had +cleared Evan's score as a matter of honour), and whilst settling that +with Mrs. Edwards, it occurred to him that her sons had pursued their +occupations in uncommon silence during this statement of facts and +fancies, especially Rhys, who seemed more interested in disentangling +the locks of wool he was combing by the fireside (his comb-pot on the +hearth) than on disentangling what seemed an unaccountable plot against +his mother's tried and faithful servant. + +William, knitting a long blue stocking in the opposite corner, had put +in an occasional word, but even he did not appear at ease. + +Davy's wooden soles had been heard clattering outside along with sounds +indicative of more care for recovered Breint than the absent Evan. + +He walked in from the farmyard just in time for the supper of hot +leek-porridge Jonet poured scalding hot into their bowls, not forgetting +one for the turf-cutter, who sat down without apology, for the odour was +appetising. + +Again he noticed that Rhys and William preserved a sullen silence +towards each other, and wondered what fresh quarrel there had been. + +When supper was over, and he rose to depart, William followed him. + +No sooner were they out of earshot than the boy began to lay bare his +grievance in tones of wounded self-esteem. + +'Look you,' said he, 'since Evan went, Old Billy has been suffered to +butt at the walls, and never a stone had been put back to keep him from +the styes, till they did be like to tumble down. So yesterday, while +Rhys was at market, I did work till the sweat poured off me, and mended +them all, thinking I would let Rhys see what I could do. And since he +found out this afternoon what I had been doing, he has never spoken one +word to me, whatever. If I had knocked the walls down he could not have +looked more surly. It's enough to make one run away, it is! And if it +was not for mother and Jonet, I would be running away, 'deed I would.' + +'Hush, Willem, don't be saying that; runaway sons make sorrowful +mothers. Don't be thinking of doing anything rash, anything you cannot +be asking the blessing of Almighty God upon. Perhaps you neglected +something Rhys expected done, of more consequence than a dry wall.' + +'Sure, Cate Griffith did be digging the potatoes. She could not build up +walls. I do believe Rhys is vexed just because mother was so well +pleased, and began to put her garden right that Billy and the pigs had +spoiled. Rhys would have liked Evan better if mother had found fault +with him.' + +The boy's bitter attempt at self-justification was checked by his mature +friend. + +'Faults are thick where love is thin, Willem. You are only a boy and +your brother is a man. It is not for you to go your own way and disobey +wilfully. But I will look at your handiwork in the morning, when I bring +the lime for the land; and, perhaps, be saying a word to bring Rhys to +reason. Good-night, Willem. Go to bed peacefully. And don't be building +up a wall of stony thoughts against your brother, don't.' + +These were his parting words to the chafing lad, as they stood by the +gateway, but, as he descended the hill in the full light of the moon, he +said to himself, 'Better repair a breach between brothers than build up +a wall to repel a fancied enemy.' + +It was in this spirit the man addressed himself to Rhys the next +morning, whilst helping Lewis to transfer the lime from the panniers to +the freshly-dug potato ground, and the unturned stubble of oats and +barley. He said he had observed signs of discontent between the brothers +the previous night, and on other occasions, and expressed a desire to +know if any real cause for discord existed. It was so very serious a +thing for brothers in one house to bicker and quarrel; small differences +were so liable to grow into great ones, even to enmity and hatred. + +Rhys listened uneasily, fidgeted, puckered his brows, and at last jerked +out, 'Look you, Robert Jones, that boy Willem is the plague of my life. +He will not take orders from me. And who else should give orders if I am +to manage the farm? Davy and Jonet obey. But he do think of nothing but +picking up stones and building; and that will not make a good farmer or +till the land, or pay the rent. He was mending walls on Thursday when he +should have been digging potatoes. We may thank Cate Griffith they were +all up and safe from last night's frost. She took up the spade he threw +down.' + +'Ah, well, Rhys, all the world are not farmers. Cate's father is a +weaver. I cut turf, and sell lime and culm and aught else, to turn an +honest penny. But let me see what sort of a young builder you have on +the farm. You know I do be going about the country and use my eyes, so I +know good walls from bad ones.' + +'Sure, they do be well enough for a boy's work,' half contemptuously +admitted Rhys, whilst pointing out the repairs in walls and sties. + +Jones gave them more than a cursory examination. + +'Yes, yes, Rhys. But they do be "well enough" for a _man's_ work, that +they do. The stones are well fitted and firm. You owe the boy thanks, +not blame. Don't you be for thwarting Willem, or you may be spoiling a +good builder to make a poor farmer. A sound fence is a farmer's friend. +Let him keep your fences sound, and he will help to pay the rent, 'deed +he will.' + +'I don't see how.' + +'Your eyes are blinded by prejudice, man. Would not a stray cow, or hog, +or pony that found a gap ready, do more damage to crops in a day than +you could repair in a month?' + +This was not to be gainsaid. But when the turf-cutter urged William's +claim to just consideration and recognition of his service, the pride of +Rhys was up in alarm for his own authority. + +'He is such a boy,' he argued. + +'No more a boy than you were, Rhys, when you first tried to fill your +dead father's place, and told your mother you were "old enough to do +your duty." Have you forgotten that? Or are you _younger_ than you were +then?' + +Whether he had forgotten, or did not choose to remember, he turned off +with a light laugh, and the remark, 'I'm not doing my duty in idling +here.' + +But conscience is a mill that grinds at all hours, and unsought, and +Robert Jones had set the wheels in motion. + +'Willem,' said the peat-cutter to the depressed boy, just before he +cracked his whip to set his unloaded team in motion downhill, 'if you +build up your life as well as you have built up your garden wall, you'll +do. It is firm and compact, and the stones are set evenly together. But +strife between brothers is a bad foundation to build upon. And it is not +for a lad of your age to be unruly, and oppose the brother who has so +long been working for all of you. There is time enough before you to +build walls or churches, or what you will; but you have none to lose if +you would bind the bond of brotherhood around you, or lay the foundation +of a Christian life, look you.' + +William's eyes brightened, and his chest expanded under his Saturday's +sullied smock-frock, as his early friend commended his handiwork, for + + + 'Praise is pleasanter than honey,' + + +and hitherto he had not been cloyed with the sweetmeat. But his aspect +changed. He did not relish the bitter dose of advice mingled with the +honey, for his whole soul was in rebellion. + +Yet, swift and sharp as the man's whip crack, memory brought back those +other words to the same purport the stranger, Mr. Morris, had spoken +long ago, and every hoof-beat of mule or ass seemed to hammer them into +his brain. + +Far down the steep hill were beasts and driver before William roused +from his reverie, and rushed after them, shouting as he went. The man +turned. + +'What is it, Willem?' + +'Can you teach me to count?' + +'Yes, up to a hundred, in tens. That is the way I count my peat.' + +'Oh, I can be counting that as I knit.' + +'Ah, then, if you do be wanting to reckon properly, and do sums with +figures, you had better be asking Owen Griffith; he do be clever at +that. I will speak to him for you.' + +''Deed, I would be so glad.' + +Robert Jones was as good as his word. Owen's cottage was not on his +direct road, but he did not mind going out of his way to do a kindness. + +The weaver had just taken a finished web of blue flannel out of his +loom, and sat smoking a long pipe on the bench outside. + +After the first salutation, the turf-cutter began by saying, 'Have you +seen the dry wall Willem Edwards have been building up so cleverly?' + +'Sure to goodness, no. Yet he did always have a notion that way. I have +heard Rhys and Cate be laughing over it many a time.' + +''Deed, yes, Owen, but it's not to be laughed at. That boy have a head, +look you. I've seen walls built and mended less securely by old hands +before now.' + +'Sure now! You don't say so? I wish he would come and repair mine. It's +been tumbling down, stone by stone, waiting till Morgan the mason did be +coming round.' + +'Well, you ask Willem. And if you would be offering to teach him to +reckon up with figures, he would be proud and pleased to build it up. +'Deed he would. He do just be asking me to teach him. But you go looking +at that wall of his. Willem do want encouraging, not laughing at. He +will build up more than a broken-down wall some day.--Shall you be +wanting peat or lime next week?' + +'Ah, yes; and if you think Willem can mend the wall you can bring a sled +of stones as well.' + +The next day, on the way from church, Owen Griffith got William by his +side, and set him counting the trees by the wayside, and the sheep on +the hills, as preliminary to lessons in arithmetic, but nothing said he +of any broken walls. + +He left that for the afternoon, when he and Cate walked up to the farm, +ostensibly to learn what news Ales had brought from Cardiff. + +Over all that he shook his head, uncertain what to make of it, though he +said, 'It do look bad, it do.' + +But there was nothing uncertain in his exclamation of surprise at the +firmly repaired walls Mrs. Edwards showed so proudly as the work of her +youngest son. + +It led to the open proposal that William should restore his fences to +condition in return for lessons in arithmetic, and to Mrs. Edwards' +consent to that use of his time. + +Rhys had strolled away with Cate to talk over the deferred prospect of +their marriage, and so did not hear of this arrangement until +afterwards, when, for reasons of his own, he thought best to keep the +peace. + +It was the small beginning of greater things. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[12] God-penny--a deposit. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +PROPER TOOLS. + + +Ales had resumed her work on the farm, but not with the spirit and +vivacity of old. She had been wont to sing over her work, and had a +store of old Welsh ballads in her memory. But the song-bird mourned in +silence for the mate torn away so ruthlessly, and, as weeks and months +and years rolled on in the same drear monotony of hopelessness, her +heart grew colder and heavier, and her prayers became as the very +wailings of despair. + +It cut her to the soul to hear Rhys grumbling, as he did, at the money +filched from them to pay, not only the rent Evan should have paid, but +the heavy costs of a seizure in addition; and she more than once +resolved to quit the farm when the year expired. + +Second thoughts, however, suggested that nothing would suit the young +man better, and his very grumbling might have that end in view; for, +once rid of her, he could seek the necessary consent to bring in a wife +with a good grace. + +He had not improved in temper, certainly. It had irritated him to hear +William lauded for the very proclivities he had held of so small +account, nay, turned into ridicule. + +It was no satisfaction to have a brother so much younger competent to +enlarge and raise the walls of the sheepfold, as he did, before a second +winter set in. What though a mason's charges were saved, was not the +saving at the greater cost of his own supremacy? + +And in the long winter nights when he and Davy sorted fleeces or combed +the wool, or tended the dye-pot on the fire; when Ales taught Jonet to +twirl the flaxen thread drawn from the distaff, so as to set the spindle +dancing on the floor to the tune of the mother's industrious +spinning-wheel, how it tried his patience to see William making figures +and calculations on a board, with chalk or ruddle by the light of the +candle, whilst the knitting-pins, which should have been earning money, +lay idle by his side. + +There are men ready to perform generous acts, who are flagrantly unjust, +but cannot see it. Robert Jones had urged Rhys Edwards to 'be just.' He +should have said 'be generous,' and Rhys might have responded to the +appeal. He resented the imputation of injustice. + +Yet he denied to his brother the meed of praise his service merited; he +begrudged him the time to acquire the common rules of simple arithmetic; +perhaps because he felt it was a step to something beyond his own +attainment. He counted not the money saved in masonry as money earned. +He might have been content had William been as passively submissive as +Davy and Jonet, but he found in him a spirit boldly daring to cope with +his own, and it stung him to find the boy upheld in his resistance. + +So years crept on. The third winter passed, the snows melted, the roads +were free for traffic, the river sang a pĉan to approaching spring, the +pink and brown buds were bursting into green, song birds were flitting +and fluttering about the eaves and boughs, all was life and activity +upon the farm. The _Osprey_ had never again put into port at Cardiff, +where Mr. Pryse bit his nails and snarled more cantankerously than ever, +and nothing had been heard of Evan. Ales lost heart, she did not sing +with the birds; but William, no longer snubbed, worked on the farm with +the best, until another barrier rose between himself and Rhys, in the +shape of another stone wall. + +Hedges have now superseded walls in many parts of Glamorganshire; but at +the date of this narrative, the fields and lanes were universally +bounded by what are known as '_dry walls_,' and still they serve as +fences on the uplands. + +By 'dry walls' are to be understood walls built without mortar or +cement, of irregular, unhewn flagstones, so put together, so wedged in +one with another, as to stand firm where a cemented wall might give way +exposed to the high winds of those elevated regions, the very crevices +allowing the blasts to pass through, and so reduce the pressure on the +mass. Such are the walls in Craven and other parts of northern England. + +Yet it is no uncommon thing for the coping-stones to be hurled away in +a fierce gale, or for large portions of such walls to be blown down, as +came to pass on Brookside Farm that gusty spring. + +Here was an opportunity for William to turn his talent to account and +save his mother's pocket, as be sure he did. + +So far, so good. Rhys made no objection, and Mrs. Edwards was well +pleased. Davy had begun to feel proud of his brother. + +But it so happened that Robert Jones, whose window had long before been +fitted in by William, came to seek his services, not merely to repair a +breach, but to enclose a portion of ground as a stone yard. + +Rhys, then engaged sowing barley on last year's turnip ground, looked as +black as two thunder-clouds rolled into one, and without mincing his +words gave a decided refusal. + +'Willem is not a public stonemason, Robert Jones. He is now dibbling in +the potato-sets, and cannot be spared. You asked me to "be just"; do you +think you are just in seeking to draw him away from the farm at this +busy season?' and with a very strong oath he swore 'Willem should _not_ +build walls for him or any one else.' + +But the leader of the peat-cutter's team happened to carry a resonant +bell, as did the leading beast of all packhorse teams, in order to warn +other teamsters, or the drivers of cattle or carriages, that the narrow +roadway was blocked, and one or the other must wait in the nearest +broadened space provided as a refuge until the advancing team had +passed and left the road clear. Such open grassy spots may still be seen +in England's narrow by-ways, and there gipsies make their camps. Nay, +even in the heart of busy London, old Paternoster Row is so provided +with spaces where two carts may pass abreast. + +The bell, set ringing through the clear March air with every motion of +the mule's head, brought William leaping over runnel, ridge and furrow, +and dividing fence to greet his old and true friend. + +The voice of Rhys, ever loud and authoritative, now raised and vehement, +reached William as he came bounding along. + +'Who says I shall not build walls for any one?' he cried. 'I _will_, and +no one here shall stop me. Do you think I mean to dig and delve all my +life, and be labourer to you?' + +'Labourer to me, you jackanapes? Do you think your intermittent labour +pays for your sustenance? But if you quit the farm this day to go +wall-building, you may quit it altogether. I am not going to wear my +life away to support you in idleness. Cyphering at night, piling up +stones by day, rambling off to Caerphilly Castle when you should be at +work--what sort of labour do you call that?' + +'Head-work; of no account with you. But, look you, I'll go and come as I +please, and build walls if I please. And I don't be owning you for +master. If we can but find the old lease, it may turn out the youngest +son is heir and not the eldest. But let me tell you that for the toss +up of a silver penny I'd quit the farm for ever, only I know that's what +you do be wanting. You would be glad to get either me or Ales out to +make room for Cate. But while we stay, mother do be mistress, and shall +be.' + +For a moment Rhys seemed dumbfounded. Then he sprang upon his brother, +and grappled with him as if he would have borne him to the earth. + +The fifteen years lad was thick set and sturdy, and stood his ground +well, but he was no match for the man of more toughened frame and +indurated muscle. + +It would have gone badly with the younger had not the turf-cutter +interposed, and, by sheer force, thrust them apart. + +'What!' cried he, 'are you two brothers so jealous of each other you +would strive like Cain and Abel? Shame on you both! Would you bring +death and sorrow on your mother's hearth once more?' + +They stood panting, but abashed, as he proceeded-- + +'Surely, what with one loss after another--the rent money unaccounted +for when Evan disappeared, the cruel bill for costs, the raising of the +rent, the missing lease--the poor widow do be passing through a sea of +trouble, with cares enough to drown her, without you two, who should be +her help and comfort, adding to the load. Are you not ashamed?' + +'It be Rhys' fault!' 'It be Willem's fault!' they cried simultaneously, +alike moved by the reference to their mother, whom they loved with deep +affection. + +'You are alike to blame. Each one has some reason on his side; but, let +me tell you, lads, it is always the one most in the wrong who is the +last to give in. Now, shake hands and be friends. I came here thinking +to be doing you all a service, for it would pay better for Willem to be +building walls than doing common field-work. But I don't be wanting to +breed dissension between you, so I will be getting Morgan the stonemason +to build my wall.' + +William's lips were set close. + +The brothers looked at each other; Rhys wavered. The reference to +'better pay' had struck a vibrating chord in his breast. + +'If'--he began. + +'_I_ will build your wall, look you, pay or no pay, Robert Jones. But +you will not be wanting me to-day, whatever?' + +'No, not until next week; but fair work must have fair pay. Yet, what +say you, Rhys?' + +Here was a loophole for Rhys to slip through. 'Oh, indeed, if you don't +be wanting to call him off his work to-day or to-morrow, it may be +managed.' + +So it was amicably settled, and when the turf-cutter went his way, +William was on his knees helping Rhys to gather up what he could of the +barley spilled from his seed-wallet during their unbrotherly struggle. + +It so happened that the following Sunday the vicar took for his text, 2 +Peter i. 5, 6, and 7, dwelling especially on the last--'_And to +godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity_'--in +such manner that both Rhys and William took it to heart, imagining he +had heard of their antagonism, and was addressing his sermon especially +to them. No doubt there were others in the congregation to whom the +sermon might apply with equal force, but they two held their heads down, +as if to hide the crimson flush that mounted to the roots of their brown +hair, and fidgeted uneasily upon their high-backed seat. + +Anyway that was the end of their open strife. And when, at the close of +another week, William carried home to his mother, in good hard coin, +more than double the hire of a field-labourer, reserving a very small +portion for himself, there was nothing said by way of objection to his +craze for building, or his efforts to attain a more complete knowledge +of arithmetical calculation. + +Few persons ever found their way to Brookside Farm except on business, +fewer still cared to ask who kept the fences and outhouses in such good +order; and though Owen Griffith's house was by the roadside, ordinary +passers-by were not likely to stop and put such questions, even if they +gave the walls a second glance. + +But Robert Jones had become a thriving man of business. He had increased +the number of his team, and still travelled the country round with culm +and peat, and clay and lime. There was scarcely a farmer or cottager on +all Eglwysilan mountain, or near it, who did not on occasion call at his +place, either to carry away some of his necessary commodities, or to +leave a special order. And these were the very men to whom fences were +of importance, the very men to know a good, compact wall when they saw +it. + +Jones had a long head. He had a double motive when he began to deal in +broken flagstone, and invited William Edwards to build up an enclosing +wall for his stores. He knew the wall would attract attention, bring the +self-taught young mason into notice, and help to sell his stone. + +The event justified his far-seeing calculations. Before another spring +brought William's sixteenth birthday, he was known to be the best +builder of dry walls within a wide area, and his services were in +frequent request. + +There was no more snubbing under his mother's roof, for with a very +small reserve for personal needs, he poured all his earnings into her +lap as to a common store; and rising in estimation, he was thanked with +heartfelt satisfaction, so material and so necessary were added gains to +meet increased demands, extortionate Mr. Pryse, sneering and grinning at +their inability to confront him with their lease, having raised the rent +a second time, and threatened still harsher measures. + +And no one now lent a more willing hand to any work upon the farm, when +not otherwise employed, than thoughtful William, who saw with pain the +streaks of white interlacing his mother's once black hair. + +But William Edwards was not content to be a mere builder of dry walls. +He looked at the masonry of the church and of Caerphilly Castle, and was +conscious he had much to learn. How to enlarge his fund of knowledge was +a problem. But he was not easily daunted. + +One Sunday he observed a cow and sundry sheep trespassing on the +vicar's glebe, having taken a wide gap in the wall as an invitation. No +sooner was service concluded than he marched up boldly to the vicar, +reminded him of promised help, explained his desire to master higher +forms of arithmetic than Owen Griffith had ability to teach, and +modestly offered to repair the glebe wall if the vicar would accept his +services. The Rev. John Smith smiled, and assented readily. William set +to work upon the wall the next day, going into the vicarage parlour when +candles were lighted, and making the best use of the privilege accorded. +Long after the wall shut out four-footed intruders, William might be +seen on his way to the vicarage, after a hard day's work, once or twice +a week, a bit of candle stuck in a hollowed turnip serving to light him +home when there was no moon. + +It was about this time a gleam of stronger light shone on his darkness. + +He was engaged enclosing a fresh field for a farmer about two miles from +Caerphilly. Raising his head, and giving his arms a stretch, his +attention was arrested by a noise there was no mistaking. There was a +blacksmith's shop by the roadside, and almost in front of it a load of +stones was being dumped down from a cart, or what then answered to the +name in that wild region. It was little more than a sled, low to the +ground, but running on broad wheels or rollers of solid wood, girthed +with iron bands and drawn by four horses. + +His curiosity was excited. A group of working men were there. What were +they about to do? One man was measuring the ground, the others, doffing +their coats, rolled up their shirt sleeves, and also set to work. + +A trench was dug along the lines marked out. And now two mules came up +with laden panniers. William overleapt his own low wall and drew nearer +to observe, his pulses beating rapidly. He was coming on the secret he +had so long panted to learn. + +A heap of sand was emptied on the ground, and hollowed out like a huge +shallow bowl. Into this was poured lime from the other panniers, and +then a man carrying a pail brought water from a wayside runnel and +poured it on the lime. There was no need to tell whence rose that volume +of steam to one who whitewashed his mother's farm buildings so +repeatedly. But the stirring up and mixing of mortar was new to him. And +what was that soft fluff shaken out of a bag when the steam began to +subside? It was something with which the wind made free and blew about +almost like thistle-down--ay, almost into his own face. He caught a +loosened tuft; examined it. It could be nothing but cow's hair. So that +was how the mortar was bound together! + +Anon began a chipping and ringing of steel upon stone, that was, and was +not, new to him. + +Nearer and nearer he drew, yet afraid of exciting observation. He knew +his own purpose, and felt as if the busy masons would know it too, and +drive him away before his object was attained. + +He watched the mason chip and dress the stones to shape until the one +fitted its fellows, and they were laid side by side in a bed of mortar +within the trench, and fresh mortar spread on these with a trowel to +receive a second layer of stones for the foundation. + +Then he went back to his own dry-wall building. But never had wall taken +him so long before, for day by day he watched the masons at their work, +and day by day learned something fresh--even the uses of square and +plummet--until a well-built farrier's shed adjoined the blacksmith's +forge, with smoothly-rounded pillars bearing up the roof. + +He had learned the secret of the masons' tools, primarily the hammer, +with which the stones were chipped and dressed. Unlike his own, it was +steeled at _both_ ends, one end shaped like an axe. + +From a smith in Caerphilly he obtained just such another before the week +was out. + +Brief apprenticeship! No premium paid! No years of servitude to a +master! God had gifted him with peculiar faculties. He had a special +bias; he had also intelligence, perseverance, and determination to +succeed. He had achieved so far a measure of success. + +He began to speculate on success he could not measure. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +IN THE GRIP OF A STRONG HAND. + + +Five years had come and gone since that sad October when Evan Evans rode +away from Brookside Farm buoyant with hope and expectation, yet from +that hour no word or sign of his existence, no token of his death, had +come to set feverish doubt at rest. + +They had been five worrying and wearying years. For although William +brought home his larger earnings to the common store, and his brothers +did their best upon the farm, and there had been none but ordinary +losses, the abstracted money had never been replaced. Mr. Pryse had +prevented that with his extortionate raising of the rent. Then he had +taken to visiting the farm at intervals, making free comments with +sarcastic flings at Rhys, and cutting allusions to the still-missing +Evans, and to the missing lease, which he insisted the man must have +carried off, if it ever existed. + +Ales had much to bear through it all. Every doubtful or stinging +allusion to Evan cut her like a knife. But deep in her heart, as in a +well of truth and faith, she cherished a belief that in God's good time +he would come back to comfort her, and confound his traducers. And so +year after year she kept her place in spite of the black looks of Rhys +and Cate. + +Robert Jones would gladly have made another home for her. But Ales only +shook her head, and said with a heavy sigh: 'What would I do if Evan +came back? No, better remain for ever unmarried than for ever marred.' +And finding her constancy unshaken, the man brought an orphan niece into +his cottage to care for himself and his mother, a tacit confession that +his suit was hopeless. + +Some such proverbial answer Mrs. Edwards gave to Rhys about this time +when he urged how much better it would be to have Cate always at hand as +his wife, than to be paying for her frequent services, when William was +away wall-building, as was often the case. 'Besides, mother, you cannot +be expecting to keep Jonet always at home,' said he. 'Thomas Williams is +beginning to talk to her, and it is clear he do be thinking of taking a +wife, and he five years younger than myself, look you.' + +'It will take a long while thinking, if he do be thinking of Jonet for a +wife, and him not even got his workshop built,' replied the mother with +decision. 'Your patience will hardly hold out till Jonet makes way for +Cate. But, indeed, there do be no room here for a wife. And Cate must +know it.' + +'We might make room, if you were willing,' he persisted. 'We need only +be clearing out the fleeces, pots, pans, and other lumber, and shut in +the place at the back with a bit of wall and a door, and there will be a +room as big as the dairy.' + +'Indeed, and where would you be for putting what you call "lumber"?' + +Rhys hesitated, pushed his fingers through his loose brown hair two or +three times, as if to rake up an idea. What he called lumber were +household goods and utensils in common request, fire-balls and turf +included. + +'Oh, sure, I can be talking to Willem about that;' and he strode away, +with bent brows, leaving his mother to finish her whitewashing of the +cottage front, and to digest his suggestion at leisure. + +The Thomas Williams to whom Rhys had referred was the second son of the +carpenter who had laughed in his sleeve at Mrs. Edwards' new notion of +housing and scrubbing her swine, but who had ceased to laugh at +improvements that had brought him in work all round. In fact, he had +enclosed his workshop and glazed his small windows, not to be behind his +precocious son. + +That son, Thomas Williams, was fully five years older than William +Edwards, but the two had been drawn together from the fact that both +indulged in original ideas, and smarted under a want of appreciation at +home. + +Thus it happened that when Rhys gave his mother a hint that Thomas +Williams was making up to Jonet, his own brother was engaged in rearing +a workshop for the young carpenter in close proximity to the premises of +Robert Jones in the Aber Valley. At home he had been told he was too +young to set up for himself, but he had served his seven years' +apprenticeship to his father, had saved a little money, and was not so +young as the self-taught mason, who was making _his_ first experiment +in house-building for him. + +On his father's hearth he was scoffed at for trusting so much as the +raising of a workshop to the untried hands of a mere boy. So of his +plans or his ulterior intentions he said little there, desirous to +escape inevitable sneers and discouragement. + +It was at Brookside Farm by the fireside after dark, the two young +fellows had laid their heads together, and matured their plans, long +before they were put into operation, and it was there the original idea +of a workshop and living-room behind developed into something more. + +It was there, night after night, whilst Rhys was down the hill at the +weaver's, that Thomas Williams had unsuspected opportunities for seeing +Jonet's fitness for wifehood. True, he had noticed her bright black eyes +and hair, her clear complexion and pleasing smile, her neat attire and +dapper figure, times out of mind on Sundays, and had thought how lithe +and supple were her movements, how modest her demeanour. But it was on +her mother's hearth, whether knitting, or spinning from her distaff, +chatting all the while with one or other, and making much of her +brothers, or when helping Ales to prepare supper, that he saw how ready +she was to make herself useful and agreeable as well. + +So it was that, out of the first design for a mere workshop, gradually a +plan for the construction of a whole house shaped itself. + +William Edwards was short and sturdy; his round face had become square, +his forehead broad, his jaw inclined to be massive; his keen grey eyes +were deep set and thoughtful, his nose was large with broad nostrils, +his dark brown hair crisp as a crown--at seventeen a premature man of +thought and action, with strong, capable hands. + +He was a thorough contrast to his friend, who was tall and slight, had a +fair clear skin, with a tinge of healthy colour in his cheeks, and a +crop of wavy auburn hair; in short, a handsome young fellow. + +Handsome enough to attract Jonet, and more than Jonet; but not to lead +Mrs. Edwards to countenance too much intimacy until assured that neither +her son nor his friend had miscalculated his skill or its results. + +Certainly William Edwards had not. + +Passers-by, or people having business with the turf-cutter, lingered to +watch the young mason at his work, as the walls gradually rose above the +foundations, until firm, even, and compact as if laid by a master-hand, +with a couple of rooms in the rear and an undivided attic over all, the +whole stood fair to view. But even before Thomas Williams had laid the +last rafter, or the thatched roof was on, or the casements were glazed, +the owner might be seen at his bench plying plane or saw to make the +whole substantial and complete. + +The situation had been well selected. Proximity to Robert Jones' +premises was as good as a modern advertisement to both young builders. +Then it was on the main road to church, and was certain to arrest +attention and inquiry. + +Rhys stood before it the Sunday after completion, along with Cate and +her father, feeling something like pride in his self-taught brother for +the first time. He had taken a critical survey of all, back and front, +when he heard Robert Jones calling out to him from his own low doorway-- + +'Look you there now! What do you think of that? Didn't I be telling you +not to spoil a good builder to make a bad farmer?' + +'Indeed you did, and I think you were right. But where he did be +learning it all does be puzzling me.' + +'Ah, well, you wait and see. The little one will be the big one in the +end.' + +The rest of the family had come up, Mrs. Edwards between William and +Davy, Jonet having dropped behind with handsome Thomas Williams. + +Congratulations came thick and fast, even from strange voices. + +Rhys grasped his brother by the hand, and pressed it warmly. + +'I did never be thinking you could do this, Willem, whatever. I do be +pleased and proud to see it.' + +''Deed, I did be knowing it long ago, and so did Robert Jones,' put in +Owen Griffith. + +'I wish I had known it. But where did you be learning to build like +_this_?' asked Rhys, who held his dry walls of small account. + +'Sure, and I did be studying at Caerphilly Castle, where you did be +thinking me idling. Grand masonry does be there!' replied William. + +Mrs. Edwards' eyes were swimming with tears. She saw a future before her +son, and silently she thanked God. + +'Will you like to be looking inside?' said the owner, who had unfastened +the door and held it open whilst Mrs. Edwards and Jonet walked in. + +The floor of the front shop was already thickly carpeted with curly +shavings, and crowded with odd pieces of oak and pine shaped and trimmed +ready to put together, a rush basket of tools was set upon the workman's +bench under the window, pieces of timber were reared against the bare +walls, and there was already an air of business about the place. + +'It is all rough and bare at present,' said Thomas Williams +apologetically. 'When the walls do be dry enough to whitewash, and +these'--pointing to the incongruous pile upon the floor--'are made into +stout seats and tables, and my tools do be set in order, as well as the +house, you must be coming to look again, and rest on your way from +church.' + +'No one will be more welcome, whatever,' he added with emphasis, and a +covert glance at Jonet, who had her feet on a flight of narrow stone +steps leading up aloft. Presently she came down in surprise. + +'Why, mother, look you; there is a big room overhead. What do that be +for?' + +Thomas flushed. + +''Deed, William said it was best make the house complete at first, and +show what we could do. Until it be wanted it will serve to keep my best +timber dry and safe.' + +'But you do not be noticing how solid and substantial are the walls.' +This to Mrs. Edwards. + +'Yes, yes, sure I do! And I pray God to prosper the work of both your +hands.' + +'Amen!' came with fervour from both young fellows, and had a loud echo +from the peat-cutter in the rear. + +There were not lacking turned-up noses or sneering comments on the +presumption of two untried beginners setting out so pretentiously; but +to them the substantial building with its two floors was as a modern +manufacturer's pattern-card, and brought commissions to one or both. + +And it frequently happened that the two were engaged to work together, +certainly whenever Robert Jones had a chance to put in a word. + +Long before Thomas Williams had his house set in order, or its wooden +fittings complete, the vicar paid him a visit of inspection, and with +him a gentleman he addressed as Mr. Morris. And a very close inspection +the latter made, sounding and measuring the walls and trying the cement. + +'Good workmanship--extremely good workmanship,' said he; 'but I expected +no other from the boy. I shall recommend him.' + +His opinion or his recommendation must have been worth something, for, +very shortly, William Edwards was called upon to erect another +two-floored house of even larger dimensions, nearer to Caerphilly and to +the farrier's shed where he had graduated in masonry. + +Previously to that, as they walked home, arm in arm together, after that +Sunday view of the new workshop, Rhys had laid before him the latest +impediment their mother had thrown in the way of his marriage. It was +something new for him to take counsel with William. + +'Ah, well, Rhys,' assented he, 'mother do be something unreasonable. She +do be worse than Laban, for you have been after Cate longer than Jacob's +whole service, and you have been a dutiful son to wait so long. I will +soon be making a room for you somewhere--sure I will.' + +Leaving Rhys at the foot of the hill, he turned back to help his mother +up the steep ascent, she having walked to church. + +Finding her in the best of good humours, he advocated his brother's +cause so successfully that, by the time they were at the top, he had her +consent to build an additional room at the chimney-end of the house, +agreeing that, if the room were ready, the marriage might take place at +Hollantide, or earlier, if all the crops were harvested and housed. + +'Ready, and May still blossoming?' William laughed as he collected his +materials, and cleared sufficient ground, it seemed such a small affair. +But before he had his wall two feet high came the unexpected commission +for a two-storeyed house, also required in a given time, and put a stop +to his brotherly arrangement. + +It was a proud moment for the young builder, though Rhys looked blank, +and all was not clear before himself. + +'Never mind, Rhys,' said he; 'your place shall be ready in time. I wish +I was as sure of the money to carry on the other work. I mean to manage +it, but I do not like to be asking mother for my money back again. +Jones has offered to find the stone, and wait for payment, and Williams +the woodwork; but there will be labourers' wages, and other things. I +must think it out.' + +He had not occasion to waste much time on 'thinks.' Mother and brothers +agreed that the bulk of his contributions to the general purse should be +regarded as a reserve fund for his use, nothing doubting it would be +mutually advantageous. + +So his new undertaking was planned out, begun, and carried to a +successful issue, to the joint profit of himself and friends, and the +satisfaction of his employer. Not, however, without one or two hitches, +and a considerable expenditure of thought, for he was at once architect +and builder; and surely never one so young and self-taught before. But I +am telling fact and not fable. + +In those days, if people worked long hours, it was not at express speed. +There was no 'scamping,' for durability was a desideratum. + +It was therefore late in September before William could spare time to +add another stone to the wall at Brookside, and even then he had to lend +a hand in the harvest-field. + +He had, however, passed his word to Rhys, and there was no fear that he +would break it. His promise meant performance, by hook or by crook. + +Besides, it was no great matter, and very soon Thomas Williams had the +joists and other woodwork ready on the ground, and was fitting in the +framework of the doorway, for the young mason, mounted on a plank raised +upon sods, was adjusting the crowning stones of the new gable with an +aspect of self-content. + +It was close upon the dinner-hour, and Cate, as impatient as Rhys, had +hurried to the front of the house along with Jonet to note progress, and +clapped her hands in glee to find the masonry so near completion. + +At that juncture William cast his eyes downhill. A sharp 'Ugh!' +indicative of annoyance burst from him. 'Here do be coming that wicked +old Pryse,' he cried. 'What do he be wanting here?' + +The uphill road wound round to the farmyard in the rear. A stile +admitted to the enclosure in front and a narrow gap farther away. Here, +at the stile, he alighted from his horse, throwing the reins over the +side-post. + +'Ah, sure,' said he, with the straight-lipped smile which he made so +offensive, 'things must be prospering with you. It is well to have a +builder in the family when the house is too small. Some one must be +going to venture on a wife; or perhaps Mrs. Edwards has grown weary of +her widowhood?' + +How evil was the look in those half-closed eyes of his, as William +answered from his platform-- + +'Rhys is going to be married, sir. Have you anything to say against +that?' + +'Oh, dear, no. Rhys, indeed! Let me congratulate him on the auspicious +prospect, and on the prosperity it indicates. His lordship will be +delighted, I am sure, to hear of these additions to the farm and the +family.' And as he spoke he rubbed one skinny hand over the other +slowly-- + + + 'Washing his hands with invisible soap, + In imperceptible water'-- + + +with apparent satisfaction born of anything but goodwill. + +Rhys and Mrs. Edwards coming upon the scene, the same mock salutations +were offered, the sneer being so palpable that Jonet involuntarily edged +nearer to Thomas Williams, and Cate caught at the arm of Rhys as if for +protection. + +For once he declined their proffered hospitality, contenting himself +with a horn of cider. A mountain farmer's vegetarian meal was little to +his liking, and he knew that meat was reserved for Sundays and rare +festivals. Then mounting his horse he went trotting over the farm, +reckoning up the value of crops stacked or standing, and of the sheep +and cows pastured on the mountain-side, as if the produce had been his +own, not the farmer's. + +His presence cast a temporary gloom over the family. He was regarded as +a bird of ill-omen. + +But the cloud speedily dispersed, and the building went merrily on. By +the beginning of October the rafters were on, and William had begun to +thatch it in, and was considering the desirability of re-thatching the +whole house, when their plans had a sudden check before Martinmas. + +William, mounted on a ladder, was taking a bundle of fresh straw from +his young labourer, when a red-faced man, whom he seemed to remember +unpleasantly, came boldly over the stile, took a folded paper from his +greasy pocket, and demanded insolently to see 'Jane Edwards, the tenant +at will.' + +He was the truculent official messenger of Mr. Pryse, and the paper he +thrust into the widow's trembling hand was a formal 'notice of +ejectment' from the farm! + +The skinny hand of Mr. Pryse had closed upon the family with a vice-like +grip. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +WITH GRANDFATHER'S GOLD. + + +Had the paper handed to Mrs. Edwards contained a burning fuse to set the +whole homestead ablaze and lay it in ashes, it could scarcely have +created greater consternation. + +The grin on the bearer's face and his mother's shriek of dismay brought +William down from his ladder in haste, and sent the lad John Llwyd off +at racing speed to carry the alarm of unknown calamity to the rest. + +One by one came Rhys, Davy, and Jonet rushing into the house, to find +their mother, with her apron thrown over her head, rocking herself to +and fro on the old grandfather's armchair, wringing her hands and +moaning in the extremity of distress, that to them seemed inexplicable. + +'Oh that I should be living to see this day! Oh that things should ever +be coming to this pass! Sure to goodness it will be the death of me!' + +William, by her side, was endeavouring to master the legal jargon of a +document in his hands; while Ales, with arms and apron wet from the +washtub, was bending over her mistress, and doing her rough best to +check the outburst of grief after her own pithy fashion. + +'Name o' goodness, Jane Edwards, you do be taking on as if Mr. Pryse was +God Almighty! Sure the battle's not lost before it do be fought. 'Deed, +you couldn't fret worse if Rhys had been carried off like my Evan. Look +to God, mistress; His breath can shrivel up Mr. Pryse like a leaf in an +east wind.' + +But the shock was too new for immediate consolation. Philosophy is no +plaister for a raw wound. + +Meanwhile William had tossed the 'notice' across the table to Rhys, with +the remark, on which he set his strong, white teeth, 'The skinny old +kite has whetted his beak, and do be thinking to tear us with his +talons; but, if I don't be cutting his claws for him before the year +runs out, my name's not William Edwards.' + +'The best way to do that would be to find the lease,' put in Davy. 'I +wonder where grandfather did be hiding it?' + +'I'll find it out, if I pull the old house down, stone by stone,' cried +William passionately; adding in another tone, 'Look you here, mother, +crying will not be mending a broken egg. Let us show the old wretch a +bold front, and who knows but God may help us to find the lease and keep +the farm in spite of him. But, if not, in twelve months' time _I_ may be +making a home for you, farm or no farm.' + +Rhys alone had not spoken. Jonet had crept up to her mother, and, +kneeling by her side, whispered comforting words, whilst tears ran down +her own cheeks. + +Rhys dashed the paper down on the floor and strode out, a suppressed cry +of bitter anguish bursting from him. He could not ask Cate to marry now, +with ruin hanging over them! He almost reeled against the doorway of the +newly-erected addition, and groaned aloud. He felt as if the blow was +directed against him--him above all. + +'I did be so happy,' he murmured, 'and now--Oh, Cate, dear Cate, how can +I be breaking the terrible news to you!' + +Davy had followed Rhys. + +''Deed, I will be for telling Cate, if it will be saving you pain,' he +suggested quietly. 'Perhaps she may be taking it best from me.' + +'Sure, Davy, you was always a good fellow,' was all the assent of Rhys. +But without turning round he stretched out his broad brown hand to meet +the warm clasp of Davy, who, in another minute, was on his way steadily +downhill. + +Probably both brothers anticipated hot-tempered tantrums from Cate +Griffiths at the sudden change of her matrimonial prospects. But for +once it was the mother, and not the girl, who flew into a rage at what +she regarded as the final defeat of long-laid schemes. + +For a moment Cate seemed dazed. 'Poor Rhys!' was all she said; 'he will +need some one to comfort him, and your mother too.' + +Ten minutes later Rhys, leaning stupidly against the door-frame where +Davy had left him, felt a pair of warm arms steal round his neck, and a +loving voice say, 'Poor Rhys! What do it matter? There do be other farms +to be had. We shall not lose each other if we do be waiting. You have +got a lease _somewhere_ that shall upset old Pryse. And look you, Rhys, +neither Pryse nor his lordship have leases of their lives. He may not +live to turn you out. Do not be disheartened. Trust God, do your duty, +and leave the rest to Him!' + +Poor Rhys! The very first words of sympathy had sunk into his soul. He +had never known Cate so loving in all his life. She had been wayward, +teasing, and tantalising, but never thus. His trial sank to nothing in +the new discovery. He clasped her close, and took courage. Half his fear +had been to lose her. + +A loud summons from Ales recalled Rhys to neglected duties, and +barefooted Cate sped homewards to have a sharp-tongued contest with her +mother, who renewed an old cry that 'Cate needn't be spoiling her market +for Rhys Edwards, whatever.' + +The news spread rapidly that Mrs. Edwards had notice to quit the farm +next Michaelmas, and commiseration was general. + +But when Jane Edwards, supported by Rhys and Owen Griffith, walked into +Mr. Pryse's apartment at the inn on the 9th of October, Caerphilly Fair +Day, neither she nor Rhys made any allusion to the notice received or +looked in any way daunted. + +She put down her money, and asked for her receipt. + +The agent eyed her curiously, but in the face of two witnesses he +required to guard his words. + +As Mrs. Edwards examined carefully the receipt he gave, he remarked, +with his sinister smile-- + +'His lordship requires you to pay due regard to the ejectment notice +served upon you. He cannot permit _tenants at will_ to build on his land +without express permission.' + +'_If_ his lordship do be knowing anything of that ejectment notice, he +will know that it be just so much waste paper. Good-day, sir.' + +He opened his eyes wide for once, and stared at her, but without another +word Mrs. Edwards left the room, followed by Rhys and Griffith, who had +previously paid his rent. + +'You touched him there,' said they both in a breath, when clear of the +inn. + +They would have been sure of it had they seen him start from his seat +and grasp the arms of his chair, exclaiming, as he sank back again-- + +'Confound the woman! What did she mean? Is the lease found? And what +meant her innuendo anent his lordship's knowledge. They cannot +have--but--no, no!' And there he sat biting his long nails in +perplexity, oblivious of frequent knocks at the door, or tenants waiting +in the passage for their turn. + +No, the lease had not been found, but something else had, from which +Mrs. Edwards derived her courage. + +In the first outpouring of her indignation she had forbidden William to +proceed with his thatching. But he was equally persistent. + +'What, mother!' he cried hotly, 'leave that bit of a place unroofed to +be telling old Pryse that we be frightened by his dirty paper? Not I. +And it's my belief his lordship does not know one word about it, +whatever.' + +The words dropped from his lips like an inspiration. His mother caught +at them. + +William, taking the bit between his teeth, was up his ladder, with John +Llwyd in attendance, before she had fully mastered the probabilities of +the case. + +It was not a long business, for considering the state of affairs he was +not so foolhardy as to re-roof the whole farm. But to make a neat job of +it he had to clear away the worn and jagged edges of the old thatch to +make an even joining. + +As he did so, and created a gap, something fell down inside the kitchen +with a thud and a rattle. + +'Name o' goodness, what's that?' cried Ales from the fireplace, almost +losing her hold of the iron pot she was hanging on the hook. 'Do you be +going to bring the house about our ears?' + +Another moment she sent up a scream, 'It's found! It's found! Thank +God!' + +But before she could lay hands upon the prize William was in the house, +and had picked up a small oak box covered with dust and mould. + +The scream of Ales brought Mrs. Edwards in from the farmyard with an +apron full of eggs that fell with a smash to the floor. + +What mattered the eggs? The sight of that curious old box drove eggs out +of mind! + +'Oh, goodness, Willem! That was your grandfather's box! Many a hunt your +poor dear father did have for that box. Open it, quick!' + +'It's locked, mother. I cannot force the hasp, it do fit so tight.' + +'Ah, yes, I do forget. I do have kept the key all these years. Here, +here, do make haste!' + +How her fingers trembled as she brought from her deep pocket the big key +of the coffer, and the tiny one so well preserved for--this. + +A folded paper, and a multitude of coins! + +John Llwyd peeping in at the door, roughly driven off by Ales, like +another winged-footed Mercury, flew over field and fallow, echoing her +cry, 'It's found! It's found!' + +Before the paper could be read, or the coins counted, there were other +echoes besides William's to the mother's pious 'Thanks be to God!' + +The paper was a _will_, duly signed and witnessed, by which William +David Edwards bequeathed to his son William, and to his eldest son Rhys +after him, the lease of the farm, and all property in the land held +under that lease, with whatever stock and crops might be thereon at his +decease. And further left whatever moneys might be found along with that +will for the use of that son, William, should necessity arise, but laid +a charge upon him not to diminish but to add to the store, to be divided +between David and any future children born to the said William and Jane +Edwards, in order to help them also to make a start in life. + +What a shout went up when the '_lease_' was named! It became no longer a +disputed fact. Here was legal proof that might serve them in good stead +if the lease itself could not be found. No doubt the careful +grandfather--who had died suddenly in a fit--had secreted that as well +as the will just come to light. That might turn up any day. + +Hope was in the ascendant. And now for the coins. Some--the five-pound +and two-pound pieces of William and Mary--were unknown to the young men, +though coined during the manhood of the hoarder; but the remainder, +guineas and half-guineas from the mints alike of William and Queen Anne, +had not yet dropped out of circulation, if seldom seen. Except four +tarnished crown pieces, there was no silver. + +It was a golden inheritance to feast their eyes upon. In all one hundred +and forty-five pounds. Such a store had never met their sight before. + +Yet, with the new possession came the dread of robbers. Ales counselled +silence. + +''Deed, and it's best the teeth guard the tongue. It be a fool's trick +to show the old fox the hen's nest. Him as could steal my Evan might lay +his claws on your gold.' + +It was good advice, and wisely followed. + +John Llwyd had seen a paper unfolded, but no gold; so what he had to +tell did not count for much to hearers unconcerned. + +But, coupled with the demeanour of Mrs. Edwards and her son, it put Mr. +Pryse on the tenter-hooks of uncertainty. + +The thatching was completed, but no other little secret hiding-place was +found, and discovery ended there. + +It was the season for the general repair of fences and dry walls, and +William was kept busy. + +Winter was wearing away when, through his friend Thomas Williams, +another stroke of good fortune came to him. + +Though I have called the latter a carpenter, the word must be taken in +its broadest significance; he was also a joiner, and he aspired to be a +millwright. In the days when he served his long apprenticeship, a man +was expected to master his craft in all its details and branches, and to +bring his mind to bear upon it, if he had one. He was older than his +friend, and the very nature of his occupation had enlarged the circle +under his observation. + +Unknown to any but William Edwards, his attic was stored with models of +millwheels and machinery in various stages, at which he wrought when his +workshop was closed. + +One morning, whilst February's snow yet lay upon the ground, a +substantial miller named Owen Wynn, whose old mill threatened to topple +over into the stream, stopped his horse at the carpenter's door, and +asked abruptly 'if that was one of the buildings a young man named +Edwards had put up.' + +Being answered in the affirmative, he asked permission to look over the +place, adding-- + +'Sure, I have heard he is the best mason that ever put stone together in +these parts, and I would like to be seeing for myself, whatever.' + +Nothing loth, Thomas led the stranger over the whole premises (small, as +_we_ should think), indicating the peculiar points of the builder's +excellence. + +'Yes, yes,' said he, 'I observe,' and straightway marched up the attic +stairs uninvited. + +The models arrested his attention. 'Hah, sure! you are a millwright, are +you? Are those improvements?' + +Thomas Williams modestly 'thought they were.' + +'Then you and this Edwards could build a substantial mill between you?' + +'Without a doubt, whatever.' + +'Is the mason at hand?' + +''Deed, my apprentice do be gone for him.' The prescient young fellow +had already scented business. + +Sturdy and self-reliant as William might be, and older than his years, +yet there could be no mistaking eighteen for thirty. + +The miller started when he approached, his apron on, his hammer in his +hand. He thought him extremely young to have obtained such repute. + +However, before they separated, the two had been commissioned to build +his water-mill and house, and a time appointed to find a suitable spot. + +They were both conscious that it _was an undertaking_--with William a +great one. They felt as if the making or marring of their lives was in +their hands. But they were not daunted. + +'If difficulties arise we must surmount them,' said William resolutely, +before his plans were drawn. 'As I cannot get books I can read, I must +be studying the castle again.' + +There were no Welsh books of any technical value to him; English he was +unable to read. Fortunately for him, the walls and towers and arches of +Caerphilly Castle had been as the leaves of an open and intelligible +book, a work on ancient masonry no printed volume could surpass. + +He had need to study it well now, to learn the secret of the arch, and +how to construct a tunnel to bear away the watery overflow from the +mill-wheel. + +Learn it the young mason did, and that effectually. + +Hard at work were they and their men all through the summer months, the +builders with stone and wood, and ere the frosts of autumn came to lay a +destructive finger on the mortar, there was a goodly mill by the side of +the river, storey rising above storey, and the tunnelled waterway firm +and compact, only some woodwork and the flagstone roof to be added. + +It had been a period of great anxiety to both young men, for besides the +risks attending all experimental work, Edwards was uneasy respecting his +mother's possession of the farm, and Thomas Williams had resolved to +seek Jonet for a wife if their work was a success. + +Of any portion he might expect with her he knew nothing. + +The corn had ripened for the sickle, but no lease had yet been found. +September shone upon the land, and the case became urgent. + +One evening, when the masons had laid by their tools for the night, the +good vicar had a visitor. William Edwards desired to see the Rev. John +Smith most particularly. + +[Illustration: HE FOUND MR. MORRIS SEATED AT THE TABLE AS WELL AS THE +VICAR.--_See page 245._] + +To his surprise, when he was ushered into the low-ceiled parlour, he +found Mr. Morris seated at the table as well as the vicar, evidently +examining a number of geological specimens by the light of a couple of +candles. + +William had met Mr. Morris several times of late chipping at rocks with +a hammer, but did not expect to meet with him there, and could have +dispensed with his presence. + +'Well, Edwards, what is your business?' asked the vicar after the first +salutations. 'You need not hesitate to speak out; Mr. Morris is as much +your friend as I am. What is it? Anything concerning the fine mill you +are erecting?' + +'No, sir, it do be concerning the farm--and Mr. Pryse.' + +The gentlemen exchanged glances across the table. The change in +William's frank voice and manner had not been lost on them. + +William laid his grandfather's will open before the vicar. + +'We did be finding that last autumn hid in a small box under the thatch, +sir.' + +'You did not find the missing lease along with it, did you?' + +'No, sir. And we cannot be finding it, high or low. But you will see, +sir, the lease be named here more than once.' And drawing closer to the +vicar he pointed with his finger. + +'Yes, I perceive. Well, that certainly establishes the fact that you +_had_ a lease.' + +'Sure, indeed, sir. But do you be thinking it would serve instead of the +real lease to stop Mr. Pryse from turning us out of the farm?' +questioned William, with a very anxious face. + +'Um--a--um--a--well, I am not so sure about that. We might get an +opinion if there was a lawyer about, not under Pryse's finger and thumb. +You must know, Morris,' said the vicar, turning to his friend, 'this +young fellow's father gave mortal offence to Pryse by a blunt opinion +that he was overreaching. He has owed the family a grudge ever since, +and has done all in his power to oust the widow from her holding. You +will remember the talk there was, six years ago, about the disappearance +of a young man from Cardiff, who was supposed to have gone off in the +mysterious _Osprey_ with money, not his own--some people said was +"_carried_ off" perforce. Anyway, that was the farm-servant of Mrs. +Edwards, who was about to be married--for I read out the banns--and he +had with him both his own savings and the money to pay the widow's +half-year's rent. He was seen to enter Mr. Pryse's office. He ordered +and bought things to set up farming, and _paid_ for some. In three +weeks' time Mr. Pryse made a seizure on the farm for unpaid rent, +declaring the man a defaulter. Fortunately, Mrs. Edwards had the means +to meet his demands. Since then he has twice raised the rent, insisting +that the widow is only a tenant at will, and last Martinmas served her +with a notice of ejectment to come in force this present month, +insisting that no lease exists. It so happens that both the father and +grandfather died too suddenly to make any disclosures or arrangements. +Thus the lease is missing, and this will has only just come to light. +Look it over, and say what you think.' + +'Take a seat, William. I did not observe that you were standing all this +while,' he added. + +Mr. Morris shook his head as he folded up and returned the document. 'To +any unprejudiced person this settles all doubt that a lease exists, and +the duplicate must be in the possession of his lordship or his agent. +But it does not specify the terms or the date of the lease, and _there_ +Mr. Pryse has the advantage. He may know of some clause you have +infringed.' + +William sighed heavily. 'Then there will be no hope for us. It will +break poor mother's heart, in truth it will. We don't believe his +lordship knows a word. If I could but get to see him. But there, Mr. +Pryse would stop that!' and he rose to depart. + +'Stay, stay!' cried Mr. Morris; 'maybe I can help you at this pinch. +Find me pen, ink, and paper, Mr. Smith.' + +William looked on in bewilderment whilst the quill of Mr. Morris went +squeaking across the paper, or he nibbled the feather end of the pen in +a pause for thought, or for an answer to a question. + +After a time, which to William appeared hours, he threw the paper across +the table to the vicar. + +'There,' said he, 'is a brief statement of the case, as detailed to me. +If you find it correct, pray both of you affix your signatures. It shall +be my care _that_ reaches his lordship's own hand, though he is now at +Court, and time is short. If you leave the will in our good vicar's +charge, I will make a fair copy and enclose it, along with some private +intelligence of my own concerning Mr. Pryse. Good-night, young man. Tell +your mother not to be downhearted.' + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +IN THE NICK OF TIME. + + +'Name o' goodness, what be keeping Willem out so late?' said his mother, +peering out into the night. 'I do hope he have not been stopping at the +inn again, and him with that will in his pocket. He do be getting very +unsteady since he has been having those big places to build.' + +''Deed, his sudden rise do be turning his head. He may have as sudden a +fall one of these days,' was the commentary of Rhys. + +But when William came in half an hour later, as steady and sober as his +brothers, and explained satisfactorily how he chanced to be so very +late, there was nothing but the voice of gratitude to be heard. He had +left the vicarage almost choked by his own inarticulate thanks. + +'It was quite providential that Mr. Morris did be staying at the +vicarage,' said Mrs. Edwards. 'He do be a great man, sure, and kind.' + +'Yes, yes, and it was providential that _I_ went to consult the vicar, +instead of Rhys. Mr. Morris would be knowing nothing of _him_, +whatever,' added William, rather proudly. + +It was true that his uncommon success was making him somewhat +self-sufficient. But so Rhys had been, with less reason. + +The weeks crept slowly on one after another. + +At the new mill, mason and millwright congratulated each other on +hazardous difficulties overcome. The roof was on to the last flag. The +arched tunnel was strong and firm. The machinery worked well, and the +wheel went merrily round. When the painters cleared away their paint +pots, they could hand the key to the miller in triumph. + +At the farm, hope had given way to doubt, and doubt was sinking into +despair. The prayer of faith was timid and wavering. Only another day +remained before the dreaded 9th of October, and as yet nothing had been +heard either from Mr. Morris or the vicar, or from his lordship. +Impending evil took the gloss off William's satisfaction. + +The morning of Tuesday the 8th broke dull, dreary, and depressing, with +a heavy mist on the mountain and in the valley, which, towards eight +o'clock, resolved itself into a drizzling rain, that made the cattle +hang their heads and the sheep huddle together for mutual comfort. + +In view of contingencies, the farm stock had been reduced by sale below +ordinary limits, and well-disposed neighbours had offered temporary +houseroom and shelter amongst them for both family and anything movable. +Thomas Williams cleared out his large attic for their accommodation, and +Robert Jones promised to keep his team in readiness to remove household +goods or newly-gathered crops at a moment's notice. + +Nothing was being done on the farm but what common care for the living, +biped and quadruped, rendered necessary. But a general ransack of house +and barns was going on for the discovery of the missing lease, and +everything was topsy-turvy. Never had the storeroom had such a turn-out +for years. Red-eyed Jonet and Cate ripped open beds and pillows, turned +over sacks, dived among fleeces. For the twentieth time Mrs. Edwards +emptied the great oak chest, and turned over the leaves of the large old +Bible, her face grey and set like a rock. + +Ales alone bore a cheerful countenance, and baked the week's bread as in +the ordinary course. + +'Look you, Jane Edwards,' she said, 'it's no use fretting and fuming. +What God wills we must bear. But there's no need to be putting the +burden on one's own back before He bids one take it up.' + +Mrs. Edwards sighed heavily. 'Ah, yes, Ales, true it is; but a good +servant need never seek good service. We may seek far for a good farm.' + +'You don't be turned off this yet. And it's my firm belief you will be +keeping the farm in spite of old Pryse. God's finger is stronger than +man's arm. You wait and be patient. I've not been dreaming of Evan night +after night for nothing. He seems to say, "I'm coming, I'm coming;" and +I feel as if God was bringing him back, look you. I do!' + +'Ah, poor, foolish Ales! your longings do create your dreams. Evan be as +far to seek as our lease.' + +'May be so, and may be not. I do be feeling as if he was as near and as +warm almost as the loaf just baked, look you. And I feel, I feel'-- + +'You do _look_ half out of your mind, Ales,' said Mrs. Edwards, in grave +rebuke, rising from her hopeless quest and locking the coffer again. +'This be no time to talk of foolish dreams.' + +'Mother,' called Jonet from the bedroom they were searching, 'there be a +strange man with a bundle on a stick coming over the stile, and he's +dripping wet.' + +Ales screamed, darted out by the open door, and before Mrs. Edwards +could follow she was clasped in the arms of a rough-looking fellow, and +crying out, 'I knew, I knew! Thank God!' In another moment she was +sobbing and laughing hysterically on his breast in the reaction of her +strange excitement. + +'Name o' goodness, that never do be you, Evan?' burst from Mrs. Edwards +in unmitigated amazement. + +[Illustration: LONG-LOST EVAN HAD COME BACK.--_See page 252._] + +'Ay, ay, it's me for certain,' was answered cheerily, as the sturdy, +unshaved man brushed past her, carrying his limp sweetheart into the +kitchen and grandfather's stiff-backed chair, heedless of the wet trail +he left upon the floor. + +Picture the excitement. Strong-minded Ales in hysterics! Jonet and Cate +rushing about wildly, and shouting out that long-lost Evan had come +back! William and Rhys hurrying in, astonished and delighted, followed +by Davy, for once in a hurry; and Evan, loth to release Ales, puzzled +to find hands for them all to shake at once, and equally puzzled how to +compose Ales, who is sobbing and laughing by turns. + +Housewifely instinct, or a peculiar fume in her nostrils, acts as a +restorative. 'The bread's burning,' she gasps and Cate presses forward +to the rescue of the scorching loaves, forgotten in the confusion and +excitement. + +Then follows a string of questions, huddled one upon another, but before +any one can be answered, Mrs. Edwards says dolefully, 'Ah, Evan, we be +thankful to see you back, but you have come on a sad day for all that.' + +'Have I? Then, 'deed, it had nearly been a sadder for in coming across +the ford, I either mistook my depth, or the water is rising, for it came +up to my waistband, and nearly carried me off my feet. But I'm not to be +drowned, that's clear, till I've settled with that old rogue Pryse,' he +says, with an emphasis and a look that are in themselves anathemas. + +'Ah, I told you so,' cries Ales. 'Woe to the man that makes a hundred +sad!' but in the midst of an affirmative chorus comes an interruption in +the shape of the old brown house-dog, wagging his tail and dropping a +big bundle wrapped in sailcloth at the feet of Evan, then jumping up to +ask for recognition and thanks. + +It is then seen that Evan is standing in a pool of water, whereupon Mrs. +Edwards orders him off to change his wet clothes for the dry ones in his +bundle, whilst she and the other women bestir themselves to set the +dinner on the table, Ales making all sorts of blunders in the process. + +It is by no means a common dinner on a Welsh farm table at that period, +although it only comprises pork, potatoes, and greens, boiled in the +same pot with the dough dumplings. Mrs. Edwards marks it out reverently +as they take their seats. + +'Let us be thanking Almighty God that the good food provided for our +last dinner under this roof should have become, by His blessing, a +thanksgiving feast; for the one supposed dead do be alive again, the one +lost do be found.' + +The general 'Amen' was peculiarly solemn, and it occurred to Evan that +for a thanksgiving there was more of sorrow than gladness. + +Then the first greeting of Mrs. Edwards recurred to him, coupled with +the remark about a 'last dinner'; and though the savour was appetising, +and his fast had been long, he could not have touched a morsel until his +doubts were resolved. He put his question, and was speedily answered by +more than one voice-- + +'Oh, Evan, we cannot find our lease, and Mr. Pryse be going to drive us +off the farm to-morrow.' + +It was his turn to look solemn. ''Deed, and that do be bad. You do have +a lease, sure to goodness?' + +'Oh yes. Willem found grandfather's will, and the lease do be left to +Rhys; but no lease can we be finding anywhere.' + +'Where have you been looking?' + +All sorts of likely and unlikely places were named. + +'My first master kept his lease in the Bible. Did you look there?' + +'Indeed, yes, Evan,' came from Mrs. Edwards, with a disheartened sigh; +'I turned over every leaf.' + +'Oh, I do mean under the old cloth cover. He kept his there.' + +A moment of breathless astonishment--a general rise from the table! + +Mrs. Edwards was down on her knees unlocking the coffer. + +In another minute the Bible was out; the stout cloth cover ripped off. +There lay the parchment, flat and clean, as when laid there years upon +years before by hands now in the clasp of death. + +'_Thank God!_' cried Mrs. Edwards, still upon her knees. 'My children, +the finger of God is in this. Our search did be vain till He did send +His own messenger to point it out. As Ales did say, God's finger _is_ +stronger than man's arm; strong to save. Let us once more thank Him.' + +The relief had been overpowering. The thanksgiving was strong and deep. +The reaction was too great almost for speech. The dinner, nearly cold, +was eaten in silence; but it was the silence of hopefulness, not +despair. + +It was followed by a clattering and chattering of loosened tongues, +guesses at Mr. Pryse's consternation on the morrow, and questionings of +Evan's disappearance and adventures, which we may leave that morrow to +answer. + + * * * * * + +Mean though he was through every fibre of his being, Mr. Pryse was +lavish in regard to his own creature comforts. Yet even many of these +he contrived to obtain gratuitously from tenants who loved him little +and feared him much, or from obsequious sea-captains whose cargo was not +altogether coal or iron, captains who had goods to bring ashore without +compliments to Custom House officers. And those were anything but days +of free trade. + +He sat at ease between a cosy fire, which cost him nothing, and a round +breakfast-table on which were the remains of chicken, ham, and eggs, all +of which were equally cheap. A fragrant aroma of Mocha coffee yet +lingered around the foreign china cup and saucer and coffee-pot, none of +which had paid duty to England's monarch, any more than the Barcelona +silk handkerchief cast lightly over the knee he was indolently nursing +on the other, whilst he leaned back in his tall chair picking his teeth, +and a smile of uttermost self-content and enjoyment creased the +parchment-like skin into folds under his wicked old eyes. + +'Yes,' said he, half aloud to himself; 'out they go to-morrow, stock and +lot! And let them get another farm where they can. Lease, indeed'--and +he chuckled. 'If they could find any lease to show, there would have +been no sending of cows and sheep and grain to market. Ah, yes, I shall +soon pay off my old score to that fellow who drowned himself like a +fool. Yes, and get a higher rent, now that building son of his has +enlarged the homestead.' + +The chuckle had not died out of his skinny throat when the door opened, +and he caught his breath, for a special messenger from his lordship, +booted and spurred, like one who rides in haste, entered unannounced, +and with the simple remark that he 'had rather a rough passage across +the Severn from Bristol that morning, and found the air raw and cold,' +presented a sealed packet, marked 'Immediate and important.' + +Had he said he crossed in a Revenue cutter, Mr. Pryse might not so +readily have taken the hint thrown out. + +As it was, he apologised for the coldness of the breakfast, and from a +private cabinet produced a bottle of genuine Hollands--which had never +gone through a Custom House--and, setting them before his unexpected +visitor, invited him to help himself. + +'I trust his lordship is well?' he said blandly, but quite as a matter +of course. + +'No; he was dangerously ill when I left,' came from the courier, with +startling bluntness. + +What? His easy-going master ill! perhaps dying! Mr. Pryse turned ashen +grey. 'You don't say so!' he ejaculated with a gasp, his fingers +trembling, as he at last unfolded the despatch and began to read, hardly +conscious that the man, smacking his lips over the fiery Hollands, had +been watching him all along with keen, observant eyes. + +With all Mr. Pryse's self-command the paper rattled in his fingers as he +read. It was not a lengthy epistle, and only the signature was his +lordship's; the letter was from his son and heir. Its sole purport was +to prevent injustice, as the act of a dying man. + +In stern and peremptory words it forbade Simon Pryse to harass or +disturb the Widow Edwards in her holding, since he must know it was +leased for three lives, and would not fall in until the demise of +William Edwards' eldest son, then living. Moreover, he was commanded to +refund, from his own purse, all excess rent he had extorted from the +widow, _yet not included in his accounts_. And he was required to +furnish a true and just statement of all the moneys in his hands and all +his dealings and transactions in his lordship's name, not omitting the +share he was said to have taken in the abduction of one Evan Evans, +seven years prior to that date. + +'It shall be done,' said Mr. Pryse hoarsely, as the messenger rose to +depart, fully satisfied with the result of his observations. + +'Yes, it _shall_ be done!' cried the infuriated agent, when the man was +gone, springing to his feet with a tremendous oath. 'But not as his +lordship or his lordship's heir proposes. Shall I forego the revenge I +have nursed for years, when a few hours will bring the hated tribe +within my grip? No; I will set my feet upon their necks if I die for +it!' and another fierce anathema parted those thin lips of his. + +All on a sudden he stopped short, and bit his long nails viciously. 'Has +some one turned traitor?' he murmured between set teeth. 'Those poor +farming idiots could not get a letter to his lordship's hand. No matter. +The bolt has fallen sooner than I expected, but trust me to be taken +unprepared. It has fallen in the nick of time. In another hour the +_Cambria_ would have sailed.' + +Upstairs, three steps at a time like a boy, he ran, exulting in his own +crafty schemes for outwitting justice; drew his blue and white check +curtain quite across his bedroom window--a preconcerted signal to the +_Cambria's_ skipper--changed his kerseymere smalls for his leather +riding breeches, and was downstairs in his private office as usual, yet +not as usual. He was on his knees before his strong box and his golden +god. + +In his guilty knowledge and his craftiness, he had years before prepared +for flight on emergency. He had lodged a portion of his filchings in +Wood's Gloucester Bank, under a fictitious name. Yet as there was no +other provincial bank at that time in all England and Wales, and no bank +notes under £20 value, exchange was not easy. Rents, etc., were paid in +specie. Specie also was transmitted to his lordship under strict guard. +Whenever an opportunity occurred, the agent converted coin into notes, +and packed them in the waistband of his leather breeches. Still, coin +had accumulated in his strong box, always packed close, and secured with +triple locks, ready for removal on short notice, though its weight +belied its bulk. + +The signal brought the skipper. There was already a tacit understanding +between the worthy pair, and their conference was brief. Arrangements +were made for the _Cambria_ to drop down the river with the evening +tide, and lay to outside in the bay. Fain would the skipper have Mr. +Pryse go aboard with his strong box, and make all sail at once. + +No, no; he was not willing to forego his revenge or the prospect of +adding a succession of rents to his ill-gotten gains; so a four-oared +boat was to meet him at Taff's Well landing-place up the river on the +morrow, and await his coming--ay, even until midnight. + +His impish friends, Avarice and Malice, were more potent advisers than +the wary skipper; so, with a shrug of the shoulders, he withdrew, and +obeyed. + +'That's a heavy load you've got, messmates,' called a sailor to the two +others conveying to the schooner the strong box, covered with tarpaulin, +as if to protect it from the rain. But they merely answered, 'Ay, ay,' +and declined assistance. + +The afternoon was then far spent, but two horses stood at the door, and +in a few minutes Mr. Pryse, booted and spurred, and cased in a long +riding-coat, was in the saddle, the flaps of his three-cornered hat let +down, as was commonly the case in wet weather, so as to convert it into +a broad-brimmed slouch, a pair of saddle-bags slung before him, likewise +holsters, fitted with pistols, carefully loaded. + +He trotted away from the door he was never to see again, with a lie on +his lips to his housekeeper, and, followed by his less +elaborately-accoutred attendant, took the new Merthyr Tydvil Road, which +not only ran parallel with the river in a direct line wherever +practicable, but avoided the long detour by Caerphilly, where no rents +would be paid until the Martinmas Fair. + +He had rents, and more than rents, to collect as he stopped at wayside +houses, or so-called inns, off and on the direct road, and was not to be +denied, though a day before due. So he managed to pocket some heavy cash +before, at a late hour, he stopped for the night under the shadow of +cliff-seated Castel Coch, to dry his drenched overcoat, eat a hearty +supper, and retire to _rest_, leaving orders that he was to be in the +saddle by daybreak in the morning. + +He was in a desperate hurry to transact his pleasant bit of business +with Mrs. Edwards, but could not forbear grasping at all the coin he +could by the way, never thinking that the overreaching hand is apt to +grasp at shadows. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +THE FINGER OF GOD. + + +The heavy rain had ceased in the night. The sky was clear, the eaves and +trees had forgotten to drip, the mist was lifting from the mountain-top +and from the surcharged river, when, after a succession of profitable +calls, between nine and ten o'clock in the morning, master and man rode +up the rugged ascent to Brookside Farm, and, dismounting, the former +walked into the house with insolent assumption, and, finding only Mrs. +Edwards there, demanded rudely-- + +'Is the half-year's rent ready?' Of course, that was his first care. + +'There do be no rent owing, sir.' + +'What do you mean, woman?' + +'I mean that you have been paid, and overpaid, and I do not be going to +pay you one brass farthing.' + +He grew livid, set his teeth, and looked as if he would have struck her +to the ground. + +'We'll see about that. You had due notice to quit. You have stayed on +the farm in defiance of the law, and now, by'--(and he swore a great +oath)--'you shall turn out without stick or stock. Morgan,' over his +shoulder to the man, 'call up the other men. We will soon see who is +master here. I seize in his lordship's name.' + +'And _I_ forbid in his lordship's name,' said Mr. Morris, whose shadow +in the doorway had been mistaken for the man Morgan's. + +Mr. Pryse recoiled. Mr. Morris was no stranger to him; and no friend of +his, he well knew. What brought him there, or the vicar, close at his +heels? + +'By what right do _you_ presume to interfere?' he asked boldly. + +'By _this_, sir,' unfolding a letter. 'I presume you know his lordship's +hand and seal. _You_ were not the only one for whom the courier had a +despatch yesterday.' + +Mr. Pryse seemed to shrink within his clothes. A greenish hue overspread +the yellow of his skin. A clammy dew burst out upon his forehead. Had he +spurned the skipper's sage advice only to come here for this? It was +maddening to think of. + +He attempted to brazen it out, as a last resource. + +'I am acting in his lordship's interest, sir. He has been shamelessly +misinformed. These people have not paid more than a fair rental. And +they never had a lease.' + +'What do you be calling _that_, sir?' And Rhys pressing to the front, +held up the lease--at a safe distance, for Mr. Pryse appeared ready to +spring upon it like a wild cat. + +'And now, sir,' said Mr. Morris sternly, 'you will have to disgorge. +Those are his lordship's orders. You see we hold a quittance for half a +year's rent. Evan, bring forward the receipt.' + +Had a ghost risen from the grave to confront him, Mr. Pryse could not +have looked more aghast or terror-stricken, when Evan stepped from +behind into the light, with the faded receipt in his hand. + +Baffled, defeated, confronted, as it were, by the dead. + +Mr. Pryse shrieked aloud, fell on his knees, covering his eyes with his +quivering hands. + +'You here?--_you?_ I fancied you had gone down with the _Osprey_.' + +'You hear him, gentlemen? You hear him? He do be owning his share in +kidnapping me! No, you smuggling old rogue, when the _Osprey_ went all +to pieces on the rocks at the Land's End with its drunken crew and +cargo--I, yes indeed _I_, gentlemen, who had been dragged on board bound +like a thief--I did be the only one saved. I had been sent up aloft to +punish me because I would not join the wicked crew, and when the mast +did go overboard, I held on for my very life. I did be picked up the +next day by an outward-bound East Indiaman, when there was little life +left in me. But I wasn't to be drowned till I'd settled scores with this +old villain here, that did send me adrift with rogues like himself, and +to rob the widow blackened my honest name. + +'No, Mr. Pryse, though I've been sailing the seas all these sorrowful +years in one craft or other, cuffed, kicked, half-starved, used worse +than a dog, and never able to make my way back to my sweetheart or +home, if it had not been for another shipwreck I'd never have been here +now. A Liverpool trader took me and two shipmates off a raft in the +middle of the ocean, when we was half-mad with hunger and thirst, and +the good captain, God bless him, sent me on shore at Fishguard, to make +my way home to my sweetheart as quick as I could. And I didn't have to +beg my way, for I had got money hid under my belt. And I do be thanking +God sirs, for bringing me here in time to confound this wicked old +shivering coward. I do be feeling as if I could shake every bone out of +his ugly skin, but Ales bids me leave him to God and his master.' + +''Deed, he deserves kicking from the top of the hill to the bottom,' +thrust in fiery William. + +Not a word had the detected steward spoken, but his features and his +lean fingers worked vindictively, as if longing to grasp the speakers' +throats. + +All at once he shrieked out-- + +'That receipt's a forgery, a vile forgery. Look at it, gentlemen. That +paper has never been in salt water. Ugh! How could a common sailor keep +a bit of paper unworn and dry for six years, and through two shipwrecks? +It is absurd.' + +Gaining courage from his own sneering suggestion, Mr. Pryse rose to his +feet, little expecting the answer which came from William. + +''Deed, no, sirs. Neither our receipt, nor Owen Griffith's here, nor +Evan's own money ever went nearer the sea than old Breint's saddle. He +had made a private pocket under the lining, and there they did be +waiting for him, yes, sure.' + +'It's well they did, for those thieves on the _Osprey_ did be stripping +me of all I had,' put in Evan. + +And now, Mr. Morris declaring the receipts genuine, insisted on Mr. +Pryse there and then refunding the extra rent extorted year by year from +Mrs. Edwards, giving a quittance up to date on account of the receipt. + +But Mr. Pryse had recovered courage--and craft. He began to bluster. +Refused to acknowledge the authority of either Mr. Morris or the vicar. +He was answerable to his lordship. To him only would he render an +account. He would bid them good-morning. + +'Well, sir,' said Mr. Morris, 'I cannot enforce his lordship's commands +without legal warrant. But had I known all I have heard since I came +hither, I should have come provided with a warrant for your arrest, Mr. +Pryse. And I warn you the reckoning will come sooner than you expect.' + +Much sooner! + +He walked out of the farmhouse with head erect and defiant, as if he had +won a victory. He bade Morgan pay his myrmidons and follow; then rode +down hill baffled, but not wholly defeated. He had not disgorged a +penny, had added other rents as he came along to the hoard he was +carrying away. Warrant, indeed! He would soon be beyond reach of +warrants! + +'Nay,' he shouted back with a snarl, 'threatened men live long;' but +before he reached the level, some sense of ungratified revenge must have +stung him, for he put spurs to his horse, and dashed on, splashing +through the swollen brook, and turning the corner to the ford--not the +high-road--as if pursued by a troop of demons. + +Blinded by his own evil passions, exulting in his escape, yet alarmed by +the sound of hoofs behind him, he spurred his horse to the uncertain +ford in the same hot haste, seeing nothing but his own need to cross. + +[Illustration: BLINDED BY PASSION, HE SPURRED HIS HORSE TO THE UNCERTAIN +FORD.--_See page 271._] + +His follower heard a shriek, but reached the river's brink only in time +to see a swirling mass of something far down the rain-filled river. + +Mr. Pryse had gone to meet the _Cambria's_ boat in other fashion than he +contemplated. + +His spurs entangled in the stirrups, his pockets and saddle-bags +weighted with ill-gotten coin, horse and man had gone together. + +A Welshman in a coracle[13] called out to the ferryman at Taff's Well +Ferry, and he to the _Cambria's_ men rowing up-stream, and amongst them +they got a panting, struggling, half-dead horse ashore, to find what +_had_ been Mr. Pryse _underneath_, clutching at the turned saddle and +bags with the grip that never relaxes--the grip of death. + +Cover him over. Let the Preventive-service men, chasing the other boat, +fight with pistol and cutlass for the possession of the dead, his gold, +and his incriminating papers, whilst the smart Preventive cutter in the +bay boards the short-handed _Cambria_, and tows her confiscated prize +into port, the dead man's strong box included. Little recks the drowned +man what becomes of his hoard. He has gone to his final reckoning with a +Lord he had forgotten, a Lord no man can cheat or deceive. + +Intelligence of his retributive death comes to the rejoicing family at +the farm with a sobering shock, but nobody affects to lament. And all +over his lordship's wide domain, oppressed men breathe freer for this +one man's death. + +'Man deliberates, but God delivers,' is said with bated breath by more +than sententious Ales, whilst Mrs. Edwards insists that his death is a +judgment for his strictures on her lost husband. + +And whilst the unhonoured remains of the fraudulent agent are committed +to the earth, in Cardiff, with no mourner but his housekeeper, the vicar +of Eglwysilan reads out the banns once more for Evan and Ales, and for +Rhys Edwards and Cate Griffiths also. + +Great is the bustle of preparation. There is money in possession and +hope in the future. + +There is no need to ask for contributions at the 'bidding,' though the +invited guests are many. + +The new room William built is being fitted up with somewhat more regard +to health and decency than has been common hitherto. Cate is bringing to +her bridegroom more than had been looked for--dowlas sheets and +blankets, spun and woven under their own cottage roof, and a good flock +bed and pillows from the same source. Then she had not been idle, and if +under-_linen_ was not worn in those days in that humid climate, she had +a fair supply of flannel, and of linsey-woolsey for gowns and aprons, +all of her own spinning. Ay, and she had stockings knitted ready to +assume with her new dignity. + +The cottage at Castella has long been occupied by other tenants. Mr. +Morris offers Evan a small farm between Caerphilly and Cardiff, on very +easy terms. The goods he had bought and paid for have been sold, but +fresh are furnished readily; and Robert Jones generously conveys the +long-hoarded household goods of Ales to her new home, without fee or +guerdon, and, with them, a winter store of peat and culm as a wedding +gift. + +Both at Owen's cottage and the farm the women are busy as bees, baking +and boiling for the wedding feast, for which Thomas Williams sets up +long plank tables in the meadow that slopes to the foot of the hill, the +break-neck ascent to the farm being a consideration on such an occasion. + +For the brides are supposed unwilling to be wed, or their friends to +part with them, and there is racing and chasing to recover the runaway +brides, and mock contests to obtain possession of them, in which the +mountain ponies play their parts well. Then, the brides being captured, +there is the headlong race to the church, which bodes ill to any unwary +pedestrian they may meet. It is a remnant of old barbaric custom not to +be dispensed with, and all the youths and maidens, far and wide, join in +the race. Scarcely less noisy is the return, when the ceremony is over, +and each bride is mounted behind her husband, Rhys and Cate taking the +precedence. + +Be sure they bring appetites to the feast, where huge joints of boiled +beef are matched by piles of smoking potatoes and turnips, the +brown-jacketed esculents being as yet dainties to the multitude. Then +there are great pitchers of _cwrw da_ and buttermilk for thirsty +throats. And if there be a deficiency of glass and cutlery, according to +our notions, all is as it should be to the feasters, who are to the +manner born, and not fastidious, and who fling their contributions to +the feast into the earthen bowls with right goodwill. + +Something much more important gave grace to the festive occasion, and +that was the presence of a Welsh harper, one of the decaying race of +bards, who sang them songs of Arthur and Llewellyn, and twanged his harp +for lively dances on the greensward when the boards were cleared, and +might be held accountable for more than one match decided that day. +Certainly Thomas Williams obtained Jonet's shy promise to marry him in +the spring if her mother would consent; and even Davy struck up an +acquaintance with the niece of Robert Jones, that was likely to lead to +something more in the end. + +It was quite an exceptional gathering, for not a drop of rain fell the +whole day to mar the entertainment, and, short though it was, a good +round frosty moon offered its shining lamp to light the middle-aged +couple and their escort to their new home beyond Caerphilly, and to make +even the crossing of the Taff safe to the contingent from the mountains +beyond. All had 'gone merry as a marriage bell.' + +And here my story might be supposed to end; but for my hero--and I count +William Edwards a hero--a new era was about to dawn. + +I have indicated that mines of coal and iron were being worked in +Glamorganshire, but that the want of roads and bridges for conveyance +and communication retarded the development of its untold mineral +resources. Then, the hard nature of the coal already dug unfitted it, +except as culm, for household use or smelting purposes in such furnaces +as existed, where the fuel was principally charcoal. + +But about this time experiments were being made to test its utility, and +Mr. John Morris, who for years had gone geologising among the mountains, +was one of the first to suggest its feasibility. He had made experiments +on a small scale, but Mr. Pryse had thrown impediments in the way of +smelting on a larger basis in the neighbourhood of Cardiff, where the +river and the sea were close for conveyance if his scheme succeeded. + +'It was too near the Castle. His lordship would have no reeking furnaces +so close to his residence. There was no land for sale,' etc. etc. + +Mr. Morris was not to be put down by Mr. Pryse. He had applied, not to +the old Viscount, but to his son and heir, who was not hoodwinked by Mr. +Pryse, and cordially seconded the proposal. The old Viscount was even +then on his deathbed. The succession of the new one, shortly after Mr. +Pryse was committed to his narrow cell, left Mr. Morris free to act. + +The day before the double wedding he explained his views to William +Edwards, and made to him a proposition. + +So it happened that, whilst Rhys and the rest were making merry, William +was half the time lost in thought, and one or other rallied him on his +unsociability, as they considered it. + +_He_ was simply considering his ability to undertake the erection of the +smelting furnaces John Morris had in view. He had not much doubt of his +own power to accomplish anything any other man could do, or had done, if +the opportunity to study what had been previously done was afforded him. +But here something was required differing from aught that had gone +before, or with which he was acquainted. + +Mr. Morris had given him time for mature deliberation. He had great +faith in the capacity of the self-taught genius, and still more in his +indomitable determination to overcome difficulties. + +Yet books he had none that would afford the information he needed. He +had done what he could to supply the defects of his education, thanks to +the vicar. But he was still 'Cymro uniaith,' a Welshman of one language; +and, though the literature of Wales certainly dates back to the twelfth +century, and is said to date back to the sixth, its ancient legends, +ballads, and poems would not instruct him how to build furnaces which +should convert the hard Welsh coal into the smelter's slave. + +If there were English books on the subject, he was ignorant, and could +not have read them had such been laid before him. + +He was not given to waste his time in unprofitable regrets. + +Before any one else was astir he was on the road northward to Merthyr +Tydvil, bent on examining the process of iron-smelting as there carried +on. The name of John Morris procured him ready admission to the works. +But, although they had been in existence for a couple of centuries, and +the ancient forests had been denuded of their giant oaks to supply their +furnaces, they had as yet no furnace that would fuse the ore with coal +alone, and the oak trees were growing scarce. + +William came away shaking his head, and muttering as he strode along: +'Sure, if those be their smelting furnaces, there do be one as good at +the Castle. They do be wanting a stronger blast if they employ coal. It +will be a job to construct furnaces that will burn the stone-coal Mr. +Morris be saying gives such great heat with neither flame nor smoke. But +I'm bound to have a try what I can be doing. Sure, I'm not willing to +give in without a try, look you!' + +And in this frame of mind he returned home to make calculations and +sketches, and to think out the matter, walking to and fro in front of +the house, with his head bent down and his hands behind him. + +'Idling,' his mother called it. Rhys had grown wiser. + +''Deed, mother, Willem do be having his "thinks." Best be leaving him +alone.' + +'But he do not even be knitting, look you!' + +'Never mind, mother _fach_; he do be "studdying," as he do call it. We +work with our hands; Willem do work with his head--yes, yes.' + +The following day he was away again, much to his mother's discomfort, as +his silent and wandering mood had always been. + +If she had followed, she might have tracked him to his old storehouse of +knowledge, Caerphilly Castle, and far down a crumbling flight of stone +steps to a curious vault below the level of the moat, and, beneath that +marvel of marvels, the reft, overhanging tower. + +He had gathered, by inquiry from the vicar and others, that here had +anciently been a furnace for the smelting of metals for coinage and +other purposes; and that it was supposed to have been employed, during a +siege, for melting lead to pour from the battlements upon the besiegers; +and, further, that either the besiegers or some traitor within contrived +to let in a jet of water from the moat upon the molten metal, causing +the terrific explosion which rent the tower from top to bottom, and left +the strongly-built half hanging eleven feet out of the perpendicular, as +a testimony to future ages. + +But it was not of battles or sieges William was thinking, unless it +might be his own conflict with a difficulty. He was there to examine the +ancient furnace, with no one to talk or interrupt, and to found his own +theories thereupon. + +In a very short time Mr. Morris had his answer. + +'Yes, sir, I think I can undertake your work.' + +It was a bold undertaking for a farmer's son, self-taught, and only +twenty years of age. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[13] An oval wicker boat covered with hide, with only a single seat, as +used by the ancient Britons, and by the Welsh far into the present +century. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +A BLIND INSTRUCTOR. + + +Mrs. Edwards did not readily reconcile herself to the loss of her +faithful serving-maid Ales. Still less readily to the substitution of +Cate, for, now that she was the wife of Rhys, she took another footing +on the floor than when she was Cate Griffith, and she allowed no one to +forget that the farm was left to Rhys by his grandfather's will, and, +therefore, he was master, the implication being that she was mistress. + +Hitherto Mrs. Edwards had been head and front of everything. As she had +told Mr. Pryse, '_she_ was the farmer.' It was for her to dictate, for +others to obey. + +Now, as she had foreseen, the marriage of Rhys had subverted all that. +Not that Rhys himself had changed his manner towards his mother, but he +had long held himself competent to manage the farm without guidance; and +when there was no capable Ales at hand to anticipate her wishes, and +even the orders she gave to her own daughter Jonet were apt to be +disputed and reversed by the young wife, she felt much like a queen +deposed. She did not, however, surrender her sceptre willingly, but +pursued her own course as of old. As little was Jonet disposed to take +orders from her sister-in-law. + +The consequent result was confusion, mismanagement, and altercation, +Cate's voice having suddenly grown shrill and loud. + +Of course Rhys took the part of his wife--though dubiously--whilst +William and Davy enlisted on the side of the mother or Jonet; so that, +although the oppressor was no more, and the sun of prosperity was rising +over Brookside Farm, peace spread her weary wings for flight. + +Outside, Jonet had an ally in Thomas Williams, and he did his best to +console her with the prospect of escape to wifehood, and a home of her +own--a home for which her own distaff and her mother's spinning-wheel +were busily making preparation. + +Hot-tempered William was, however, the first to shake the dust of the +old home from his well-shod feet. + +It was after a sharp altercation over the vexed question of home rule, +which had left Jonet and his mother both in tears, that he startled them +by saying-- + +'Well, well, really, I did never be expecting to turn my back on the old +place with pleasure. But I am going to Cardiff next week, to be doing +some building for Mr. Morris; and, look you, it is rejoicing I shall be +to leave all this noise and contention behind.' + +'Going away!' was the breathless, general exclamation, with varying +addenda. + +''Deed, and sure you're welcome! You do be the most obstinate and +worst-tempered of the whole lot,' from Cate. + +'Well, Willem, I'll be sorry to be seeing the back of you; but sure and +it may perhaps be the best for all,' added Rhys. + +'What, going before I do be marrying?' questioned Jonet; 'but I don't +wonder, anybody would be glad to get away.' + +'Going to Cardiff? Oh, my dear boy, my Willem, what ever shall I be +doing without you? Will you be long away?' cried his mother. + +'Sure, and I cannot tell, mother dear. I may never come back to live +here. And I am loth to leave you behind to be plagued with the +"continual dropping" of a contentious woman, but I hope to have a farm +of my own some day for you to manage, look you.' + +Peace-loving Davy now put in his word, in lowered tones, to William and +his mother. + +''Deed, and I was be thinking for some time that the farm was not big +enough to hold Cate and me. But if you be going away, Willem, I shall be +staying to take care of mother here, till I can be making a home for +her--yes, yes!' and he wrung William's hand as a token of brotherly love +and trust. + +In a very few days William was on his way to Cardiff, having taken a +grateful farewell of the vicar on the Sunday; for, although Cardiff was +little more than nineteen miles away, even by the Caerphilly route, they +were more than equal to ninety in these steam and railroad times. + +His mother parted from him with many rueful misgivings, and much good +advice to resist the temptations sure to beset him in a wicked seaport +town, much as an anxious country mother might in these days warn her +untried son against the countless snares of London. And as she stitched +her warmest flannel up into shirts for him, and looked up newly-knitted +hose, her tears fell upon them silently as her prayers. + +His personal belongings did not occupy much space. A few tools, +chap-books and papers, and his entire wardrobe were comfortably packed +in his father's old goatskin saddle-bags; and Robert Jones, with whom he +had had several conferences of late on the qualities of stone from +different quarries, found him a good steady horse which could be left at +the Angel Inn until Robert claimed it on his next errand to Cardiff. + +Robert Jones did him another service, the importance of which neither +estimated at the time. He recommended him to apply for lodgings to a +blind baker, named Walter Rosser, whose wife and niece were certain to +make him comfortable. + +The baker's shop was easily found, but there was some little hesitation +about admitting a stranger as an inmate. + +'What caused you to come hither in search of lodgings?' put the blind +man, with his head on one side as if listening for the answer. 'And what +may be your business in the town?' + +'Robert Jones the peat-cutter did advise me to come here. He said you +was honest and respectable and book-learned, and that you would be +dealing fairly with me. And that your wife did be keeping your house as +sweet and clean as my own mother kept the farm. My business do be to +build for Mr. John Morris, look you!' + +'There's a clear ring in your voice, young man,' said the baker then. +'And what may be your name?' + +'I am Willem Edwards, of Brookside Farm, Eglwysilan,' answered he, with +proud decision--just a little nettled with the blind man's catechism. + +'Oh,' said the other, 'I think I have heard of you before. You did build +Owen Wynn's flour-mill. Yes, yes, we shall be glad to have you, sir. You +perceive my infirmity compels me to be particular whom we receive under +our roof, since I have a young niece here, who has neither father nor +mother to watch over her, and we are bound to be careful for her sake.' + +'Yes, yes, sure, quite right,' assented the young man, after a glance +beyond the baker and his wife at a blushing damsel in the shade. + +Shops at that period were constructed much as are Turkish shops to this +day. Very few had glazed windows. At night they were closed in by flap +shutters, divided horizontally; the lower half of which was lowered in +the daytime to serve as a table or counter for the display of goods, the +upper half being so hooked up by an iron rod as to serve for a screen +from sun or rain. The shop doors were similarly divided, the upper half +hooking up to the low ceiling inside. I have known many such doors in +country towns in England, some of which are, no doubt, extant to this +day. + +It will be readily understood that shops of this description, however +small, were dark in the background, and to eyes less keen than +William's, Elaine Parry's blush would have passed unnoticed. It required +after-observation to perceive how neat and trim she always was, how +bashful and retiring, and how quiet and subdued were all her movements; +what a steadfast light there was in her clear, hazel eyes, and what +pretty dimples in her cheeks when she smiled. + +He only noticed then that she remained quiescent when her uncle cried-- + +'Come in, sir--come in! I'll mind your horse whilst my good dame shows +you the room we could let you have.' + +Up one or two short flights of stairs with landings turning this way or +that, then down a step into a short, dark passage or recess containing +two doors, and he was ushered into a small bedroom, which to him was the +perfection of order and comfort--nay, luxury. True, there was only a +narrow truckle bedstead, with a flock bed upon it, dowlas[14] sheets, +and a dark blue woollen coverlet, but he had never been accustomed to +anything better; and there was a diamond-paned casement, with a table in +front, on which was a coarse earthenware basin and ewer, and, hung +against the wall, a looking-glass about the size of a sheet of +note-paper, all luxurious intimations that his personal ablutions might +be conducted in private. Then there was a fireplace in the room--just a +couple of short iron bars fitted into the brickwork--and beside it, in a +recess, a piece of furniture which puzzled William extremely. Yet it +was nothing more than an oaken bureau, the drawers of which Mrs. Rosser +pulled open to show that they were for his use if he became their +inmate. The mystery of the turn-down flap for writing, the sliding rests +to support its weight, and the enclosed pigeon-holes for papers was a +revelation for the future. + +He was almost afraid to ask 'How much?' and was wonderfully gratified to +find the terms below his calculations, and also that he was expected to +take his meals with the family. + +All that settled, the door across the dark passage was opened, and a +room with a larger casement was revealed. Here all was equally clean, +from the well-scrubbed floor to the centre table and tall chairs ranged +with stiff precision against the walls, whilst a broad seat beneath the +window held piles of books, and the empty fireplace was adorned with +large conch shells. + +'You can come and sit here if you want to be quiet, and will not make a +litter,' said Mrs. Rosser. 'We seldom use the room, except when my +husband is teaching.' + +'Teaching?' echoed William curiously. + +'Oh yes; don't you know he teaches people to read English?' + +'Does what?' he almost gasped. + +Mrs. Rosser repeated her words. + +'Then Robert Jones has been doing me the best turn he ever did yet, for, +look you, I've been wanting to learn English reading for many a year.' + +How it was possible for a blind man to give such instruction was beyond +his comprehension. He accepted the statement as one more of the marvels +he had come across in the baker's comfortable home; and he brought in +his saddle-bags, and gave his horse in charge to the baker's man, as if +he were not sure he was wide awake. + +He very soon discovered it was just the difference between living in a +town of some antiquity within reach of a prosperous maritime city like +Bristol, and dwelling apart among the mountain wilds, shut out from +general intercourse, and dependent on itinerant packmen for everything +but home produce. + +Even in his meals there was some difference. If he still breakfasted on +porridge, he was unaccustomed to see meat or eggs on the table daily, or +to find the oven substituted for the big pot in cookery, and he missed +the potatoes in which they indulged on the farm. + +When the shyness between himself and Elaine Parry, Mrs. Rosser's pretty +niece, had somewhat worn away, he told her this. + +'Oh,' said she, 'they are too dear for us. They are two shillings a +pound in Cardiff market.' + +'No, indeed! Then I will tell Robert Jones. The farmers do be planting; +they will be cheaper before long, look you.' + +And before very long a sack of good potatoes was set down by Robert +Jones at the baker's door, a present from Brookside Farm. + +In the interim William Edwards had not been idle. The site selected for +the smelting works was just outside Cardiff, and within easy reach of +the river. + +There materials had been collected, and with the sole assistance of John +Llwyd, he built, in the first instance, a blast-furnace on a small +scale, tapering like a cone, the ore and fuel for which had to be +supplied from the top, there being an orifice below from which the +molten metal would escape in a stream. + +An ordinary smith's bellows worked by Llwyd supplied the blast, a good +fire of peat and charcoal being well alight before the coal and +broken-up ore were thrown in. It answered fairly for a trial, but once +alight could not be allowed to cool night or day. But the furnace being +built and in working order, there was no difficulty in finding men to +tend and keep it going. + +Of course this was an experiment on too small a scale for commercial +success. At all events William Edwards had mastered the great problem +how to utilise anthracite or stone-coal for the smelting of iron. It was +there burning without smoke or flame, and pouring out a thin stream of +molten metal into the sandy moulds which shaped it into bars, or +pig-iron. + +Mr. Morris clapped his hand on William's shoulder, and congratulated him +on his achievement. + +'Now, Edwards,' said he, 'you must lose no time in putting up another +furnace or two on a larger scale. Let us show the world what genius and +perseverance can accomplish.' + +'Yes, yes, sir; but I should like to improve on _that_,' pointing to +what he had already done. 'And before building a larger furnace, I shall +have to consider how the greater blast is to be sustained. It would be +too heavy a task for manual labour if we are to keep large quantities +of this hard coal at fusing heat for corresponding heaps of ore,' was +the proud young fellow's reply. + +'No doubt, no doubt,' acquiesced Mr. Morris. 'But you will be certain to +manage it in some way or other. And you know you are free to employ any +workmen or materials you think best. Oh yes; when you set your foot on a +difficulty you are sure to tread it down.' + +'Indeed and in truth, sir, I'm not willing to be beaten, and I don't +mean to give in till I've conquered the obstacles here, look you,' said +he, with set and resolute face. + +How he overcame the mechanical difficulty I have no data to determine +after this lapse of time; but I incline to think he brought his friend +Thomas Williams to construct a wheel, moved either by horse or water +power, to supply the leverage required to keep the monster forge-bellows +in motion. Twenty years later Smeaton invented the blowing machine for +the Carron Foundry, in Scotland; but William Edwards was a mason and +architect, not a mechanical engineer; and when he had completed his +large furnace, capable of smelting with the hard stone-coal, he had +achieved a victory likely to revolutionise the mining and iron-founding +industries of South Wales--nay, almost to create them. He had saved its +forest trees from utter annihilation. He had paved the way for Smeaton's +feet to tread. + +Another furnace rose. The ironworks of John Morris extended and found +occupation and bread for hundreds of workpeople besides those employed +by himself. Fresh mines of coal and iron were opened around Castel Coch +and elsewhere. Whole teams of pack-horses, tended by women and boys, +were ever on the roads, bringing rough ore and coal to the smelters, the +tinkling bell of each leader, or bell-horse, ringing a prophetic note of +progression. It was some time before the invention of a low, +broad-wheeled waggon, drawn by four or six horses, set these old teams +aside; not, indeed, until something had been done to make the roads more +practicable. And long before that, fresh shipping sought the old Cardiff +quays to transport the pig-iron to final manufacturers alike in England +and across the seas. Morris' smelting works seemed to have wakened the +stagnant town from the lethargy of ages. + +All this was not the growth of a year or two. Eight full years was +William Edwards working for Mr. Morris, and, whether consciously or not, +for the advancement and prosperity of his country. Not alone was he +occupied in erecting furnaces. Fresh workmen and their families required +fresh homes, and who but William Edwards had the building? And for the +period they were models. His name and fame as a builder travelled +farther than his own feet. + +Yet it is not to be supposed that he stood still to let the stream of +progress pass him by, now that he had opened the floodgates wide. + +Relays of men fed and tended the glowing furnaces night and day. The +proud young architect and his contingent did their masonry in daylight +hours. + +That did not mean inert repose or dissipation for him. He made holiday +when his trial furnace was complete, to visit his mother and brothers +and take part in his sister Jonet's wedding; but his brain was actively +at work the whole time, and it was even on that busy occasion he set the +bridegroom's mechanical brains at work also for mutual benefit. + +And whenever there was an interval between one great piece of work and +another, he hired a horse and went home for a day or two, never without +some useful or rare gifts for one and all, and never without calling on +his old friends Robert Jones and Evan Evans by the way. + +Those were his only respites from work. His manual labour--for he worked +alongside his men, and allowed no scamping or shirking--was over at +dusk. But no sooner had he laid aside his tools, and washed away the +tokens of his occupation, than he had a book in his hand--generally an +English book, which he was doing his best to decipher unaided at his +meals, as a preparation for private lessons, which the blind man gave to +him by the household hearth, or in his bakehouse, or along with the +adult class assembling twice a week in his upstairs parlour for English +reading. + +In the bakehouse Rosser kept an alphabet, the separate letters of which +were shaped and baked out of ordinary dough. And when the eager student +had mastered the English pronunciation of these, which the blind man +could distinguish by the touch, he traced syllables and words in his +plastic medium, until ere long a well-known and well-thumbed book was +put into the learner's hands to be spelt out, or read aloud, as he +progressed. + +The blind baker was proud of his pupil. + +'You are the most promising scholar I ever took in hand,' said he; 'but +your diligence is unremitting, and failure is impossible.' + +Yes, so diligent was he that in consequence of his absorption in his new +study, Elaine Parry's shyness in his presence gradually wore away, and +when she heard him stumbling over a word, she would pronounce it for him +involuntarily, without so much as looking up from her sewing or +knitting. + +Nay, the bashfulness became rather on his side at the betrayal of his +own ignorance to a young girl, capable, through superior education, of +correcting his slips and errors. But very soon he accepted her verbal +hints as a matter of course. + +Later, when in a difficulty, he did not scruple to rise from his seat +and cross the hearth to point out a phrase or passage he was unable to +translate. And she, perchance, would lay down her work, glance at his +book, and look calmly up in his face as she gave the true reading in a +clear, firm voice. + +[Illustration: ELAINE PARRY.] + +After a time, for easier reference, he brought his own seat near to +hers, so that he might have her assistance without rising. And, although +his dark-brown head and her light one were thus frequently drawn close +together, his one idea had such thorough possession of him, that his +single-minded desire for knowledge disarmed the seeming familiarity of +all obtrusiveness. + +Certainly, neither he nor Elaine had the slightest conception that +anything was being taught or learned other than the King's English. + +She was too retiring and well behaved to thrust herself into the +prominent notice of a stranger, so that after that first general +impression that the baker's niece was a pretty and tidy young woman, he +scarcely bestowed a second thought upon her. + +Mrs. Rosser's astounding intimation that her husband taught Welshmen to +read English had swallowed up all minor considerations, just as the +River Taff swallowed up all sorts of tributary streams in its course to +the sea. + +Then, apart from his lingual studies, his furnace-building was ever on +his mind. It was a very great and novel undertaking, and the whole force +of his intelligence was brought to bear upon it. + +So that, although she moved before him in her daily occupations, and +ministered to his necessities at meal-times, it was just as if a sister +had been before his eyes continually. Certainly, she always wore shoes +and stockings, and, on Sundays, the very set of her cloak and tall hat, +and the border of white linen cap, had a grace and fitness most +becoming. And she carried her English prayer-book to church so +unobtrusively, and found her places so readily, he was bound to notice +that; but _there_ some envy blunted the edge of admiration. + +Her influence was that of summer dew on vegetation. It refreshes +insensibly and imperceptibly. Had she bustled about noisily, had there +been any discord between her and her aunt, it would have arrested his +attention with the jarring effect of a thunderstorm. + +As it was, she became part and parcel of his daily life, and it was not +until he had been about three years in Cardiff that a slight illness +which kept her in her own room for a week or ten days roused him to the +consciousness how much he was indebted to her for the comfort and +brightness of his surroundings. + +However intelligent a companion Walter Rosser might be--and he could +talk both of the world and of books, having known both before blindness +set in--he lacked just the touch of kindly appreciation so gratifying to +the self-esteem of the rising young builder after years of +home-snubbing; the word or two of discriminating opinion his niece gave +so thoughtfully whenever doubts and difficulties beset him in the +execution of his plans; for all was not fair sailing, clever as he might +be, and there were times when he was glad of a sympathetic ear. + +He was restless and uneasy the whole time she lay ill upstairs, and was +ready to ransack the town for tea, oranges, or any other over-sea luxury +she might fancy. And he was never the same to her, or she to him, after +she was back by the household fire, paler, but oh! how infinitely +dearer! + +The touch of his horny hand, and the softened tones of his voice, said +more than his commonplace words of greeting: ''Deed, Elaine, it's right +glad we are to have you downstairs again. We have been missing you so +terribly.' + +And there was more than the tremulousness of physical weakness in her +low reply: 'Yes, and I am glad to be here. It is miserable to be shut up +away from you all, giving aunt and you so much trouble; but we may bear +with illness when friends are so kind.' + +FOOTNOTE: + +[14] Dowlas, a coarse kind of linen. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +BRIDGE-BUILDING. + + +It so happened that when William Edwards had taken his first holiday, in +1741, to be groomsman at the marriage of his sister Jonet with his +friend Thomas Williams, that he had found Caerphilly--nay, all +Eglwysilan--in a state of ferment, owing to the exciting presence in +their midst of the noted preacher, the Rev. George Whitfield, for many +years the colleague of the Rev. John Wesley, and only recently separated +from him through doctrinal difference. + +They had alike left their pulpits in the Church to go preaching and +teaching throughout the land, in the high-ways and by-ways, denouncing +the vice and folly and sin then rampant, calling sinners to repentance, +admonishing their hearers to lead simple, pure, and Christ-like lives, +and preaching the acceptable year of the Lord, at the same time holding, +as it were, the flaming sword of God's wrath over the impenitent. + +It should here be told that, finding his dear mother made light of by +Cate, and set aside on the farm so very recently her own, William had +himself taken the first opportunity that presented itself to remove her +and Jonet to a farm he had acquired in the Aber Valley--not far from his +friend Thomas Williams--a farm for his mother and Davy to manage between +them. + +His road hither, of course, lay through Caerphilly; and after having +left the town behind him nearly two miles, he was surprised to find a +concourse of people in a field by the wayside, not far from his own +home, listening to a man in a clerical gown and bands, who stood on a +pile of stones, and, with impassioned voice and gesture, besought his +hearers to 'flee from the wrath to come.' His text had evidently been: +'To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart;'[15] and he +hammered at the 'to-day' until he drove it into the hearts of many +around him. Women wept, men fell on their knees and called out aloud as +emotion swayed them, and William sat like a statue until the last word +was spoken and the preacher, worn out with his own fervour, turned to +depart along with some friends of his own. + +William, like scores beside him, had gone to church and read his Bible +as a duty; had learned the catechism the good vicar drilled into the +youth of his flock; but beyond that his religion did not go very deep. + +George Whitfield's sermon, on which he had come so suddenly, was like +the bow drawn at a venture, the sharp arrow from which smote the King of +Israel between the joints of his armour; for so it pierced the heart of +the young man, whose very thought of late had been of furnace-building +and of English study. + +The face, the voice, the manner of the earnest preacher haunted him no +less than his awakening words. And when Davy, who had been also a +listener, laid his hand upon the horse's bridle, and spoke to him, he +started like one aroused from a dream. + +To suit general convenience--the old vicar's included--it had been +arranged that Jonet and Thomas Williams should be married at St. +Martin's, Caerphilly--then only a chapel-of-ease to Eglwysilan; and +there a fresh surprise awaited William Edwards, for when, the following +day, the united wedding party from Brookside and Aber dashed +helter-skelter along the road to the church, in their race to catch the +bride, he beheld a gravely-attired procession on foot, somewhat ahead of +them, proceeding calmly in the same direction. And, when their own +panting steeds had been left behind at a convenient inn, he observed +that, of the more decorous bridal party entering the church porch, the +bridegroom, a man of some twenty-seven years, was no other than that +same Rev. George Whitfield, whose words had burnt themselves into his +breast, never to be effaced, and his bride, Elizabeth James, whom he +knew by sight. + +He could scarcely keep his eyes off the man, or his attention on the +business before him. Yet he could not fail to notice that the aged +vicar, who was growing feeble and tremulous, was apparently conscious he +had no ordinary couple before him to unite in holy matrimony, and +performed the ceremony for both parties with unusual impressiveness, +undisturbed by the sounds of giggling and tittering in the rear. + +Such giggling and tittering were of common occurrence, as was the rough +struggle for the first kiss of the newly-made bride, and the Rev. John +Smith raised no voice in rebuke or protest when such a rush was made +towards Jonet. + +Not so the evangelistic bridegroom. No sooner were their names signed in +the register, than with his bride upon his arm, he quitted the church. +Then, surrendering her to the care of the sedate groomsman, he mounted a +tombstone, and with uplifted hand and voice demanded attention. + +So unwonted was the proceeding, that even the most hilarious paused and +drew near out of mere curiosity; but when they left the chapelyard they +had received such a lecture on the reverence due to the sacred place, on +the solemnity of the ceremony they were present to witness, and on the +import for time and eternity of the vows there made in the sight of +God--such a lecture as few of those there assembled were likely to +forget. + +At its close, William, withdrawing from his companions, walked up to Mr. +Whitfield and thanked him heartily for his discourses, both there and +the previous afternoon. 'You have roused me from spiritual apathy and +carelessness into which I never shall sink again,' he said, with +characteristic decision. 'And should you come to Cardiff before you +leave South Wales, you may count on me as an awakened hearer.' + +The preacher's influence did not soon die away. William had other +opportunities for joining in the services led by the enthusiastic +preacher, and in his zeal prevailed on the blind baker and his niece to +bear him company. Rosser's infirmity threw him much within himself. +Elaine was naturally of a serious cast, and the eloquence of the +powerful revivalist moved them both greatly. + +This was long before the girl's illness to which I have already +referred. But as William and her uncle conversed together on the great +truths they had heard so powerfully expounded, or joined in household +prayer, there can be no doubt a link was forged and strengthened to draw +the young people closer together, however insensibly, than if they had +spent their leisure in light chatter and frivolous fooling. Yet nothing +had been said in the course of years of either love or marriage. + +Meanwhile William had made himself conversant with English. Then, at the +instance of Rosser, he procured the works of Sir Isaac Newton, and +devoted himself to the study of geometry and kindred sciences with the +assiduity of a man bent on success. + +Barely had he completed his furnaces for Mr. John Morris when proposals +for like work came to him from other quarters, offering him most liberal +and gratifying terms. + +Then, and not before, did he open out all his heart to Elaine, and, +proud of the distinction it implied, pressed her to become his wife +before he closed his engagement with his first patron, or entered upon +a fresh one which would remove him to a distance. + +He had come upon Elaine in the twilight as she stood behind the +flap-counter of her uncle's open shop, with a few unsold loaves upon the +board, and, elate with the prospect before him, never doubted she who +had grown so dear to his heart would gladly put her hand in his to share +his rising fortunes. + +He drew her closer to him as he stood beside her in the shade, and met +with no repulse, for she owned she knew his worth and loved him dearly, +but his soaring spirit drooped its wings under a sudden check. + +'Nay, nay, dear William,' she said, amid slowly falling tears, 'it +cannot be. How I shall miss you, and grieve for you in your absence, +there is no telling; but though I can marry no one else, I cannot leave +my good uncle and aunt now they are getting into years. They have been +all the father and mother I have known.' + +'But, my dearest Elaine, do not daughters leave their parents to become +wives? I never expected such an answer from _you_. Surely, when I took +that farm in the Aber Valley years ago, had I no deeper meaning than to +make my mother and David more comfortable? Had you no suspicion that one +day I should want to place my wife there, and make a home for both of +us?' + +Her tears dropped on the strong hand that held hers in its clasp, but +she answered never a word. + +'Elaine, dear Elaine,' he went on, 'I can enlarge the homestead, and +extend the farm lands, so that your uncle and aunt could live with us +all under one roof, if you will but consent.' + +'Don't, don't, William dear,' she sobbed. 'It is very, very kind of you, +but it would never answer. You must not even suggest such a thing to my +uncle. He is proud of his double calling as baker and teacher. How often +have you heard him say with pride "he provided food for both body and +mind; and no man with both his eyes could do more"? No, you would wound +his self-dependence. I honour your good heart, but--I cannot leave +them.' + +'Is there no one else can take your place, Elaine? How am I to leave you +here alone?' + +She shook her head. 'They have no one but their married daughter in +Bristol. What sort of a wife should I make if I failed in my duty to +them? Besides, a wife just now would only cripple your freedom of +action. We are both young enough to wait.' + +'Young enough if willing.' His obstinate temper was rising. + +'If it be God's will, it should be our will.' As she spoke she withdrew +from his clasp. + +'Look you, Elaine!' he exclaimed, with something of his old passion. +'The more a string is stretched, the sooner it breaks.' And away he went +in high displeasure, leaving her standing there faint with her own +effort at self-suppression. + +It did not rest there. He was persistent. She was firm. And he had +neither won her consent to marry, nor come to terms for the construction +of fresh smelting works, when another project was on foot, which was to +make or mar the man. + +I have said that roads were defective, and that bridges were needed to +span rivers which cut off communication between town and town, county +and county, and shut up the vast mineral wealth of South Wales. + +Herbert, the new Lord of Cardiff, had made the Castle his residence, the +discoveries in connection with Mr. Pryse having determined him to see +with his own eyes, and to delegate irresponsible authority to no one. He +strengthened the hands of Mr. Morris in his efforts to utilise the iron +and coal of the county, and to provide remunerative work for the +depressed population. And he did what he could to improve, not merely +the decaying town, but the rest of his vast possessions in +Glamorganshire. He soon became keenly alive to the necessity for better +communication with his property on the other side of the Taff than that +of ferry, or ford, or coracle. + +In this he was by no means alone. + +Other landowners, magistrates, and men who saw fortunes buried beneath +the soil, or losing half their value upon it for want of accessible +markets, grumbled and growled on their own hearths, or to each other +when they chanced to meet, until the discontent became so general that +the heads of the county met in conclave at the Angel Inn in Cardiff, +and decided on the erection of a stone bridge over the treacherous Taff. + +Then came the question, 'Who should be the builder?' + +'There is no better builder whatever in all South Wales than Mr. William +Edwards,' said Mr. Morris, with decision. + +'Indeed, and that's the truth,' came simultaneously from various +speakers. + +'But he has never erected a bridge, and he is so very young,' put in +another dubiously. 'It will be a work of difficulty. We should engage an +architect of established repute.' + +'He never put up a mill until he built Owen Wynn's flour-mill, and he +never put up a furnace until he built mine,' replied Mr. Morris; 'and +you all know what those are. But, young as he is, you may take my word +for it he will undertake nothing he is not competent to carry out, and +he is certain to accomplish whatever he has set his mind upon.' + +A good deal of heated argument followed this speech. + +The former speaker adhered to his suggestion that 'some one of more +eminence should be engaged--such a man, for instance, as Mr. James +Gibbs, an architect of note.' + +His lordship shook his head. 'Yes; Mr. Gibbs is an ecclesiastical +architect of note, but you require a bridge, not a church, or a'-- + +'What? That old _Scotchman_!' burst from impatient lips. 'Did he ever +build a bridge? And what should a Scotchman know of our Welsh rivers? +And what would he charge?' + +That suggestion of an exorbitant cost virtually settled the business +before Mr. Morris rose again, and with a wave of the hand to calm the +patriotic hubbub, remarked-- + +'I think, gentlemen, you will have to fall back on Mr. William Edwards. +He is confessedly the best builder in all South Wales--a practical +builder, not a mere architect. He was but a boy about nine years of age +when he told me his father had been drowned in crossing the Eglwysilan +ford, and that when he was a big man he would build a bridge there to +save other lives. Believe me, he would put his heart into the work. And +_he_ is not an alien.' + +On the following day, September 16, 1746, three gentlemen, dressed in +deep vests, full-skirted coats, and three-cornered hats, more or less in +conformity with English wear, presented themselves at the baker's shop, +and asked to see Mr. Edwards. + +They were shown upstairs into the class-room parlour by Elaine, and then +she tapped gently at William's door opposite in the dark passage, and +told him he was wanted. + +He was at that moment seated, pen in hand, in front of his bureau-desk, +with a sheet of paper before him, on which he had begun to indite his +acceptance of the smelter's proposal. + +Who could be wanting him? + +Down went his quill; he thrust his arms into the short-tailed coat hung +over his chair back, gave himself a shake, and in less than two minutes +he was face to face with Mr. Morris and two strangers, to whom he was +formally introduced as _Mr._ William Edwards. They were magistrates, and +men of note in the county, deputed to lay before him the project for +bridging over the Taff, and ascertain his willingness to undertake its +construction. + +Mr. Morris had placed himself in the broad window seat, his friends had +drawn a couple of the high-backed chairs between the window and the +table to bring them closer together, and as William stood there with the +full light of the setting sun upon his somewhat square features, they +could perceive him start and rest one strong nervous hand upon the +table, whilst his broad nostrils quivered, his bright clear eyes lit up, +and his face flushed, only to whiten under the excitement of their +proposal, and the remembrance of the unfinished letter upon his desk. + +There could be no second thought of his acceptance. + +'Willing to undertake it, gentlemen?' he said breathlessly. 'Competent? +It has been my dream from boyhood; though I owe the first suggestion to +a jesting hint from Mr. Morris. Stay, I will show you.' + +In less than three minutes he had fetched from the bureau in the other +room--where he left a crumpled-up letter--several drawings of bridges +in all stages of architectural finish, from the first rude conception of +his youth, to the riper studies of manhood. + +By the time his contract with Mr. Morris expired, his design for the +proposed bridge had been considered and approved, as also the site, +close upon the Eglwysilan ford, midway between Merthyr Tydvil and +Cardiff, so as to unite the already beaten road. + +He was elate and buoyant over the trust reposed in him; although Rhys, +his mother, Davy, and other friends had been called upon to enter into +bonds for the fulfilment of his contract, since he was to be paid as the +work proceeded. + +The intending smelter, desirous to secure his services, consented to +wait until he was again at liberty. + +The young architect's pride had but one drawback. He could not shake +Elaine's fidelity to her uncle and aunt. She would not desert them in +their old age. + +'It will be better for you to go to this great work unfettered by a +wife,' she argued bravely. + +But he would not see the personal sacrifice she made, and went off at +last in a huff. + +'This new business will be his solace,' she said. 'I must be content to +do my duty, and leave the rest to God.' + +And neither her aunt nor her blind uncle knew the temptation she had +resisted for their sakes, though they thought her quieter than before. + +She was right. His new business left William little leisure for looking +back. + +He had gone over to Bristol to engage masons, in addition to those he +had already trained, before he finally took leave. + +Then there was no running back. His first duty was to erect huts or +houses for his workpeople and their families; and he took care they were +such as should be of service when the temporary purpose was served. + +He had long before made John Llwyd his foreman--a good deputy on whom he +could rely; just as he could depend on his old friend Robert Jones for +the best of stone from the very best local quarries, or for his sand and +lime. For the carriage of other matters to and fro he fell back on +Robert's active young partner Hughes, for whom the peat-cutter's niece +had jilted easy-going Davy. + +But ere the foundations of the bridge were laid and firm, the builder +had engaged his brother-in-law, Thomas Williams, to supply the wooden +frames on which his arches were to be fitted and adjusted. And so, with +trustworthy coadjutors like these, the work went on steadily. + +At first he had to battle with the deceitful river; but he and his men +watched the skies and did their best to prevent disaster, though more +than one occurred. + +But the resolution of their master seemed infused into the men. If there +was any doubt or hazard, he took the tools himself, and wrought until +they were ashamed to hang back. + +Though he had a farm of his own but two miles or so away, and his +brother's farm was close at hand, he occupied one of the new cottages +along with Llwyd, and so was always on the spot. + +Besides that, he fared almost as his men fared. If a labourer's wife or +child fell sick he helped them from his own stores or pocket; and his +men worked all the better for his thoughtful kindness. + +His bridge-building had brought quite a colony upon the spot, not merely +of the workpeople, but of others, who found they had money to spend and +wants to be supplied. + +Soon he become conscious of another want. The Rev. John Smith, the kind +old vicar, had died full of years shortly after Jonet's marriage, and +the new vicar did not seem to recognise the strangers as part of his +flock. So William, finding the non-observance of the Sabbath led to +disorder, called the people round him, and from the Druids' +rocking-stone read out portions of Scripture to them, now and then +venturing on expositions of his own. + +So the weeks and the seasons rounded until at the end of two years there +stood a fine three-arched bridge across the river, to be opened with +loud acclaim and rejoicing--a bridge the excited guarantors pronounced +firm and solid enough to stand as surely for seventy years as seven, +the period for which its stability was guaranteed. + +'Indeed!' exclaimed the proud young builder. 'It is more likely to stand +firm for seven hundred years!' + +FOOTNOTE: + +[15] Psalm xcv. 7, 8. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +PONT-Y-PRIDD. + + +It was a glorious day for the self-taught architect. The hanging woods +on either bank of the river held nearly as many spectators as trees, +whilst along the narrow roads came a motley multitude on foot or +horseback, or in cumbrous, top-heavy leather carriages, drawn by four +horses (less for state than necessity), poor as well as rich having +assembled from all parts to witness the opening of the new bridge that +was to do so much for the county. + +'To witness my triumph,' William Edwards phrased it. But then, too much +diffidence was not the family failing. And, for a self-taught man, it +_was_ a triumph. + +There was no room for two carriages to pass abreast, but the few there +assembled crossed alternately, the Viscount's prancing horses leading +the way. Then there was a rush of people, mounted and on foot; horses, +ponies, mules, and asses scampering across pell-mell in such wild +confusion and entanglement, amid shouts and untranslatable cries, as +certainly tested the stability of the structure. And such +congratulations greeted the builder as were calculated to turn more +seasoned heads than his. + +Davy, full of brotherly pride and affection, had brought his mother on a +pillion behind him; and there, surrounded by her children and her +grandchildren, the old dame, overcome by her emotion in contrasting the +present with the past, and witnessing the great work of her son and his +reception by the gentry, fairly sobbed aloud, the big tears rolling down +her tanned and wrinkled cheeks. + +'Name o' goodness, mother, I don't be knowing what you have got to cry +for, whatever. People do be looking at you!' remarked Rhys curtly, on a +hint from Cate. + +''Deed, I do be crying for joy. I never expected to be seeing a day like +this.' + +'Do leave mother alone, Rhys,' quickly remonstrated Davy in an +undertone. 'Her heart do be full, and it must run over, look you.' + +Evan Evans and Ales stood by, dressed in their Sunday best for the great +occasion, a newly-breeched boy by the hand. + +'I do be wishing Jane Edwards would not be washing the new bridge with +her tears, Evan--'deed, I do,' whispered Ales to him. + +'Ah, yes, it do be a bad baptism,' he echoed, shaking his head, which +had been crammed with superstition on shipboard. 'And I do be hoping the +rain will keep off, for the clouds be gathering over Garth Mountain, +look you.' + +The rain did keep off for two or three hours, until long after the +hand-shaking and speech-making were over, and the great people had +dispersed, and all who had not stayed behind to feast were on their way +homewards, thankful they would be able in future to cross the river +dry-shod and out of danger, whatever the hour or the weather, the +'cleverness' of the Widow Edwards' son being on every tongue. + +That son, however, had been surfeited with praise, and was moving +amongst the crowds in irritable reaction seeking for some one he failed +to find--some one whose approbation would have o'ertopped the highest. + +At last, when he was ready to bite his lips with vexation, a boy, who +came riding hastily from the Cardiff Road, put a letter in his hand, and +lingered as if waiting for an answer. + +The writing was Elaine's. + +The letter was torn open impatiently. + +Only a few blotted words:-- + + + 'DEAR FRIEND,--We hear your meritorious work is complete, and send + you our heartfelt greetings; but we are in great trouble, for Uncle + Rosser had a fit last night, and has not spoken since. Aunt is full + of grief. She has sent to Bristol for my cousin, for the apothecary + says uncle cannot live. You will pardon our absence to-day; and + believe me, your sincere well-wisher, + + 'ELAINE PARRY.' + + +Two hours later he had left the feasters and was in the saddle, muffled +in a thick riding-coat, speeding on to Cardiff through driving rain and +the darkening shades of evening. + +When he drew rein at the baker's door he was too late for all but +consolation. The blind man had opened his long-closed eyes on the +glorious wonders of eternity. + +Never had Elaine felt so much the need of his strong arm and +self-reliant individuality as then, in their overwhelming affliction. +His unexpected arrival touched a sensitive chord and broke down the +barriers between them. She sprang towards him, and clung to him weeping, +as she had never done before. + +Amazement checked the flow of Mrs. Rosser's tears for the moment; and +when he put out his hand to grasp hers, she too felt there was a strong +friend to rely on in their extremity. + +Then was it first observed that he was wringing wet; and in hospitable +cares for the long absent, the first acuteness of pain was something +blunted. + +After that, as if he had been Mrs. Rosser's own son, he took all +miserable details off their feminine hands. It was he, too, who met the +daughter--Mrs. Elton--and her Bristolian husband on their arrival, and +broke the distressing intelligence to them. + +Death involves changes. No sooner was the dead laid in the earth than +the desirability of the widow's future residence with her daughter was +openly discussed. Consideration for Elaine appeared the only obstacle to +the plan. + +'I am quite willing to make a home for my mother-in-law,' said Mr. Elton +in private to Mr. Edwards, with a show of self-complacent liberality, +much as though he patted himself on the back for a praiseworthy +sacrifice, ignoring the savings of years likely to bear her company; +'but I cannot consent to burden myself with the young woman. And she +cannot really expect it. She is no relation of mine or my wife's. She +must look out for a situation. She quite blocks the way to an amicable +adjustment of affairs,' he added irritably. + +William speedily removed _that_ block out of their way. + +'Do not trouble yourself about Elaine, sir,' put in William stiffly. +'There has been a situation waiting for her over two years.' + +Mr. Elton opened his eyes. 'Indeed!' + +'Yes, sir. Two years back I pressed her to become my honoured _wife_, +but her strong, sense of duty constrained her to repress her own +inclinations, and send me away wifeless rather than desert her aunt and +uncle in their old age. You can adjust your affairs irrespective of +Elaine Parry, I can assure you. A good home and a loving welcome await +her.' + +Mr. Elton was snubbed, and looked it. + +In less than three months there was a very quiet wedding at Cardiff, and +Elaine went away with her husband to his farm, midway between his bridge +and the ruined Castle of Caerphilly, where his old mother and Davy +lived, within easy reach of Jonet and her husband. The few houses have +multiplied since then into a village that bears the name of Aber. + +At first old Mrs. Edwards felt as if she was to be a second time +deposed. And she expected Elaine's town ways would clash with her +country ones. But when she found that Elaine deferred to her as she had +done to her own aunt, and was desirous to be instructed in all that +pertained to her duties on the farm, there was no word too good for her +'clever son William's clever wife.' + +Then she could already knit and spin, and had brought her own wheel, as +well as a shelf of books, and something in hard cash, so that, as Davy +said, she was 'quite an acquisition on the farm.' + +William had built the house according to his enlarged ideas of domestic +comfort. There were two storeys, and notwithstanding the very heavy tax +on glass, it shone in every window, and these were of useful size. He +had brought home along with his wife the bureau he had found so useful +for his papers, and kept them and his books in a room set apart for +himself. + +With the completion of the bridge, he abandoned to John Llwyd the +cottage he had erected on the river's side, his new furnace work being +within sufficiently accessible distance of the farm, so long as he could +leave his efficient foreman on the spot, and his workmen also. He was +glad then he had erected permanent and commodious houses for the men, +instead of temporary huts, since there was still employment for them +all. Explorations for iron and coal were going on in the vicinity. These +created a fresh demand for labour, and a corresponding demand for roofs +to shelter the newcomers. + +As he beheld the new colony of labourers and managers rising up, as it +were, under his auspices, his heart swelled with pride and +self-sufficient inflation. + +'Ah, yes,' he would say to his wife, 'this is all my doing. I told Rhys +I would be the greater man. Yes, he must own it now, if he would not +then. Look at my wonderful bridge. It will stand for ever.' + +He was saying something of the kind one morning, when his first-born, a +boy he had named David after his brother, was about eighteen months old. +He had the child on his knee at the time. + +Elaine had a shuddering dread upon her whenever she heard his boastful +words. + +'Yes, William dear,' she said soberly, 'we know your skill is great, but +I wish you would not boast of the stability of your bridge so often. We, +as well as the bridge, are in the hands of the Almighty!' + +He put the child down hastily and rose to his feet. 'Surely, Elaine, you +are not going to join the croakers? Rhys told me the other day, "Not to +hold my head so high, for pride was sure to have a fall." Sure, I have a +right to be proud if any one has.' + +'_If?_' murmured Elaine under her breath; but he caught the doubtful +word, and, snatching at his hat, strode out of the house angrily. + +A thick mantle of snow covered hill and valley, against which the +whitewashed houses looked grey and dingy. + +'It do be thawing fast,' said Davy to him as they met at the gate, he +with a spade over his shoulder. 'I do hope the rain will be keeping off +till the snow be all gone. But I don't be liking the looks of the clouds +in the north-west.' + +'Why not?' questioned William sharply. + +Davy hesitated. 'Well, if the rain do come upon the melting snow, we +shall be having heavy floods.' + +'Well, and what then?' snappily. + +''Deed, and I do be always thinking of the bridge when the floods come.' + +'Pouf! the bridge is safe if a hundred floods come.' And on he went, +ruffled, but wrapped in self-opinionated vanity. He had forgotten George +Whitfield and his Master then. + +Nevertheless, he went to take a look at the bridge and the river, on his +way to the new ironworks, where his first furnace was already at work. + +'Ah, well,' he thought, 'the water _is_ high; but, pouf! that is no +flood.' + +Towards afternoon a thin rain began to fall and liquefy the melting +snow. As the men were leaving work, Llwyd came up to him with an anxious +face and whispered, 'Master, the river do be desperately full, and if'-- + +William looked as if he could have struck his faithful monitor to the +earth. + +Yes, the river was rising and racing through the three arches with the +swiftness of a torrent, surcharged with hay and straw, brushwood and +mould, washed downward in its course, but they swept well under the +bold archways and swirled away in eddies beyond. + +'There can be no danger. Those piers are firm enough,' he muttered, as +if to convince himself as well as Llwyd. + +Dusk came down and blotted out the scene. In turning away he came upon +Rhys, whose gloomy face it was well he could not see. + +Llwyd and Davy too were there, with other watchers who had helped to +rear the bridge. + +'Tell Elaine I shall stay with Llwyd to-night,' said William to Davy. It +was his first note of apprehension. Towards midnight he said, 'If the +rain ceases there can be no danger.' + +But the rain did not cease. As the night fled and the morning hours +advanced, the winds came howling and tearing like demons down the Taff +Valley, driving the pelting rain before them in a mad hurricane, +fighting for mastery alike with tall green pines and the bare boughs of +elms and gnarled oaks. + +Gradually, as lapping waters undermined rocks and rugged banks, already +loosened by frost and melting snows, along many a swollen mountain +stream the surging torrent bore down their tributary reeds and shrubs +and earth, along with riven boughs and uptorn trees, that beat like +battering-rams against the good stone piers, holding their trust so +sturdily. Then, eddying, the mighty current of the mocking Taff swung +the tall fir-trees round and barred the still open arches cross-wise, +one by one. Here, as in a net, the lamentable wreckage of the moors, of +ruined cots and devastated farms, was caught and built up into a dam the +turbid water could neither pass nor wash away. And rising, still rising, +rising swifter than the rising sun, like a gigantic monster playing with +boulder stones for bowls, the resistless river hammered with them +against the parapet, and beat it in. Then, with a tumultuous roar as of +triumph, and a deafening crash that startled sleepers in their beds more +than a mile distant, the bridge that was built for centuries was swept +away into irreparable ruin. + +A shriek, as of mortal horror, rose as an echo from the crowded banks. +The three brothers and their friends looked in each other's whitened +faces as the cost of the catastrophe cut keenly into their souls. + +Rhys groaned aloud. + +'There does never have been such an awful flood since I was born; no +masonry whatever could be standing against it,' cried grey-headed Owen +Griffith, as he leant upon his staff to bear up against the wind. + +He had seen the darkening glances cast on the luckless architect, and +interposed to spare him the reproaches of coarse tongues. + +'Keep that consolation for those who have run no risk. It will not be +saving Cate and the rest from ruin and beggary, through this braggart +brother of mine and his bridge,' burst from ungovernable Rhys. + +'It may _save_ me and you all from ruin,' retorted William defiantly. 'I +have discovered what a flood can do, and what must be guarded against. +Before the term of our guarantee expires, I will span this river with a +bridge no flood shall wash away. 'Deed I will.' + +A crowd had gathered. There were mocking voices heard beside Rhys'. A +quarrel and a tumult threatened; for fierce as the war of the elements +was the tempest raging in the breasts of men who had been closest +friends. + +'Come away,' cried placable Davy, linking his arm within William's, and +looking round him. 'When the Lord do be speaking men should be silent. +Yes, and before the breath of His nostrils the best man's handiwork will +go down, look you.' And whispering something to his baited brother of +'home' and 'Elaine,' he drew him peaceably away. + +_He_ had no word of reproach, though he had staked the savings of his +life, equally with Rhys, and his forbearance silenced others, then and +afterwards. + +Nor did any reproaches or taunts meet William at his own fireside. +Rumour had run fleetfooted before them with the disastrous tidings. The +shock had thus been anticipated. Clasping arms and sympathetic words +alone awaited him. 'It is the will of God,' said both mother and wife; +'it is useless to rebel.' + +Strange to say, William Edwards was apparently the least cast down of +any. In a day or two he had recovered much of his elasticity. He showed +a brave face to friends and envious foes, and maintained that no man +should forfeit his guarantee. He would replace the wrecked bridge with a +better. + +There were men who sneered; there were more who sympathised, for the +rebuilding would be at his own cost, and would sweep away all his former +gains. Yet all friends did not desert him. Mr. Morris and the Viscount +defended him against malicious attacks on 'unqualified pretenders.' No +one could deny the vehement pressure of the terrible flood. + +His newer plan, a bridge of _a single arch_, and of a span +unprecedented, was seen and approved. + +Workmen were not far to seek. Almost with the subsidence of the waters +labourers were at work removing the still upstanding remains of the old +piers, the tenacity of the masonry giving the undaunted builder fresh +hope. + +On fresh foundations another bridge arose, Jonet's husband marvelling at +the measurements supplied for the wooden framework. + +'Yes,' said William, whose pride and self-assumption rose as he surveyed +the magnificent proportions of his bridge, 'I defy any flood to beat +that down. Look at its breadth and height! Any volume of water could +sweep under that arch! Yes, indeed, if it brought half a forest down +with it. The piers were the mistake before, Thomas.' + +''Deed, yes!' assented the other. + +The keystone of the arch had been laid; time had been given for cement +to harden; the wooden framework of the arch was being removed when this +was said; only the parapets were wanting, and on those the men were +beginning. + +Another day the last scrap of timber was gone. Rhys had come down +sullenly to the water's edge, weighted by his responsibility, and too +doubtful of his brother's skill to give even his perseverance credit. +There he found Jonet and Elaine, each with an infant in her arms. A few +idlers stood staring and gaping under the trees on the steep banks. + +All at once, with no more premonitory shock than a slight tremulous +motion under foot that scared the working masons away, the keystone of +the arch shot up into the air like a ball; the centre of the arch seemed +to rise bodily and press upwards like an inverted V, as if impelled by +superhuman force from the sides; there was a report as of a tremendous +gunpowder explosion, a blinding shower of dust and flying stones +whirling in mid air, a wide gap where a noble structure had been five +minutes before. + +Draw a curtain over the scene of the collapse. Close the ears to the +taunts and mockery, the scorn and derisive epithets, which assail the +unfortunate architect wheresoever he goes. Everywhere, save under his +own roof, where wife and mother and Davy combined to shield him. But +only his wife can enter into his feelings, and alleviate his bitter +humiliation. Where he is weak, she is strong, and her very touch is +healing. + +[Illustration: ONLY HIS WIFE CAN ENTER INTO HIS FEELINGS, AND ALLEVIATE +HIS BITTER HUMILIATION.--_See page 327._] + +Let us follow him into his little private room, and find him on his +knees acknowledging in all humility his self-sufficient dependence on +himself, his proud and confident trust in his own skill, his +forgetfulness of the Lord, omnipotent alike to create and to destroy, +from whom he derived whatever mental superiority he possessed, who had +led him step by step to success, who had spoken to him by the warning +voice of George Whitfield, and at last had broken his stubborn heart, +and, with the thunders of calamity, brought him to acknowledge that, +'Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it.' + +Out of that room he walked that day another manner of man. + +He was the first to confess that the haunches or side foundations of his +bridge had not sufficient strength to bear the strain of the lofty and +expansive arch he had imposed upon them. But he added, '_Please God_, I +will yet, _with His help_, fulfil my contract, and build a bridge that +shall stand, even if it leave me penniless.' + +Fonder was Elaine of her husband in his humility and misfortune than in +the pride of his success. + +Davy had always stuck by him. 'He set no store by his bit of money +whatever. William was welcome to every penny, if it was any good.' + +Others, richer than Davy, who had held aloof from the 'self-confident +amateur,' as they called him, were moved by his newly-developed modesty, +no less than by his indomitable perseverance and resolution (Rhys called +it obstinacy) in the face of catastrophes that would have overwhelmed +weaker men. And they honoured his integrity. When his fresh plans were +ready, funds to 'assist' were ready also. + +Over those plans he had pondered and prayed. Like a flash it came to +his mind that, as the single arch was a strength in masonry, a double +arch--that is, a circle--must have double strength, and on that he +formed his plan, to bind the haunches of his bridge with cylinders of +decreasing sizes, not to narrow his span of arch. + +Once more the river-bed was cleared. But on the Sunday, before a stone +of the new bridge was laid, he summoned his workpeople around him in the +Druids' circle, and, standing upon the rocking-stone, he preached to +them from the text, 'Except the Lord build the house, they labour in +vain that build it,' telling the story of his sudden conversion, of the +failure of his other bridges as providential instruments to save him +from overweening arrogance and self-sufficiency; and wound up with an +exhortation that they should lay every stone as if they laid it before +the Lord, who alone could decide whether this or that man's work was +good or bad. + +And so, week by week, as the work went on, Sunday by Sunday he preached +and prayed amongst his men on that Druidical altar, consecrating it +afresh to the living God, and dedicating himself and his life to the +service of Christ. + +In like manner, when the last coping-stone was in its place, and his +workmen had gathered up their tools to depart, he knelt down upon the +bridge, and dedicated that with prayer, saying at the last, 'Keep Thy +servant from presumptuous sins. And be the glory Thine, O Lord.' + +Thus, in 1755, when William Edwards was but thirty-six, he had completed +his trinity of bridges over the terrible Taff. And there to this day it +stands, fair to see, with the date of its erection upon it, a bridge +with a wider span than the Venetian Rialto--a bridge pierced by three +hollow cylinders on either side, rising gracefully with the magnificent +arch as they decrease in size.[16] + +Upon the opening day, apart from the peasantry, the magnates of three +counties flocked to see this wonder of a bridge, and the indomitable man +who had created it, in the face of difficulties that would have daunted +weaker men. + +As one by one Welshmen of note bent from horse or carriage to shake +hands with Mr. Edwards and congratulated him on the unrivalled structure +his genius had created, and he was heard to say modestly in reply, 'I +trust, with the blessing of God, _this_ bridge will stand,' even Rhys +admitted that, ''Deed, after all, Willem was a great man,' and Thomas +Williams kept close beside him, as if desirous to share in his +employer's glory. + +For Mr. Morris, the staunch friend of William Edwards, there with due +ceremony, breaking a bottle of wine upon the parapet, had named the +bridge 'Pont-y-Pridd'--The Bridge of Beauty. + +[Illustration: THE BRIDGE OF BEAUTY, 1755.] + +And when the loud acclaim had subsided, the speaker gave as a reason for +the name, not alone the wondrous beauty of the structure, or the new +features the self-trained builder had introduced into +bridge-building, but that out of his failures he had built up an +undoubted success, and out of seeming calamities built up another, if an +unseen bridge, to span the turbulent River of Life and bear him securely +across from this world to a better, the beautiful bridge of humble +reliance on the Almighty Creator and Ruler of the universe. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[16] The largest is nine feet in diameter. + + + + +POSTSCRIPT. + + +From that day William Edwards' fame as a builder of bridges and smelting +works was assured. But he could see defects in his Bridge of Beauty; the +ascent to the centre was steep and toilsome, and although he was +afterwards called upon to erect bridges, not only in Glamorganshire, but +in Carmarthenshire and Brecknockshire, he built no more on the same +model. + +His handsome three arched bridge over the Teify is pierced with hollow +cylinders over the piers, adding beauty to strength; but in that as in +others he reduced the height with more regard to the useful than the +picturesque. + +He was a busy man, working for his family and the community six days a +week, giving the seventh to divine service amongst his people--services +so highly appreciated that in 1756 he was ordained to preach. And he +was never a rich man, he gave so largely of his earnings to the +suffering poor. And though he must have seen towns springing up around +the ironworks he built, and highroads made to connect them, giving +employment to hundreds of workers, he was nevermore heard to boast of +_his_ doings. He knew and owned that the capital of other men had set +his brains and hands at work. + +And when at a ripe old age he was laid to rest under the shade of +Eglwysilan Church and its giant yews, he left his well-trained son David +to inherit his fame and his faculty as a bridge-builder. But he never +built a Pont-y-Pridd, and it is with the bridge and town of Pontypridd +William Edwards' name is mainly associated, even by those who never +recognise in him a pioneer of progress, a benefactor to South Wales. + +Indeed, since his day, to meet the increasing traffic, a canal has been +cut from Cardiff northward, and the very course of the River Taff +diverted, changing the character of the district I have attempted to +describe as it was in my hero's day. More recently a railroad to meet +the ever-growing demands of ironmasters, colliery owners, and others, +has been constructed, still further changing the face of the country, +now bristling with iron and tin works. A new bridge has, moreover, been +thrown across the river, somewhat higher up the stream, a bridge more in +accord with modern requirements, and which has in a measure superseded +high-pitched Pont-y-Pridd; but the beautiful old bridge is still +standing, a picturesque monument to the memory of its persevering and +pious builder, and a reminder to this self-sufficient generation, so +proud of its own grand doings, that, but for William Edwards and his +bridges and furnaces, progress in South Wales might have slumbered a +generation or more. + + +THE END. + +PRINTED BY MORRISON AND GIBB LIMITED, EDINBURGH + + + + +_A Selection from Books for Girls._ + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + | KEITH'S TRIAL AND VICTORY. By EVELYN + At | EVERETT-GREEN. Illustrated by PAUL HARDY. Gilt edges. + 3/6 | + | A well-written story of a young girl of high position, who, + | disappointed in her expectations as an heiress, learns nobly + | her lesson of self-conquest. +-----+------------------------------------------------------------------ + At | CONSTANCIA'S HOUSEHOLD. A Story of the + 3/6 | Spanish Reformation. By EMMA LESLIE, Author of "Caught + | in the Toils." Illustrated. +-----+------------------------------------------------------------------ + | UNDER THE WAR-CLOUDS. A Tale of 1870. By + At | E. F. POLLARD. With numerous Illustrations. Gilt edges. + 3/6 | + | A romance of the Franco-German War, showing how it affected an + | English family resident in Paris. Many of the scenes are drawn + | from the author's own recollections. +-----+------------------------------------------------------------------ + | A DIFFICULT DAUGHTER. By EVELYN EVERETT-GREEN. + At | Illustrated by PAUL HARDY. Gilt edges. + 3/6 | + | The story of a madcap girl in wealthy circumstances, the pranks + | she played, the troubles she created, and the way in which her + | finer qualities gradually triumphed over the spirit of mischief. +-----+------------------------------------------------------------------ + At | MARY MORDAUNT. By ANNIE GRAY. Large, handsome + 2/ | volume, gilt top. Illustrated. + | [THE "ENDEAVOUR" LIBRARY. +-----+------------------------------------------------------------------ + | HETTY MARTIN'S TRIAL; or, Thorns and Roses. + At | A Story of Home Life. By Mrs. LYSAGHT. Illustrated by + 2/ | W. DEWAR. Gilt top. [THE "ENDEAVOUR" LIBRARY. + | + | Showing how two girls and their mother left in poor circumstances + | through the death of the father, who was a farmer, bravely fight + | help life's battle, and find a long-lost relative, who comes to + | their and relief. +-----+------------------------------------------------------------------ + | A GIRL GOVERNESS; or, Ella Dalton's Success. + At | By A. E. WARD. Illustrated by EVERARD HOPKINS. + 2/ | Second edition. + | + | A story of a young girl who, in controlling and influencing her + | pupil, a self-willed little lad, is led to look up from her old + | self-sufficiency to the true source of strength. +-----+------------------------------------------------------------------ + | MARION HARLING'S AWAKENING. A Story of an + At | Eldest Daughter. By EDITH M. EDWARDS. Illustrated by + 2/ | SCOTT RANKIN. + | + | Showing how a country minister's daughter lived fretfully in the + | monotony of a dull household, until she learned through bitter + | experience the need for self-subjection in the joy of living for + | others. +-----+------------------------------------------------------------------ + At | THE PILOT'S DAUGHTERS and FAITH HARROWBY. + 2/ | By SARAH DOUDNEY. +-----+------------------------------------------------------------------ + | CAUGHT IN THE TOILS. A Story of a Convent School. By EMMA LESLIE. + At | [THE "WONDERFUL SHILLING" SERIES. + 1/ | + | Relates the methods employed in a French Convent School to + | pervert two English Protestant girls who were sent there for + | education. +-----+------------------------------------------------------------------ + At | THE KING'S DIADEM. By ANNIE GRAY. + 1/ | [THE "WONDERFUL SHILLING" SERIES. + | + | Is a story for elder girls, and shows how the heroine gave up + | worldly pleasures to consecrate herself to the Master's work. +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +London: THE SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION, 57 and 59 Ludgate Hill, E. C. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Making of William Edwards, by +Mrs. G. 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