MY NEIGHBORSSTORIES OF THE WELSH PEOPLE

BYCARADOC EVANS

NEW YORKHARCOURT, BRACE AND HOWE1920

COPYRIGHT, 1920, BYHARCOURT, BRACE AND HOWE, INC. 

THE QUINN & BODEN COMPANYRAHWAY, N. J. 

TOMY FRIENDTHOMAS BURKEOF "LIMEHOUSE NIGHTS"

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

 THE WELSH PEOPLE 3 I. LOVE AND HATE 11 II. ACCORDING TO THE PATTERN 31 III. THE TWO APOSTLES 59 IV. EARTHBRED 81 V. FOR BETTER 99 VI. TREASURE AND TROUBLE 117 VII. SAINT DAVID AND THE PROPHETS 131VIII. JOSEPH'S HOUSE 155 IX. LIKE BROTHERS 173 X. A WIDOW WOMAN 187 XI. UNANSWERED PRAYERS 199 XII. LOST TREASURE 215XIII. PROFIT AND GLORY 231

THE WELSH PEOPLE

Our God is a big man: a tall man much higher than the highest chapel inWales and broader than the broadest chapel. For the promised day that Hecomes to deliver us a sermon we shall have made a hole in the roof andtaken down a wall. Our God has a long, white beard, and he is not unlikethe Father Christmas of picture-books. Often he lies on his stomach onHeaven's floor, an eye at one of his myriads of peepholes, watching thatwe keep his laws. Our God wears a frock coat, a starched linen collarand black necktie, and a silk hat, and on the Sabbath he preaches to thecongregation of Heaven. 

Heaven is a Welsh chapel; but its pulpit is of gold, and its walls, pews, floor, roof, harmonium, and its clock--which marks the days of themonth as well as the hours of the day--are of glass. The inhabitants areclothed in the white shirts in which they were buried and in which theyarose at the Call; and the language of God and his angels and of theCompany of Prophets is Welsh, that being the language spoken in theGarden of Eden and by Jacob, Moses, Abraham, and Elijah. 

Wales is Heaven on earth, and every Welsh chapel is a little Heaven; andGod has favored us greatly by choosing to rule over us preachers who arefashioned in his likeness and who are without spot or blemish. 

Every Welsh child knows that the preacher is next to God; "I am the BigMan's photograph, " the preacher shouts; and the child is brought up inthe fear of the preacher. 

Jealous of his trust, the preacher has made rules for the salvation ofour bodies and souls. Temptations such as art, drama, dancing, and thestudy of folklore he has removed from our way. Those are vanities, whichmake men puffed up and vainglorious; and they are unsavory in thenostrils of the Big Man. And look you, the preacher asks, do they notcost money? Are they not time wasters? The capel needs your money, boysbach, that the light--the grand, religious light--shall shine in thepulpit. 

That is the lamp which burns throughout Wales. It keeps our feet fromChurch door and public house, and it guides us to the polling boothwhere we record our votes as the preacher has instructed us. Be theseason never so hard and be men and women never so hungry, its flamedoes not wane and the oil in its vessel is not low. 

White cabbages and new potatoes, eggs and measures of corn, milk andbutter and money we give to the preacher. We trim our few acres untilour shoulders are crutched and the soil is in the crevices of our fleshthat his estate shall be a glory unto God. We make for him a house whichis as a mansion set amid hovels and for the building thereof the widowmust set aside portions of her weekly old age pension. These things andmany more we do, for forgiveness of sin is obtained by sacrifice. Suchfolk as hold back their offerings have their names proclaimed in thepulpit. 

Said the preacher: "Heavy was the punishment of the Big Man on Twm Cwm, persons, because Twm speeched against the capel. Was he not put in thecoffin in his farm trowsis and jacket? And do you know, the Big Man casta brightness on his buttons for him to be known in the blackness ofhell. "

It is no miracle that we are religious. Our God is just behind thepreacher, and he is in the semblance of the preacher; and we believe inhim truly. It is no miracle that we are prayerful. Our God is by us inour hagglings and cheatings. Becca Penffos prays that the dealer's eyesare closed to the disease of her hen; Shon Porth asks the Big Man todestroy his pregnant sister into whose bed Satan enticed him; IantoTybach says: "Give me a nice bit of haymaking weather, God bach. Strikemy brother Enoch dead and blind and see I have his fields without anyold bother. A champion am I in the religion and there's gifts I give thepreacher. Ask him. That's all. Amen. "

Although we know God, we are afraid of to-morrow: one will steal ourseeds, a horse will perish, our wife will die and a servant woman willhave to be hired to the time that we find another wife, the Englishmanwhom we defrauded in the market place will come and seek his rights. 

We are what we have been made by our preachers and politicians, and thuswe remain. Among ourselves our repute is ill. Our villages andcountryside are populated with the children of cousins who have marriedcousins and of women who have played the harlot with their brothers; andno one loves his neighbor. Abroad we are distrusted and disdained. Thisis said of us: "A Welshman's bond is as worthless as his word. " Wetraffic in prayers and hymns, and in the name of Jesus Christ, and wedisplay a spurious heart upon our breast. Our politicians, crafty pupilsof the preachers and now their masters, weep and moan in the publicplaces as if they were women in childbirth; in their souls they arelustful and cruel and greedy. They have made themselves the slaves ofthe wicked, and like asses their eyes are lifted no higher than thegolden carrot which is their reward from the wicked. Not of one of us itcan be said: "He is a great man, " or "He is a good man, " or "He is anhonest man. "

Maybe the living God will consider our want of knowledge and actmercifully toward us. 

I

LOVE AND HATE

By living frugally--setting aside a portion of his Civil Service pay andholding all that he got from two butchers whose trade books he kept inproper order--Adam Powell became possessed of Cartref in which he dweltand which is in Barnes, and two houses in Thornton East; and one of thehouses in Thornton East he let to his widowed daughter Olwen, whocarried on a dressmaking business. At the end of his term he retiredfrom his office, his needs being fulfilled by a pension, and his eveningeased by the ministrations of his elder daughter Lisbeth. 

Soon an inward malady seized him, and in the belief that he would not berid of it, he called Lisbeth and Olwen, to whom both he pronounced hiswill. 

"The Thornton East property I give you, " he said. "Number seven forLissi and eight for Olwen as she is. It will be pleasant to be nextdoor, and Lissi is not likely to marry at her age which is advanced. Share and share alike of the furniture, and what's left sell with thehouse and haff the proceeds. If you don't fall out in the sharing, younever will again. "

At once Lisbeth and Olwen embraced. 

"My sister is my best friend, " was the testimony of the elder; "weshan't go astray if we follow the example of the dad and mother, " wasthat of the younger. 

"Take two or three excursion trains to Aberporth for the holidays, " saidAdam, "and get a little gravel for the mother's grave in Beulah. And acheap artificial wreath. They last better than real ones. It was inBeulah that me and your mother learnt about Jesus. "

Together Olwen and Lisbeth pledged that they would attend their father'sbehests: shunning ill-will and continually petitioning to be translatedto the Kingdom of God; "but, " Lisbeth laughed falsely, "you are notgoing to die. The summer will do wonders for you. "

"You are as right as a top really, " cried Olwen. 

Beholding that his state was the main concern of his children, Adamcounted himself blessed; knowing of a surety that the designs of Godstand fast against prayer and physic, he said: "I am shivery all over. "

A fire was kindled and coals piled upon it that it was scarce to beborne, and three blankets were spread over those which were on his bed, and three earthen bottles which held heated water were put in his bed;and yet the old man got no warmth. 

"I'll manage now alone, " said Lisbeth on the Saturday morning. "You'llhave Jennie and her young gentleman home for Sunday. Should he turn forthe worse I'll send for you. "

Olwen left, and in the afternoon came Jennie and Charlie from thedrapery shop in which they were engaged; and sighing and sobbing sherelated to them her father's will. 

"If I was you, ma, " Jennie counseled, "I wouldn't leave him too muchalone with Aunt Liz. You never can tell. Funny things may happen. "

"I'd trust Aunt Liz anywhere, " Olwen declared, loath to have her sistercharged with unfaithfulness. 

"What do you think, Charlie?" asked Jennie. 

The young man stiffened his slender body and inclined his pale face andrubbed his nape, and he proclaimed that there was no discourse of whichthe meaning was hidden from him and no device with which he was notfamiliar; and he answered: "I would stick on the spot. "

That night Olwen made her customary address to God, and before she cameup from her knees or uncovered her eyes, she extolled to God the actsof her father Adam. But slumber kept from her because of that whichJennie had spoken; and diffiding the humor of her heart, she said toherself: "Liz must have a chance of going on with some work. " At thatshe slept; and early in the day she was in Cartref. 

"Jennie and Charlie insist you rest, " she told Lisbeth. "She can managequite nicely, and there's Charlie which is a help. So should any one whois twenty-three. "

For a week the daughters waited on their father and contrived they neverso wittily to free him from his disorder--Did they not strip and pressagainst him?--they could not deliver him from the wind of dead men'sfeet. They stitched black cloth into garments and while they stitchedthey mumbled the doleful hymns of Sion. Two yellow plates were fixed onAdam's coffin--this was in accordance with the man's request--and theengraving on one was in the Welsh tongue, and on the other in theEnglish tongue, and the reason was this: that the angel who lifts thelid--be he of the English or of the Welsh--shall know immediately thatthe dead is of the people chosen to have the first seats in the Mansion. 

The sisters removed from Cartref such things as pleased them; Lisbethchose more than Olwen, for her house was bare; and in the choosing eachgave in to the other, and neither harbored a mean thought. 

With her chattels and her sewing machine, Lisbeth entered number seven, which is in Park Villas, and separated from the railway by a woodpaling, and from then on the sisters lived by the rare fruits of theirjoint industry; and never, except on the Sabbath, did they shed theirthimbles or the narrow bright scissors which hung from their waists. Some of the poor middle-class folk near-by brought to them theirmeasures of materials, and the more honorable folk who dwelt in theavenues beyond Upper Richmond Road crossed the steep railway bridgewith blouses and skirts to be reformed. 

"We might be selling Cartref now, " said Olwen presently. 

"I leave it to you, " Lisbeth remarked. 

"And I leave it to you. It's as much yours as mine. "

"Suppose we consult Charlie?"

"He's a man, and he'll do the best he can. "

"Yes, he's very cute is Charlie. "

Charlie gave an ear unto Olwen, and he replied: "You been done in. It'sdisgraceful how's she's took everything that were best. "

"She had nothing to go on with, " said Olwen. "And it will come back. Itwill be all Jennie's. "

"What guarantee have you of that? That's my question. What guarantee?"

Olwen was silent. She was not wishful of disparaging her sister or ofsquabbling with Charlie. 

"Well, " said Charlie, "I must have an entirely free hand. Give it anagent if you prefer. They're a lively lot. "

He went about over-praising Cartref. "With the sticks and they're notrubbish, " he swore, "it's worth five hundred. Three-fifty will buy thelot. "

A certain man said to him: "I'll give you two-twenty"; and Charliereplied: "Nothing doing. "

Twelve months he was in selling the house, and for the damage which inthe meanseason had been done to it by a bomb and by fire and water thesum of money that he received was one hundred and fifty pounds. 

Lisbeth had her share, and Olwen had her share, and each applaudedCharlie, Lisbeth assuring him: "You'll never regret it"; and this is howCharlie applauded himself: "No one else could have got so much. "

"The house and cash will be a nice egg-nest for Jennie, " Olwenannounced. 

"And number seven and mine will make it more, " added Lisbeth. 

"It's a great comfort that she'll never want a roof over her, " saidOlwen. 

Mindful of their vows to their father, the sisters lived at peace andheld their peace in the presence of their prattling neighbors. OnSundays, togged in black gowns on which were ornaments of jet, theyworshiped in the Congregational Chapel; and as they stood up in theirpew, you saw that Olwen was as the tall trunk of a tree at whoseshoulders are the stumps of chopped branches, and that Lisbeth's bodywas as a billhook. Once they journeyed to Aberporth and they laid awreath of wax flowers and a thick layer of gravel on their mother'sgrave. They tore a gap in the wall which divided their little gardens, and their feet, so often did one visit the other, trod a path frombackdoor to backdoor. 

Nor was their love confused in the joy that each had in Jennie, forwhom sacrifices were made and treasures hoarded. 

But Jennie was discontented, puling for what she could not have, mourning her lowly fortune, deploring her spinsterhood. 

"Bert and me are getting married Christmas, " she said on a day. 

"Hadn't you better wait a while, " said Olwen. "You're young. "

"We talked of that. Charlie is getting on. He's thirty-eight, or will bein January. We'll keep on in the shop and have sleep-out vouchers andcome here week-ends. "

As the manner is, the mother wept. 

"You've nothing to worry about, " Lisbeth assuaged her sister. "He'ssteady and respectable. We must see that she does it in style. You lookafter the other arrangements and I'll see to her clothes. "

She walked through wind and rain and sewed by day and night, withoutheed of the numbness which was creeping into her limbs; and on the floorof a box she put six jugs which had been owned by the Welshwoman whowas Adam's grandmother, and over the jugs she arrayed the clothes shehad made, and over all she put a piece of paper on which she hadwritten, "To my darling niece from her Aunt Lisbeth. "

Jennie examined her aunt's handiwork and was exceedingly wrathful. 

"I shan't wear them, " she cried. "She might have spoken to me before shestarted. After all, it's my wedding. Not hers. Pwf! I can buy betterjugs in the six-pence-apenny bazaar. "

"Aunt Liz will alter them, " Olwen began. 

"I agree with her, " said Charlie. "Aunt Liz should be more considerateseeing what I have done for her. But for me she wouldn't have any moneyat all. "

Charlie and Jennie stirred their rage and gave utterance to the harshestsayings they could devise about Lisbeth; "and I don't care if she'slistening outside the door, " said Charlie; "and you can tell her it'sme speaking, " said Jennie. 

Throughout Saturday and Sunday Jennie pouted and dealt rudely anduncivilly with her mother; and on Monday, at the hour she was preparingto depart, Olwen relented and gave her twenty pounds, wherefore on thewedding day Lisbeth was astonished. 

"Why aren't you wearing my presents?" she asked. 

"That's it, " Jennie shouted. "Don't you forget to throw cold water, willyou? It wouldn't be you if you did. I don't want to. See? And if youdon't like it, lump it. "

Olwen calmed her sister, whispering: "She's excited. Don't take notice. "

At the quickening of the second dawn after Christmas, Jennie and Bertarose, and Jennie having hidden her wedding-ring, they two went abouttheir business; and when at noon Olwen proceeded to number seven, shefound that Lisbeth had been taken sick of the palsy and was fallen uponthe floor. Lisbeth was never well again, and what time she understoodall that Olwen had done for her, she melted into tears. 

"I should have gone but for you, " she averred. "The money's Jennie's, which is the same as I had it and under the mattress, and the house isJennie's. "

"She's fortunate, " returned Olwen. "She'll never want for ten shillingsa week which it will fetch. You are kind indeed. "

"Don't neglect them for me, " Lisbeth urged. "I'll be quite happy if youdrop in occasionally. "

"Are you not my sister?" Olwen cried. "I'm having a bed for you in ourfront sitting-room. You won't be lonely. "

Winter, spring, and summer passed, and the murmurs of Jennie and Charlieagainst Lisbeth were grown into a horrid clamor. 

"Hush, she'll hear you, " Olwen always implored. "It won't be for muchlonger. The doctor says she may go any minute. "

"Or last ages, " said Charlie. 

"Jennie will have the house and the money, " Olwen pleaded. "And themoney hasn't been touched. Same as you gave it to her. She showed it tome under the mattress. Not every one have two houses. "

"By then you will have bought it over and over again, " said Charlie. "Doesn't give Jennie and me much chance of saving, does it?"

"And she can't eat this and can't eat that, " Jennie screamed. "Shewon't, she means. "

Weekly was Olwen harassed with new disputes, and she rued that she hadsaid: "I'll have a bed for you in our front sitting-room"; and as itfalls out in family quarrels, she sided with her daughter and herdaughter's husband. 

So the love of the sisters became forced and strained, each speaking andanswering with an ill-favored mouth; it was no longer entire andnothing that was professed united it together. 

"I must make my will now, " Lisbeth hinted darkly. 

"Perhaps Charlie will oblige you, " replied Olwen. 

"Charlie! You make me smile. Why, he can't keep a wife. "

"I thought you had settled all that, " Olwen faltered. 

"Did you? Anyway, I'll have it in black and white. The minister will doit. "

After the minister was gone away, Lisbeth said: "I couldn't very wellapproach him. He's worried about money for the new vestry. Why didn'tyou tell me about the new vestry? It was in the magazine. "

Olwen mused and from her musings came this: "It'll be a pity to spoil itnow. For Jennie's sake. "

She got very soft pillows and clean bed-clothes for Lisbeth and sheplaced toothsome dishes before Lisbeth; and it was Lisbeth's way toprobe with a fork all the dishes that Olwen had made and to say "It'sbadly burnt, " or "You didn't give much for this, " or "Of course you werenever taught to cook. "

For three years Olwen endured her sister's taunts and the storms of herdaughter and her son-in-law; and then Jennie said: "I'm going to have ababy. " If she was glad and feared to hear this, how much greater was herjoy and how much heavier was her anxiety as Jennie's space grewnarrower? She left over going to the aid of Lisbeth, from whom she tookaway the pillows and for whom she did not provide any more toothsomedishes; she did not go to her aid howsoever frantic the beatings on thewall or fierce the outcry. Never has a sentry kept a closer look-outthan Olwen for Jennie. Albeit Jennie died, and as Olwen looked at thehair which was faded from the hue of daffodils into that of tow and atthe face the cream of the skin of which was now like clay, she hatedLisbeth with the excess that she had loved her. 

"My dear child shall go to Heaven like a Princess, " she said; and shesat at her work table to fashion a robe of fine cambric and lace for herdead. 

Disturbed by the noise of the machine, Lisbeth wailed: "You let mestarve but won't let me sleep. Why doesn't any one help me? I'll get thefever. What have I done?"

Olwen moved to the doorway of the room, her body filling the framethereof, her scissors hanging at her side. 

"You are wrong, sister, to starve me, " Lisbeth said. "To starve me. Icannot walk you know. You must not blame me if I change my mind about mymoney. It was wrong of you. "

Olwen did not answer. 

"Dear me, " Lisbeth cried, "supposing our father in Heaven knew how youtreat me. Indeed the vestry shall have my bit. I might be a pig in apigsty. I'll get the fever. Supposing our father is looking through thewindow of Heaven at your cruelty to me. "

Olwen muttered the burden of her care: "'The wife would pull through ifshe had plenty of attention. How could she with her about? The two ofyou killed her. You did. I warned you to give up everything and see toher. But you neglected her. ' That's what Charlie will say. Hoo-hoo. 'It's unheard of for a woman to die before childbirth. Serves you rightif I have an inquest. '. . . "

"For shame to keep from me now, " said Lisbeth in a voice that was higherthan the continued muttering of Olwen. "Have you no regard for theliving? The dead is dead. And you made too much of Jennie. You spoiledher. . . . "

On a sudden Olwen ceased, and she strode up to the bed and thrust herscissors into Lisbeth's breast. 

II

ACCORDING TO THE PATTERN

On the eve of a Communion Sunday Simon Idiot espied Dull Anna washingher feet in the spume on the shore; he came out of his hiding-place andspoke jestingly to Anna and enticed her into Blind Cave, where he hadsport with her. In the ninth year of her child, whom she had calledAbel, Anna stretched out her tongue at the schoolmaster and took her sonto the man who farmed Deinol. 

"Brought have I your scarecrow, " she said. "Give you to me the brownpennies that you will pay for him. "

From dawn to sunset Abel stood on a hedge, waving his arms, shouting, and mimicking the sound of gunning. Weary of his work he vowed a vowthat he would not keep on at it. He walked to Morfa and into hismother's cottage; his mother listened to him, then she took a stick andbeat him until he could not rest nor move with ease. 

"Break him in like a frisky colt, little man bach, "[1] said Anna to thefarmer. "Know you he is the son of Satan. Have I not told how the BadMan came to me in my sound sleep and was naughty with me?"

[Footnote 1: Dear little man. "Bach" is the Welsh masculine for "dear";"fach" the Welsh feminine for "dear. "]

But the farmer had compassion on Abel and dealt with him kindly, andwhen Abel married he let him live in Tybach--the mud-walled, straw-thatched, two-roomed house which is midway on the hill that goesdown from Synod Inn into Morfa--and he let him farm six acres of land. 

The young man and his bride so labored that the people thereabout wereconfounded; they stirred earlier and lay down later than any honestfolk; and they took more eggs and tubs of butter to market than evenDeinol, and their pigs fattened wondrously quick. 

Twelve years did they live thus wise. For the woman these were years oftoil and child-bearing; after she had borne seven daughters, her saphusked and dried up. 

Now the spell of Abel's mourning was one of ill-fortune for Deinol, themaster of which was grown careless: hay rotted before it was gatheredand corn before it was reaped; potatoes were smitten by a blight, adisease fell upon two cart-horses, and a heifer was drowned in the sea. Then the farmer felt embittered, and by day and night he drank himselfdrunk in the inns of Morfa. 

Because he wanted Deinol, Abel brightened himself up: he wore whipcordleggings over his short legs, and a preacher's coat over his long trunk, a white and red patterned celluloid collar about his neck, and a bowlerhat on the back of his head; and his side-whiskers were trimmed in theshape of a spade. He had joy of many widows and spinsters, to each ofwhom he said: "There's a grief-livener you are, " and all of whom he gaveover on hearing of the widow of Drefach. Her he married, and with themoney he got with her, and the money he borrowed, he bought Deinol. Soonhe was freed from the hands of his lender. He had eight horses andtwelve cows, and he had oxen and heifers, and pigs and hens, and he hadtwenty-five sheep grazing on his moorland. As his birth and poverty hadcaused him to be scorned, so now his gains caused him to be respected. The preacher of Capel Dissenters in Morfa saluted him on the trampingroad and in shop, and brought him down from the gallery to the Big Seat. Even if Abel had land, money, and honor, his vessel of contentment wasnot filled until his wife went into her deathbed and gave him a son. 

"Indeed me, " he cried, "Benshamin his name shall be. The Large Makergives and a One He is for taking away. "

He composed a prayer of thankfulness and of sorrow; and this prayer herecited to the congregation which gathered at the graveside of the womanfrom Drefach. 

Benshamin grew up in the way of Capel Dissenters. He slept with hisfather and ate apart from his sisters, for his mien was lofty. At theage of seven he knew every question and answer in the book "Mother'sGift, " with sayings from which he scourged sinners; and at the age ofeight he delivered from memory the Book of Job at the Seiet; at that agealso he was put among the elders in the Sabbath School. 

He advanced, waxing great in religion. On the nights of the Saying andSearching of the Word he was with the cunningest men, disputing with thepreacher, stressing his arguments with his fingers, and proving hislearning with phrases from the sermons of the saintly Shones Talysarn. 

If one asked him: "What are you going, Ben Abel Deinol?" he alwaysanswered: "The errander of the White Gospel fach. "

His father communed with the preacher, who said: "Pity quite sinful ifthe boy is not in the pulpit. "

"Like that do I think as well too, " replied Abel. "Eloquent he is. Grandhe is spouting prayers at his bed. Weep do I. "

Neighbors neglected their fields and barnyards to hear the lad'sshoutings to God. Once Ben opened his eyes and rebuked those who wereoutside his room. 

"Shamed you are, not for certain, " he said to them. "Come in, boysCapel. Right you hear the Gospel fach. Youngish am I but old is mycourtship of King Jesus who died on the tree for scamps of parsons. "

He shut his eyes and sang of blood, wood, white shirts, and thorns; ofthe throng that would arise from the burial-ground, in which there weremore graves than molehills in the shire. He cried against the heathenismof the Church, the wickedness of Church tithes, and against ungodlybook-prayers and short sermons. 

Early Ben entered College Carmarthen, where his piety--which was anadage--was above that of any student. Of him this was said: "'WhiteJesus bach is as plain on his lips as the purse of a big bull. '"

Brightness fell upon him. He had a name for the tearfulness and splendorof his eloquence. He could conduct himself fancifully: now he wasPharaoh wincing under the plagues, now he was the Prodigal Son longingto eat at the pigs' trough, now he was the Widow of Nain rejoicing atthe recovery of her son, now he was a parson in Nineveh squirming underthe prophecy of Jonah; and his hearers winced or longed, rejoiced orsquirmed. Congregations sought him to preach in their pulpits, and hechose such as offered the highest reward, pledging the richest men forhis wage and the cost of his entertainment and journey. But Ben wouldrule over no chapel. "I wait for the call from above, " he said. 

His term at Carmarthen at an end, he came to Deinol. His father met himin a doleful manner. 

"An old boy very cruel is the Parson, " Abel whined. "Has he not strainedGwen for his tithes? Auction her he did and bought her himself for threepounds and half a pound. "

Ben answered: "Go now and say the next Saturday Benshamin Lloyd willgive mouthings on tithes in Capel Dissenters. "

Ben stood in the pulpit, and spoke to the people of Capel Dissenters. 

"How many of you have been to his church?" he cried. "Not one male bachor one female fach. Go there the next Sabbath, and the black muless willnot say to you: 'Welcome you are, persons Capel. But there's glad am Ito see you. ' A comic sermon you will hear. A sermon got withhalf-a-crown postal order. Ask Postman. Laugh highly you will and stampon the floor. Funny is the Parson in the white frock. Ach y fy, why forhe doesn't have a coat preacher like Respecteds? Ask me that. From wheredoes his Church come from? She is the inheritance of Satan. The onlything he had to leave, and he left her to his friends the parsons. Iss-iss, earnest affair is this. Who gives him his food? We. Who paysfor Vicarage? We. Who feeds his pony? We. His cows? We. Who built hischurch? We. With stones carted from our quarries and mortar messed aboutwith the tears of our mothers and the blood of our fathers. "

At the gate of the chapel men discussed Ben's words; and two or three ofthem stole away and herded Gwen into the corner of the field; and theycaught her and cut off her tail, and drove a staple into her udder. Sunday morning eleven men from Capel Dissenters, with iron bands totheir clogs on their feet, and white aprons before their bellies, shouted without the church: "We are come to pray from the book. " TheParson was affrighted, and left over tolling his bell, and he bolted andlocked the door, against which he set his body as one would set the stubof a tree. 

Running at the top of their speed the railers came to Ben, telling howthe Parson had put them to shame. 

"Iobs you are, " Ben answered. "The boy bach who loses the key of hishouse breaks into his house. Does an old wench bar the dairy to hermishtress?"

The men returned each to his abode, and an hour after midday theygathered in the church burial-ground, and they drew up a tombstone, andwith it rammed the door; and they hurled stones at the windows; and inthe darkness they built a wall of dung in the room of the door. 

Repentance sank into the Parson as he saw and remembered that which hadbeen done to him. He called to him his servant Lissi Workhouse, and herhe told to take Gwen to Deinol. The cow lowed woefully as she wasdriven; she was heard even in Morfa, and many hurried to the road towitness her. 

Abel was at the going in of the close. 

"Well-well, Lissi Workhouse, " he said, "what's doing then?"

"'Go give the male his beast, ' mishtir talked. "

"Right for you are, " said Abel. 

"Right for enough is the rascal. But a creature without blemish hepilfered. Hit her and hie her off. "

As Lissi was about to go, Ben cried from within the house: "The cow thefulbert had was worth two of his cows. "

"Sure, iss-iss, " said Abel. "Go will I to Vicarage with boys capel. Bring the baston, Ben bach. "

Ben came out, and his ardor warmed up on beholding Lissi's broad hips, scarlet cheeks, white teeth, and full bosoms. 

"Not blaming you, girl fach, am I, " he said. "My father, journey withGwen. Walk will I with Lissi Workhouse. "

That afternoon Abel brought a cow in calf into his close; and that nightBen crossed the mown hayfields to the Vicarage, and he threw a littlegravel at Lissi's window. 

 * * * * *

The hay was gathered and stacked and thatched, and the corn was cutdown, and to the women who were gleaning his father's oats, Ben said howthat Lissi was in the family way. 

"Silence your tone, indeed, " cried one, laughing. "No sign have I seen. "

"If I died, " observed a large woman, "boy bach pretty innocent you are, Benshamin. Four months have I yet. And not showing much do I. "

"No, " said another, "the bulk might be only the coil of your apron, ho-ho. "

"Whisper to us, " asked the large woman, "who the foxer is. Keep thenews will we. "

"Who but the scamp of the Parson?" replied Ben. "What a sow of a hen. "

By such means Ben shifted his offense. On being charged by the Parson herushed through the roads crying that the enemy of the Big Man had putunbecoming words on a harlot's tongue. Capel Dissenters believed him. "He could not act wrongly with a sheep, " some said. 

So Ben tasted the sapidness and relish of power, and his desiresincreased. 

"Mortgage Deinol, my father bach, " he said to Abel. "Going am I toLondon. Heavy shall I be there. None of the dirty English are like me. "

"Already have I borrowed for your college. No more do I want to have. How if I sell a horse?"

"Sell you the horse too, my father bach. "

"Done much have I for you, " Abel said. "Fairish I must be with yoursisters. "

"Why for you cavil like that, father? The money of mam came to Deinol. Am I not her son?"

Though his daughters, murmured--"We wake at the caw of the crows, " theysaid, "and weary in the young of the day"--Abel obeyed his son, whothereupon departed and came to Thornton East to the house of CatherineJenkins, a widow woman, with whom he took the appearance of a burninglover. 

Though he preached with a view at many English chapels in London, nonecalled him. He caused Abel to sell cattle and mortgage Deinol for whatit was worth and to give him all the money he received therefrom; heswore such hot love for Catherine that the woman pawned her furniturefor his sake. 

Intrigued that such scant fruit had come up from his sowings, Benthought of further ways of stablishing himself. He inquired into thewelfare of shop-assistants from women and girls who worshiped in Welshchapels, and though he spoiled several in his quest, the abominationswhich oppressed these workers were made known to him. Shop-assistantscarried abroad his fame and called him "Fiery Taffy. " Ben showed themhow to rid themselves of their burden; "a burden, " he said, "packed fulland overflowing by men of my race--the London Welsh drapers. "

The Welsh drapers were alarmed, and in a rage with Ben. They took theopinion of their big men and performed slyly. Enos-Harries--this is theEnos-Harries who has a drapery shop in Kingsend--sent to Ben thisletter: "Take Dinner with Slf and Wife same, is Late Dinner I am pleasedto inform. You we don't live in Establishment only as per printed NoteHeading. And Oblige. "

Enos-Harries showed Ben his house, and told him the cost of thetreasures that were therein. 

Also Harries said: "I have learned of you as a promising Welshman, and Iwant to do a good turn for you with a speech by you on St. David's Dayat Queen's Hall. Now, then. "

"I am not important enough for that. "

"She'll be a first-class miting in tip-top speeches. All the drapers anddairies shall be there in crowds. Three sirs shall come. "

"I am choked with engagements, " said Ben. "I am preaching very busy nowjust. "

"Well-well. Asked I did for you are a clean Cymro bach. As I repeat, only leading lines in speakers shall be there. Come now into thedrawing-room and I'll give you an intro to the Missus Enos-Harries. Inevening dress she is--chik Paris Model. The invoice price was ten-ten. "

"Wait a bit, " Ben remarked. "I would be glad if I could speak. "

"Perhaps the next time we give you the invite. The Cymrodorion shall bein the miting. "

"As you plead, try I will. "

"Stretching a point am I, " Harries said. "This is a favor for you toaddress this glorious miting where the Welsh drapers will attend and theMissus Enos-Harries will sing 'Land of my Fathers. '"

Ben withdrew from his fellows for three days, and on the thirdday--which was that of the Saint--he put on him a frock coat, and combeddown his mustache over the blood-red swelling on his lip; and he cleanedhis teeth. Here are some of the sayings that he spoke that night:

"Half an hour ago we were privileged to listen to the voice of a lovelylady--a voice as clear as a diamond ring. It inspired us one and allwith a hireath for the dear old homeland--for dear Wales, for the landof our fathers and mothers too, for the land that is our heritage notby Act of Parliament but by the Act of God. . . . 

"Who ownss this land to-day? The squaire and the parshon. By what right?By the same right as the thief who steals your silk and your laces, andyour milk and butter, and your reddy-made blousis. I know a farm of onehundred acres, each rod having been tamed from heatherland into a mannaof abundance. Tamed by human bones and muscles--God's invested capitalin His chosen children. Six months ago this land--this fertile and richland--was wrestled away from the owners. The bones of the living and thedead were wrestled away. I saw it three months ago--a wylderness. Theclod had been squeesed of its zweat. The land belonged to my father, andhis father, and his father, back to countless generations. . . . 

"I am proud to be among my people to-night. How sorry I am for any onewho are not Welsh. We have a language as ancient as the hills thatshelter us, and the rivers that never weery of refreshing us. . . . 

"Only recently a few shop-assistants--a handful ofcounter-jumpers--tried to shake the integrity of our commerse. But theirwhite cuffs held back their aarms, and the white collars choked theiraambitions. When I was a small boy my mam used to tell me how the chiefSatan was caught trying to put his hand over the sun so as to give othersatans a chance of doing wrong on earth in the dark. That was the objectof these misguided fools. They had no grievances. I have sinceinvestigated the questions of living-in and fines. Both are fair andnecessary. The man who tries to destroy them is like the swimmer whoplunges among the water lilies to be dragged into destruction. . . . 

"Welsh was talked in the Garden of Aden. That is where commerse began. Didn't Eve buy the apple?. . . 

"Ladies and gentlemen, Cymrodorion, listen. There is a going in theseclassical old rafterss. It is the coming of God. And the message Hegives you this night is this: 'Men of Gwalia, march on and keep youtails up. '"

From that hour Ben flourished. He broke his league with theshop-assistants. Those whom he had troubled lost courage and humbledthemselves before their employers; but their employers would have noneof them, man or woman, boy or girl. 

Vexation followed his prosperity. His father reproached him, writing:"Sad I drop into the Pool as old Abel Tybach, and not as Lloyd Deinol. "Catherine harassed him to recover her house and chattels. To thesecomplainings he was deaf. He married the daughter of a wealthyEnglishman, who set him up in a large house in the midst of a pleasuregarden; and of the fatness and redness of his wife he was sickenedbefore he was wedded to her. 

By studying diligently, the English language became as familiar to himas the Welsh language. He bound himself to Welsh politicians and engagedhimself in public affairs, and soon he was as an idol to a multitude ofpeople, who were sensible only to his well-sung words, and who did notknow that his utterances veiled his own avarice and that of his masters. All that he did was for profit, and yet he could not win enough. 

Men and women, soothed into false ease and quickened into counterfeitwrath, commended him, crying: "Thank God for Ben Lloyd. " Such praisepuffed him up, and howsoever mighty he was in the view of fools, he wasmightier in his own view. 

"At the next election I'll be in Parliament, " he boasted in his vanity. "The basis of my solidity--strength--is as immovable--is as impregnableas Birds' Rock in Morfa. "

Though the grandson of Simon Idiot and Dull Anna prophesied great thingsfor himself, it was evil that came to him. 

He trembled from head to foot to ravish every comely woman on whom hisogling eyes dwelt. His greed made him faithless to those whom heprofessed to serve: in his eagerness to lift himself he planned, plotted, and trafficked with the foes of his officers. Hearing that anaccount of his misdeeds was spoken abroad, he called the high LondonWelshmen into a room, and he said to them:

"These cruel slanderers have all but broken my spirit. They are thewicked inventions of fiends incarnate. It is not my fall that isrequired--if that were so I would gladly make the sacrifise--the zupremesacrifise, if wanted--but it is the fall of the Party that these men areafter. He who repeats one foul thing is doing his level best to destroythe fabric of this magnificent organisation that has been reared by yourbrains. It has no walls of stone and mortar, yet it is a sity builded bymen. We must have no more bickerings. We have work to do. The seeds arespringing forth, and a goodly harvest is promised: let us sharpen ourblades and clear our barn floors. Cymru fydd--Wales for the Welsh--ishere. At home and at Westminster our kith and kin are occupyingprominent positions. Disestablishment is at hand. We have closedpublic-houses and erected chapels, each chapel being a factor in theeducation of the masses in ideas of righteous government. You, myfriends, have secured much of the land, around which you have madewalls, and in which you have set water fountains, and have planted rareplants and flowers. And you have put up your warning signs onit--'Trespassers will be prosecuted. '

"There is coming the Registration of Workers Act, by which every workerwill be held to his locality, to his own enormous advantage. And it willend strikes, and trades unionism will deservedly crumble. In futurethese men will be able to settle down, and with God's blessing bringchildren into the world, and their condition will be a delight untothemselves and a profit to the community. 

"But we must do more. I must do more. And you must help me. We muststand together. Slander never creates; it shackles and kills. We must besolid. Midway off the Cardigan coast--in beautiful Morfa--there is arock--Birds' Rock. As a boy I used to climb to the top of it, and watchthe waters swirling and tumbling about it, and around it and against it. But I was unafraid. For I knew that the rock was old when man was young, and that it had braved all the washings of the sea. "

The men congratulated Ben; and Ben came home and he stood at a mirror, and shaping his body put out his arms. 

"How's this for my maiden speech in the house?" he asked his wife. Presently he paused. "You're a fine one to be an M. P. 's lady, " he said. "You stout, underworked fool. "

Ben urged on his imaginings: he advised his monarch, and to him forfavors merchants brought their gold, and mothers their daughters. Winterand spring moved, and then his mind brought his enemies to his door. 

"As the root of a tree spreads in the bosom of the earth, " he said, "somy fame shall spread over the world"; and he built a fence about hishouse. 

But his mind would not be stilled. Every midnight his enemies were atthe fence, and he could not sleep for the dreadful outcry; everymidnight he arose from his bed and walked aside the fence, testing thestrength of it with a hand and a shoulder and shooing away his enemiesas one does a brood of chickens from a cornfield. 

His fortieth summer ran out--a season of short days and nights speedingon the heels of night. Then peace fell upon him; and at dusk of a day hecame into his room, and he saw one sitting in a chair. He went up to thechair and knelt on a knee, and said: "Your Majesty. . . . "

III

THE TWO APOSTLES

God covered sun, moon, and stars, stilled the growing things of theearth and dried up the waters on the face of the earth, and stopped theroll of the world; and He fixed upon a measure of time in which to judgethe peoples, this being the measure which was spoken of as the Day ofJudgment. 

In the meanseason He summoned Satan to the Judgment Hall, which is atthe side of the river that breaks into four heads, and above which, itspulpits stretching beyond the sky, is the Palace of White Shirts, andbelow which, in deep darknesses, are the frightful regions of the FieryOven. "Give an account of your rule in the face of those whom youprovoked to mischief, " He said to Satan. "My balance hitched to a beamwill weigh the good and evil of my children, and if good is heavierthan evil, I shall lighten your countenance and clothe you with therobes of angels. "

"Awake the dead" He bade the Trumpeter, and "Lift the lids off theburying-places" He bade the laborers. In their generations were theycalled; "for, " said the Lord, "good and evil are customs of a period andwhen the period is passed and the next is come, good may be evil andevil may be good. "

Now God did not put His entire trust in Satan, and in the evening of theday He set to prove him: "It is over. "

"My Lord, so be it, " answered Satan. 

"How now?" asked God. 

"The scale of wickedness sways like a kite in the wind, " cried Satan. "Give me my robes and I will transgress against you no more. "

"In the Book of Heaven and Hell, " said God, "there is no writing of thelast of the Welsh. "

Satan spoke up: "My Lord, your pledge concerned those judged on the Dayof Judgment. Day is outing. The windows of the Mansion are lit; hark theangels tuning their golden strings for the cheer of the ResurrectionSupper. Give me my robes that I may sing your praises. "

"Can I not lengthen the day with a wink of my eye?"

"All things you can do, my Lord, but observe your pledge to me. Allowthese people to rest a while longer. Their number together with thenumber of their sins is fewer than the hairs on Elisha's head. "

God laughed in His heart as He replied to Satan: "Tell the Trumpeter totake his horn and the laborers their spades and bring to me the Welsh. "

The laborers digged, and at the sound of the horn the dead breathed andheaved. Those whose wit was sharp hurried into neighboring chapels andstole Bibles and hymn-books, with which in their pockets and undertheir arms they joined the host in Heaven's Courtyard, whence they wentinto the Waiting Chamber that is without the Judgment Hall. 

"Boy bach, a lot of Books of the Word he has, " a woman remarked to theRespected Towy-Watkins. "Say him I have one. "

"Happy would I be to do like that, " was the reply. "But, female, muchdoes the Large One regard His speeches. What is the text on the wall?'Prepare your deeds for the Lord. ' The Beybile is the most religiousdeed. Farewell for now, " and he pretended to go away. 

Holding the sleeve of his White Shirt, the woman separated her toothlessgums and fashioned her wrinkled face in grief. "Two tens he has, " shecroaked. "And his shirt is clean. Dirty am I; buried I was as I wasfound, and the shovelers beat the soil through the top of the coffin. Domuch will I for one Beybile. "

"A poor dab you are, " said Towy. 

"Many deeds you have? But no odds to me. "

"Four I have. "

"Woe for you, unfortunate. "

"Iss-iss, horrid is my plight, " the woman whined. "Little I did forHim. "

"Don't draw tears. For eternity you'll weep. Here is a massive Beybilefor your four deeds. "

"Take him one. Handy will three be in the minute of the questioning. "

"Refusing the Beybile bach you are. Also the hymn-book--old and newnotations--I present for four. Stupid am I as the pigger's prentice whobought the litter in the belly. "

"Be him soft and sell for one. "

"I cannot say less. No relation you are to me. Hope I do that rightenough are your four. Recite them to me, old woman. "

"I ate rats to provide a Beybile to the Respected, " the woman trembled. "I--"

"You are pathetic, " Towy said. "Hie and get your tokens and have thatpoor one will I because of my pity for you. "

The woman told her deeds in Heaven's Record Office, and she was givenfour white tablets on which her deeds were inscribed; and the rat tabletTowy took from her. "Faith and hope are tidy heifers, " he said, "but astallion is charity. Priceless Beybile I give you, sinner. "

As he moved away Towy cried in the manner of one selling by auction:"This is the beloved Beybile of Jesus. This is the book of hymns--oldand new notations. Hymns harvest, communion, funerals, Sunday schools, and hymns for children bach are here. Treasures bulky for certain. "

For some he received three tablets each, for some five tablets each, andfor some ten tablets each. But the gaudy Bible which was decorated withpictures and ornamented with brass clasps and a leather covering he didnot sell; nor did he sell the gilt-edged hymn-book. Between the leavesof his Bible he put his tablets--as a preacher his markers--the writingon each tablet confirming a verse in the place it was set. His laborover, he chanted: "Pen Calvaria! Pen Calvaria! Very soon will come toview. " Men and women gazed upon him, envying him; and those who hadBibles and hymn-books hastened to do as he had done. 

Among the many that came to him was one whose name was Ben Lloyd. 

"Dear me, " said Towy. 

"Dear me, " said Ben. 

"Fat is my religion after the springing, " cried Towy. "Perished was Iand up again. Amen, Big Man. Amen and amen. And amen. 

"I opened my eyes and I saw a hand thrusting aside the firmament and Iheard One calling me from the beyond, and the One was God. "

"Like the roar of heated bulls was the noise, Ben bach. "

"Praise Him I did that I was laid to rest at home. Away from the stirof Parliament. Tell Him I will how my spirit, though the flesh was dead, bathed in the living rivers and walked in the peaceful valleys of theglorious land of my fathers--thinking, thinking of Jesus. "

"Hold on. Not so fast. From Capel Bryn Salem I journeyed to mouth withmy heart to the Lord, and your slut of widow paid me only four soferens. Eloquent sermon I spouted and four soferens is the price of a supply. "

"In your charity forgive her; her sorrow was o'erpowering. "

"Sorrow! The mule of an English! She wasn't there. "

"You don't say, " cried Ben. "If above she is I will have her draggeddown. "

"Not a stone did she put over your head, and the strumpets of yoursisters did not tend your grave. Why you were not eaten by worms I can'tknow. "

On a sudden Towy shouted: "See an old parson do I. Is not this the dayof rising up? Awful if the Big Man mistakes us for the Church. Not beeninside a church have I, drop dead and blind, since I was born. "

None gave heed to his cry, for the sound of the bargaining was mosthigh. "Dissenters, " he bellowed, "what right have Church heathens to mixwith us? The Fiery Oven is their home. "

The people were dismayed. Their number being small, the Church folk werepressed one upon the other; and after they were thrown in a mass againstthe gate of the Chariot House the Dissenters spread themselves easily asfar as the door of the Crooked Stairway. 

"Now, boys capel, " Towy-Watkins said, "we will have a sermon. Fine willWelsh be in the nostrils of the Big Preacher. Pray will I at once. "

The prayer ended, and one struck his tuning-fork; and while thecongregation moaned and lamented, a tall man, who wore the habit of apreacher and whose yellow beard--the fringe of which was singed--hungover his breast like a sheaf of wheat, passed through the way of thedoor of the Stairway, and as he walked towards the Judgment Hall, somesaid: "Fair day, Respected, " and some said: "Similar he is toTowy-Watkins. "

"Shut your throats, colts, " Towy rebuked the people. "Say after me: 'Goround my backhead, Satan. '"

"Go round my backhead, Satan, " the people obeyed. 

"Catch him and skin him, " Towy screamed. "Teach him we will to snookabout here. "

Fear arming his courage, Satan shouted: "He who hurts me him shall Ipitch head-long to the flames. " The people's hands went to their sides, and Satan departed in peace. 

"In my heart is my head, " Towy said. "Near the Oven we are. Blow yournoses of the stench. Young youths, herd blockheads Church over here. "

Before the stalwarts started on their errand, the Overseer of theWaiting Chamber came to the door of the lane that takes you into theJudgment Hall, wherefore the Dissenters wept, howled, and whooped. 

"Ready am I, God bach, " Towy exclaimed, stretching his hairy arms. "Takeme. "

"Patiently I waited for the last Trump and humbly do I now wait for theCrown from your fingers, " said Ben Lloyd. "My deeds are recorded in thearchives of the House of Commons and the Cymrodorion Society. "

"Clap up, " Towy admonished Ben. "My religious actions can't be counted. "

Lowering his eyes the Overseer murmured: "I am not the Lord. "

"For why did you not say that?" cried Towy. He stepped to the Overseer. "Hap you are Apostle Shames. A splendid photo of Shames is in theBeybile with pictures. Fond am I of preaching from him. Lovely piecesthere are. 'Abram believed God. ' Who was Abram? Father of Isaac bach. Who made Abram? The Big Man. And the Big Man made the capel and therespected that is the jewel of the capel. Is not the pulpit the throne?Glad am I to see you, indeed, Shames. "

The Overseer opened his lips. 

"Enter with you will I, " said Towy. "Look through my glassy soul youcan. "

"Silence--" the Overseer began. 

"Iss, silence for ever and ever, amen, " said Towy. "No trial I need. Howcan the Judge judge if there's no judging to be? Go up will I then. Hopeto see you again, Shames. "

The Overseer tightened his girdle. "Thus saith the Lord, " he proclaimed:"'I will consider each by his deeds or all by the deeds of their twoapostles. '"

"Ho-ho, " said Towy. "Half one moment. Think will we. Dissenters, crowdhere. Ben Lloyd, make arguments. Tricky is old Shames. "

The Dissenters assembled close to Ben and Towy, and the Church peoplecrept near them in order to share their counsel; but the Dissentersturned upon their enemies and bruised them with fists and Bibles andhymn-books, and called them frogs, turks, thieves, atheists, blacks; andthere never has been heard such a tumult in any house. Alarmed that hecould not part one side from the other, the Overseer sought Satan, whohad a name for crafty dealings with disputants. 

Satan was distressed. "If it was not for personal reasons, " he said, "Iwould let them go to Hell. " He sent into the Chamber a carpenter who puta barrier from wall to wall, and he appointed Jude in charge of thebarrier to guard that no one went under it or over it. 

Then the wise men of the Dissenters continued to examine the Lord'soffer; and a thousand men declared they were holy enough to go beforeGod, and from the thousand five hundred were cast out, and from the fivehundred three hundred, and from the two hundred one hundred were castaway. Now this hundred were Baptists, Methodists, andCongregationalists, and they quarreled so harshly and decried oneanother so spitefully that Ben and Towy made with them a compact tospeak specially for each of them in the private ear of God. The strifequelled and Towy having cried loudly: "Dissenters and Churchers, gladyou are that me and Ben Lloyd, Hem Pee, are your apostles, " he and Benfollowed the Overseer. 

In the Judgment Hall the two apostles crouched to pray, and they werestirred by Satan laying his hands on their shoulders. 

"Prayers are useless here, my friends, " said the Devil. "We must proceedwith the business. I am just as anxious as you are that everythingreaches a satisfactory conclusion. "

"I object, " said Ben. "Solemnly object. I don't know this infidel. Idon't want to know him. "

"Go from here, " Towy gruntled. "A sweat is in my whiskers. Inhabitants, why isn't his tongue a red-hot poker?. . . Well, boys Palace, grand thisis. Say who you are?" he asked one whose face shone like a mirror. "Respected Towy-Watkins am I. "

He whose face shone like a polished mirror answered that he was Mosesthe Keeper of the Balance. "The Lord is in the Cloud, " he said. 

Towy addressed the Cloud, which was the breadth of a man's hand, andwhich was brighter than the golden halo of the throne: "Big Man, peep atyour helper. Was not I a ruler over the capel? Religious were myprayers. "

"I did not hear any, " said God. 

"Mistake. Mistake. Towy bach eloquent was I called. Here am I with theSpeech, and the Speech is God and God is the Speech. Take you as agreat gift this nice hymn-book. "

"What are hymns?" asked God. 

"Moses, Moses, " cried Towy, "explain affairs to Him. "

God spoke: "Satan, render your account of the mischief you made thesemen do. "

"This is a travesty of the traditions of the House, " said Ben. "Traditions that are dear to me, being taught them at my mother's knees. I refuse to be drenched in Satan's froth. Against one who was a memberof the Government you are taking the evidence of the most discreditedman in the universe--the world's worst sinner. "

He ceased, because Satan had begun to read; and Satan read rapidly, withshame, and without pantomime, not pausing at what times he was abusedand charged with lying; and he read correctly, for the Records Clerkfollowed him word by word in the Book of the Watchers; and for everysin to which he confessed Moses placed a scarlet tablet in the scale ofwickedness. 

"I will attend to what I have heard, " said the Lord when Satan hadfinished. "Put your tablets in the scale and go into the Chamber. "

Ben and Towy withdrew, and as they passed out they beheld that the scaleof scarlet tablets touched the ground. 

Then the Cloud vanished and God came out of the Cloud. 

"My wrath is fierce, " He said. "Bind these Welsh and torment them withvipers and with fire in the uttermost parts of Hell. They shall have nomore remembrance before me. "

"Will you destroy the just?" asked Moses. 

"They have chosen. "

"Shall the godly perish because of the godless?"

"I flooded the world, " said God. 

"The righteous Noah and his house and his animals you did not destroy. And you repented that you smote every living thing. May not my Lordrepent again?"

"I am not destroying every living thing, " God replied. "I am destroyingthe vile. "

"Remember Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot's wife and his daughters. They allsinned after their deliverance. The doings of Sodom stayed. "

Moses also said: "You gave your ear to Jonah from the well of the sea. "

"I sacrificed my Son for man. "

"And loosed Satan upon him. "

"Is scarlet white?" asked God. 

"Is justice the fruit of injustice? The two men were not of the Church, and the Church may be holy in your sight. "

"I have judged. "

"And your judgment is past understanding, " said Moses, and he sat at theBalance. 

The servants of the Lord spoke one with another: "I cannot eat of thesupper, " said one; "The songs will be as a wolf's howlings in thewilderness, " said another; "The honey will be as bittersweet as Adam'sapple, " said a third. But Satan exclaimed: "Come, let us seek in theBook of the Watchers for an act that will turn Him from His purpose. "

In seeking, some put their fingers on the leaves and advised Moses tocry unto the Lord in such and such a manner. 

"My voice is dumb, " replied Moses. 

Satan presently astonished the servants; he took the book to the Lord. "My Lord, " he said, "which is the more precious--good or evil?"

"Good, " said the Lord. 

"More precious than the riches of Solomon is a deed done in your name?"

"Yes. "

"Though the sins were as numerous as the teeth of a shoal of fish?"

"So. Unravel your riddle. "

"An old woman of the Dissenters, " said Satan, "claimed four tablets, whereas her deeds were nine. "

God looked at the Balance and lo, the scale of white tablets washeavier than the scale of scarlet tablets. 

"Bid hither the apostles, " He commanded the Overseer, "for they shallsee me, and this day they and their flocks shall be in Paradise. "

Satan stood before the face of Moses, glowing as the angels; and hebrought out scissors to clip off the fringe of his beard. When he hadcut only a little, the Overseer entered the Judgment Hall, saying: "Thetwo apostles tricked Jude and crawled under the barrier, and they shotback the bolts of the gate of the Chariot House and called a charioteerto take them to Heaven. 'This is God's will, ' they said to him. "

Satan's scissors fell on the floor. 

IV

EARTHBRED

Because he was diseased with a consumption, Evan Roberts in histhirtieth year left over being a drapery assistant and had himself hiredas a milk roundsman. 

A few weeks thereafter he said to Mary, the woman whom he had promisedto wed: "How now if I had a milk-shop?"

Mary encouraged him, and searched for that which he desired; and it cameto be that on a Thursday afternoon they two met at the mouth of WorshipStreet--the narrow lane that is at the going into Richmond. 

"Stand here, Marri, " Evan ordered. "Go in will I and have words with theowner. Hap I shall uncover his tricks. "

"Very well you are, " said Mary. "Don't over-waggle your tongue. Addresshim in hidden phrases. "

Evan entered the shop, and as there was no one therein he made anaccount of the tea packets and flour bags which were on the shelves. Presently a small, fat woman stood beyond the counter. Evan addressedher in English: "Are you Welsh?"

"That's what people say, " the woman answered. 

"Glad am I to hear you, " Evan returned in Welsh. "Tell me how you was. "

"A Cymro bach I see, " the woman cried. "How was you?"

"Peeped did I on your name on the sign. Shall I say you are MistressJinkins?"

"Iss, indeed, man. "

"What about affairs these close days?"

"Busy we are. Why for you ask? Trade you do in milk?"

"Blurt did I for nothing, " Evan replied. 

"No odds, little man. Ach y fy, jealous other milkmen are of us. There'snasty some people are. "

"Natty shop you have. Little shop and big traffic, Mistress Jinkins?"

"Quick you are. "

"Know you Tom Mathias Tabernacle Street?" Evan inquired. 

"Seen him have I in the big meetings at Capel King's Cross. "

"Getting on he is, for certain sure. Hundreds of pints he sells. Andgroceries. "

"Pwf, " Mrs. Jenkins sneered. "Fulbert you are to believe him. A liarwithout shame is Twm. And a cheat. Bad sampler he is of the Welsh. "

"Speak I do as I hear. More thriving is your concern. "

"No boast is in me. But don't we do thirty gallons?"

Evan summoned up surprise into his face, and joy. "Dear me to goodness, "he exclaimed. "Take something must I now. Sell you me an egg. "

Evan shook the egg at his ear. "She is good, " he remarked. 

"Weakish is the male, " observed Mrs. Jenkins. "Much trouble he has inhis inside. "

"Poor bach, " replied Evan. "Well-well. Fair night for to-day. "

"Why for you are in a hurry?"

"Woman fach, for what you do not know that I abide in Wandsworth and theclock is late?"

Mrs. Jenkins laughed. "Boy pretty sly you are. Come you to Richmond tobuy one egg. "

Evan coughed and spat upon the ground, and while he cleaned away hisspittle with a foot he said: "Courting business have I on the Thursdays. The wench is in a shop draper. "

"How shall I mouth where she is? With Wright?"

"In shop Breach she is. " He spoke this in English: "So long. "

In that language also did Mrs. Jenkins answer him: "Now we shan't belong. "

Narrowing his eyes and crooking his knees, Evan stood before Mary. "Like to find out more would I, " he said. "Guess did the old female thatI had seen the adfertissment. "

"Blockhead you are to bare your mind, " Mary admonished him. 

"Why for you call me blockhead when there's no blockhead to be?"

"Sorry am I, dear heart. But do you hurry to marry me. You know thatthings are so and so. The month has shown nothing. "

"Shut your head, or I'll change my think altogether. "

The next week Evan called at the dairy shop again. 

"How was the people?" he cried on the threshold. 

Mrs. Jenkins opened the window which was at the back of her, and calledout: "The boy from Wales is here, Dai. "

Stooping as he moved through the way of the door, Dai greeted Evancivilly: "How was you this day?"

"Quite grand, " Evan answered. 

"What capel do you go?"

"Walham Green, dear man. "

"Good preach there was by the Respected Eynon Daviss the last Sabbathmorning, shall I ask? Eloquent is Eynon. "

"In the night do I go. "

"Solemn serious, go you ought in the mornings. "

"Proper is your saying, " Evan agreed. "Perform I would if I could. "

"Biggish is your round, perhaps?" said Dai. 

"Iss-iss. No-no. " Evan was confused. 

"Don't be afraid of your work. Crafty is your manner. "

Evan had not anything to say. 

"Fortune there is in milk, " said Dai. "Study you the size of her. Littleshe is. Heavy will be my loss. The rent is only fifteen bob a week. Andthirty gallons and more do I do. Broke is my health, " and Dai laid thepalms of his hands on his belly and groaned. 

"Here he is to visit his wench, " said Mrs. Jenkins. 

"You're not married now just?" asked Dai. 

"Better in his pockets trousers is a male for a woman, " said Mrs. Jenkins. 

"Comforting in your pockets trousers is a woman, " Dai cried. 

"Clap your throat, " said Mrs. Jenkins. "Redness you bring to my skin. "

Evan retired and considered. 

"Tempting is the business, " he told Mary. "Fancy do I to know more ofher. Come must I still once yet. "

"Be not slothful, " Mary pleaded. "Already I feel pains, and quickly themonths pass. "

Then Evan charged her to watch over the shop, and to take a count of thepeople who went into it. So Mary walked in the street. Mrs. Jenkins sawher and imagined her purpose, and after she had proved her, she and Daiformed a plot whereby many little children and young youths and girlscame into the shop. Mary numbered every one, but the number that shegave Evan was three times higher than the proper number. The man waspleased, and he spoke out to Dai. "Tell me the price of the shop, " hesaid. 

"Improved has the health, " replied Dai. "And not selling I don't thinkam I. "

"Pity that is. Great offer I have. "

"Smother your cry. Taken a shop too have I in Petersham. Rachel willlook after this. "

Mrs. Jenkins spoke to her husband with a low voice: "Witless you are. Let him speak figures. "

"As you want if you like then, " said Dai. 

"A puzzle you demand this one minute, " Evan murmured. "Thirty poundswould--"

"Light is your head, " Dai cried. 

"More than thirty gallons and a pram. Eighty I want for the shop andstock. "

"I stop, " Evan pronounced. "Thirty-five can I give. No more and noless. "

"Cute bargainer you are. Generous am I to give back five pounds for luckcash on spot. Much besides is my counter trade. "

"Bring me papers for my eyes to see, " said Evan. 

Mrs. Jenkins rebuked Evan: "Hoity-toity! Not Welsh you are. Old Englishboy. "

"Tut-tut, Rachel fach, " said Dai. "Right you are, and right and wrong isEvan Roberts. Books I should have. Trust I give and trust I take. I haveno guile. "

"How answer you to thirty-seven?" asked Evan. "No more we've got, dropdead and blind. "

He went away and related all to Mary. 

"Lose the shop you will, " Mary warned him. "And that's remorsefulyou'll be. "

"Like this and that is the feeling, " said Evan. 

"Go to him, " Mary counseled, "and say you will pay forty-five. "

"No-no, foolish that is. "

They two conferred with each other, and Mary gave to Evan all her money, which was almost twenty pounds; and Evan said to Dai: "I am notdoubtful--"

"Speak what is in you, " Dai urged quickly. 

"Test your shop will I for eight weeks as manager. I give you twentydown as earnest and twenty-five at the finish of the weeks if I buyher. "

Dai and Rachel weighed that which Evan had proposed. The woman said: "Alawyer will do this"; the man said: "Splendid is the bargain and costlyand thievish are old lawyers. "

In this sort Dai answered Evan: "Do as you say. But I shall not givemoney for your work. Act you honestly by me. Did not mam carry me nextmy brother, who is a big preacher? Lend you will I a bed, and a dish ortwo and a plate, and a knife to eat food. "

At this Mary's joy was abounding. "Put you up the banns, " she said. 

"Lots of days there is. Wait until I've bought the place. "

Mary tightened her inner garments and loosened her outer garments, andevery evening she came to the shop to prepare food for Evan, to make hisbed, and to minister to him as a woman. 

Now the daily custom at the shop was twelve gallons of milk, and the teapackets and flour bags which were on shelves were empty. Evan's angerwas awful. He upbraided Mary, and he prayed to be shown how to worstDai. His prayer was respected: at the end of the second week he gave Daitwo pounds more than he had given him the week before. 

"Brisk is trade, " said Dai. 

"I took into stock flour, tea, and four tins of job biscuits, " repliedEvan. "Am I not your servant?"

"Well done, good and faithful servant. "

It was so that Evan bought more than he would sell, and each week heheld a little money by fraud; and matches also and bundles of firewoodand soap did he buy in Dai's name. 

In the middle of the eighth week Dai came down to the shop. 

"How goes it?" he asked in English. 

"Fine, man. Fine. " Changing his language, Evan said: "Keep her will I, and give you the money as I pledged. Take you the sum and sign you thepaper bach. "

Having acted accordingly, Dai cast his gaze on the shelves and on thefloor, and he walked about judging aloud the value of what he saw: "Tea, three-pound-ten; biscuits, four-six; flour, four-five; firewood, fiveshillings; matches, one-ten; soap, one pound. Bring you these toPetersham. Put you them with the bed and the dishes I kindly lent you. "

"For sure me, fulfil my pledge will I, " Evan said. 

He assembled Dai's belongings and placed them in a cart which he hadborrowed; and on the back of the cart he hung a Chinese lantern whichhad in it a lighted candle. When he arrived at Dai's house, he cried:"Here is your ownings. Unload you them. "

Dai examined the inside of the cart. "Mistake there is, Evan. Where'sthe stock?"

"Did I not pay you for your stock and shop? Forgetful you are. "

Dai's wrath was such that neither could he blaspheme God nor invoke Hishelp. Removing the slabber which was gathered in his beard and at hismouth, he shouted: "Put police on you will I. "

"Away must I now, " said Evan. "Come, take your bed. "

"Not touch anything will I. Rachel, witness his roguery. Steal he doesfrom the religious. "

Evan drove off, and presently he became uneasy of the evil that mightbefall him were Dai and Rachel to lay their hands on him; he led hishorse into the unfamiliar and hard and steep road which goes up to theStar and Garter, and which therefrom falls into Richmond town. At whattime he was at the top he heard the sound of Dai and Rachel running tohim, each screaming upon him to stop. Rachel seized the bridle of thehorse, and Dai tried to climb over the back of the cart. Evan bentforward and beat the woman with his whip, and she leaped aside. But Daidid not release his clutch, and because the lantern swayed before hisface he flung it into the cart. 

Evan did not hear any more voices, and misdeeming that he had got thebetter of his enemies, he turned, and, lo, the bed was in a yellowflame. He strengthened his legs and stretched out his thin upper lip, and pulled at the reins, saying: "Wo, now. " But the animal thrust up itshead and on a sudden galloped downwards. At the railing which dividestwo roads it was hindered, and Evan was thrown upon the ground. Men cameforward to lift him, and he was dead. 

V

FOR BETTER

At the time it was said of him "There's a boy that gets on he is, " EnochHarries was given Gwen the daughter of the builder Dan Thomas. On thefirst Sunday after her marriage the people of Kingsend Welsh Tabernaclecrowded about Gwen, asking her: "How like you the bed, Messes Harriesfach?" "Enoch has opened a shop butcher then?" "Any signs of a babanbach yet?" "Managed to get up quickly you did the day?" Gwen answered inthe manner the questions were asked, seriously or jestingly. Sheconsidered these sayings, and the cause of her uneasiness was not apuzzle to her; and she got to despise the man whom she had married, andwhose skin was like parched leather, and to repel his impotent embraces. 

Withal she gave Enoch pleasure. She clothed herself with costlygarments, adorned her person with rings and ornaments, and she modeledher hair in the way of a bob-wig. Enoch gave in to her in all things; hetook her among Welsh master builders, drapers, grocers, dairymen, intotheir homes and such places as they assembled in; and his pride in hiswife was nearly as great as his pride in the twenty plate-glass windowsof his shop. 

In her vanity Gwen exalted her estate. 

"I hate living over the shop, " she said. "It's so common. Let's take ahouse away from here. "

"Good that I am on the premizes, " Enoch replied in Welsh. "Hap go wrongwill affairs if I leave. "

"We can't ask any one decent here. Only commercials, " Gwen said. With ashow of care for her husband's welfare, she added: "Working too hard ismy boy bach. And very splendid you should be. "

Her design was fulfilled, and she and Enoch came to dwell in ThorntonEast, in a house near Richmond Park, and on the gate before the house, and on the door of the house, she put the name Windsor. From that hourshe valued herself high. She had the words Mrs. G. Enos-Harries printedon cards, and she did not speak of Enoch's trade in the hearing ofanybody. She gave over conversing in Welsh, and would give no answerwhen spoken to in that tongue. She devised means continually to liftherself in the esteem of her neighbors, acting as she thought theyacted: she had a man-servant and four maid-servants, and she instructedthem to address her as the madam and Enoch as the master; she had a gongstruck before meals and a bell rung during meals; the furniture in herrooms was as numerous as that in the windows of a shop; she went to theparish church on Sundays; she made feasts. But her life was bitter:tradespeople ate at her table and her neighbors disregarded her. 

Enoch mollified her moaning with: "Never mind. I could buy the wholestreet up. I'll have you a motor-car. Fine it will be with an advert onthe front engine. "

Still slighted, Gwen smoothed her misery with deeds. She declared shewas a Liberal, and she frequented Thornton Vale English CongregationalChapel. She gave ten guineas to the rebuilding fund, put a carpet on thefloor of the pastor's parlor, sang at brotherhood gatherings, andentertained the pastor and his wife. 

Wherefore her charity was discoursed thus: "Now when Peter spoke of alight that shines--shines, mark you--he was thinking of such ladies asMrs. G. Enos-Harries. Not forgetting Mr. G. Enos-Harries. "

"I'm going to build you a vestry, " Gwen said to the pastor. "I'llorganize a sale of work to begin with. "

The vestry was set up, and Gwen bethought of one who should be chargedwith the opening ceremony of it, and to her mind came Ben Lloyd, whoserepute was great among the London Welsh, and to whose house inTwickenham she rode in her car. Ben's wife answered her sharply: "He'sawfully busy. And I know he won't see visitors. "

"But won't you tell him? It will do him such a lot of good. You knowwhat a stronghold of Toryism this place is. "

A voice from an inner room cried: "Who is to see me?"

"Come this way, " said Mrs. Lloyd. 

Ben, sitting at a table with writing paper and a Bible before him, rose. 

"Messes Enos-Harries, " he said, "long since I met you. No odds if Imouth Welsh? There's a language, dear me. This will not interest you inthe least. Put your ambarelo in the cornel, Messes Enos-Harries, andyour backhead in a chair. Making a lecture am I. "

Gwen told him the errand upon which she was bent, and while they twodrank tea, Ben said: "Sing you a song, Messes Enos-Harries. Notforgotten have I your singing in Queen's Hall on the Day of David theSaint. Inspire me wonderfully you did with the speech. I've been sadtoo, but you are a wedded female. Sing you now then. Push your cup andsaucer under the chair. "

"No-no, not in tone am I, " Gwen feigned. 

"How about a Welsh hymn? Come in will I at the repeats. "

"Messes Lloyd will sing the piano?"

"Go must she about her duties. She's a handless poor dab. "

Gwen played and sang. 

"Solemn pretty hymns have we, " said Ben. "Are we not large?" He movedand stood under a picture which hung on the wall--his knees touching andhis feet apart--and the picture was that of Cromwell. "My friends say Iam Cromwell and Milton rolled into one. The Great Father gave me a childand He took him back to the Palace. Religious am I. Want I do to live mylife in the hills and valleys of Wales: listening to the anthem ofcreation, and searching for Him under the bark of the tree. And there Ishall wait for the sound of the last trumpet. "

"A poet you are. " Gwen was astonished. 

"You are a poetess, for sure me, " Ben said. He leaned over her. "Sparkling are your eyes. Deep brown are they--brown as the nut in thepaws of the squirrel. Be you a bard and write about boys Cymru. Tell howthey succeed in big London. "

"I will try, " said Gwen. 

"Like you are and me. Think you do as I think. "

"Know you for long I would, " said Gwen. 

"For ever, " cried Ben. "But wedded you are. Read you a bit of thelecture will I. " Having ended his reading and having sobbed over andpraised that which he had read, Ben uttered: "Certain you come again. Come you and eat supper when the wife is not at home. "

Gwen quaked as she went to her car, and she sought a person whoprofessed to tell fortunes, and whom she made to say: "A gentleman is inlove with you. And he loves you for your brain. He is not your husband. He is more to you than your husband. I hear his silver voice holdingspellbound hundreds of people; I see his majestic forehead and hisauburn locks and the strands of his silken mustache. "

Those words made Gwen very happy, and she deceived herself that theywere true. She composed verses and gave them to Ben. 

"Not right to Nature is this, " said Ben. "The mother is wrong. How manychildren you have, Messes Enos-Harries?"

"Not one. The husband is weak and he is older much than I. "

"The Father has kept His most beautiful gift from you. Pity that is. "Tears gushed from Ben's eyes. "If the marriage-maker had brought ustogether, children we would have jeweled with your eyes and crowned withyour hair. "

"And your intellect, " said Gwen. "You will be the greatest Welshman. "

"Whisper will I now. A drag is the wife. Happy you are with thehusband. "

"Why for you speak like that?"

"And for why we are not married?" Ben took Gwen in his arms and hekissed her and drew her body nigh to him; and in a little while heopened the door sharply and rebuked his wife that she waited thereat. 

Daily did Gwen praise and laud Ben to her husband. "There is no one inthe world like him, " she said. "He will get very far. "

"Bring Mistar Lloyd to Windsor for me to know him quite well, " saidEnoch. 

"I will ask him, " Gwen replied without faltering. 

"Benefit myself I will. "

Early every Thursday afternoon Ben arrived at Windsor, and at the cominghome from his shop of Enoch, Ben always said: "Messes Enos-Harries hasbeen singing the piano. Like the trilling of God's feathered choir isher music. "

Though Ben and Gwen were left at peace they could not satisfy nor crushtheir lust. 

Before three years were over, Ben had obtained great fame. "He ought tobe in Parliament and give up preaching entirely, " some said; and Enochand Gwen were partakers of his glory. 

Then Gwen told him that she had conceived, whereof Ben counseled her togo into her husband's bed. 

"That I have not the stomach to do, " the woman complained. 

"As you say, dear heart, " said Ben. "Cancer has the wife. Perish soonshe must. Ease our path and lie with your lout. "

Presently Gwen bore a child; and Enoch her husband looked at it andsaid: "Going up is Ben Lloyd. Solid am I as the counter. "

Gwen related her fears to Ben, who contrived to make Enoch a member ofthe London County Council. Enoch rejoiced: summoning the congregation ofThornton Vale to be witnesses of his gift of a Bible cushion to thechapel. 

As joy came to him, so grief fell upon his wife. "After all, " Ben wroteto her, "you belong to him. You have been joined together in the holiestand sacredest matrimony. Monumental responsibilities have been thrust onme by my people. I did not seek for them, but it is my duty to bearthem. Pray that I shall use God's hoe with understanding and wisdom. There is a talk of putting me up for Parliament. Others will have achanse of electing a real religious man. I must not be tempted by youagain. Well, good-by, Gwen, may He keep you unspotted from the world. Ships that pass in the night. "

Enoch was plagued, and he followed Ben to chapel meetings, eisteddfodau, Cymrodorion and St. David's Day gatherings, always speaking in thisfashion: "Cast under is the girl fach you do not visit her. Improved hasher singing. "

Because Ben was careless of his call, his wrath heated and he said tohim: "Growing is the baban. "

"How's trade?" Ben remarked. "Do you estimate for Government contracts?"

"Not thought have I. "

"Just hinted. A word I can put in. "

"Red is the head of the baban. "

"Two black heads make red, " observed Ben. 

"And his name is Benjamin. "

"As you speak. Farewell for to-day. How would you like to put up for aWelsh constituency?"

"Not deserving am I of anything. Happy would I and the wife be to seeyou in the House. "

But Ben's promise was fruitless; and Enoch bewailed: "A serpent flewinto my house. "

He ordered Gwen to go to Ben. 

"Recall to him this and that, " he said. "A very good advert an M. P. Would be for the business. Be you dressed like a lady. Take a fur coaton appro from the shop. "

Often thereafter he bade his wife to take such a message. But Gwen hadovercome her distress and she strew abroad her charms; for no man couldnow suffice her. So she always departed to one of her lovers and cameback with fables on her tongue. 

"What can you expect of the Welsh?" cried Enoch in his wrath. "He hasn'tpaid for the goods he got on tick from the shop. County court him willI. He ate my food. The unrighteous ate the food of the righteous. And hewas bad with you. Did I not watch? No good is the assistant that letsthe customer go away with not a much obliged. "

The portion of the Bible that Enoch read that night was this: "I havedecked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with finelinen of Egypt. . . . Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning:let us solace ourselves with love. For the goodman is not at home, he isgone on a long journey. He hath--"

"That's lovely, " said Gwen. 

"Tapestry from my shop, " Enoch expounded. "And Irish linen. And busy wasthe draper in Kingsend. "

Gwen pretended to be asleep. 

"He is the father. That will learn him to keep his promise. The wickedman!"

Unknown to her husband Gwen stood before Ben; and at the sight of herBen longed to wanton with her. Gwen stretched out her arms to be clearof him and to speak to him; her speech was stopped with kisses and herbreasts swelled out. Again she found pleasure in Ben's strength. 

Then she spoke of her husband's hatred. 

"Like a Welshman every spit he is, " said Ben. "And a black. "

But his naughtiness oppressed him for many days and he intrigued; and itcame to pass that Enoch was asked to contest a Welsh constituency, andEnoch immediately let fall his anger for Ben. 

"Celebrate this we shall with a reception in the Town Hall, " heannounced. "You, Gwen fach, will wear the chikest Paris model we canfind. Ben's kindness is more than I expected. Much that I have I owe tohim. "

"Even your son, " said Gwen. 

VI

TREASURE AND TROUBLE

On a day in a dry summer Sheremiah's wife Catrin drove her cows to drinkat the pistil which is in the field of a certain man. Hearing of thatwhich she had done, the man commanded his son: "Awful is the frog toopen my gate. Put you the dog and bitch on her. Teach her will I. "

It was so; and Sheremiah complained: "Why for is my spring barren? Inevery field should water be. "

"Say, little husband, what is in your think?" asked Catrin. 

"Stupid is your head, " Sheremiah answered, "not to know what I throwout. Going am I to search for a wet farm fach. "

Sheremiah journeyed several ways, and always he journeyed in secret;and he could not find what he wanted. Tailor Club Foot came to sit onhis table to sew together garments for him and his two sons. The tailorsaid: "Farm very pretty is Rhydwen. Farm splendid is the farm fach. "

"And speak like that you do, Club Foot, " said Sheremiah. 

"Iss-iss, " the tailor mumbled. 

"Not wanting an old farm do I, " Sheremiah cried. "But speak to goodnesswhere the place is. Near you are, calf bach, about affairs. "

The tailor answered that Rhydwen is in the hollow of the hill whicharises from Capel Sion to the moor. 

In the morning Sheremiah rode forth on his colt, and he said to ShanRhydwen: "Boy of a pigger am I, whatever. "

"Dirt-dirt, man, " Shan cried; "no fat pigs have I, look you. "

"Mournful that is. Mouthings have I heard about grand pigs Tyhen. Noodds, wench. Farewell for this minute, female Tyhen. "

"Pigger from where you are?" Shan asked. 

"From Pencader the horse has carried me. Carry a preacher he did thelast Monday. "

"Weary you are, stranger. Give hay to your horse, and rest you and takeyou a little cup of tea. "

"Happy am I to do that. Thirsty is the backhead of my neck. "

Sheremiah praised the Big Man for tea, bread, butter, and cheese, andwhile he ate and drank he put artful questions to Shan. In the eveninghe said to Catrin: "Quite tidy is Rhydwen. Is she not one hundred acres?And if there is not water in every field, is there not in four?"

He hastened to the owner of Rhydwen and made this utterance: "Farmervery ordinary is your sister Shan. Shamed was I to examine your land. "

"I shouldn't be surprised, " answered the owner. "Speak hard must I tothe trollop. "

"Not handy are women, " said Sheremiah. "Sell him to me the poor-place. Three-fourths of the cost I give in yellow money and one-fourthby-and-by in three years. "

Having taken over Rhydwen, Sheremiah in due season sold much of his cornand hay, some of his cattle, and many such movable things as were in hishouse or employed in tillage; and he and Catrin came to abide inRhydwen; and they arrived with horses in carts, cows, a bull and oxen, and their sons, Aben and Dan. As they passed Capel Sion, people who weregathered at the roadside to judge them remarked how that Aben was blindin his left eye and that Dan's shoulders were as high as his ears. 

At the finish of a round of time Sheremiah hired out his sons and allthat they earned he took away from them; and he and Catrin toiled torecover Rhydwen from its slovenry. After he had paid all that he owedfor the place, and after Catrin had died of dropsy, he called his sonshome. 

Thereon he thrived. He was over all on the floor of Sion, even those inthe Big Seat. Men in debt and many widow-women sought him to free them, and in freeing them he made compacts to his advantage. Thus he came tohave more cattle than Rhydwen could hold, and he bought Penlan, the farmof eighty acres which goes up from Rhydwen to the edge of the moor, andbeyond. 

In quiet seasons he and Aben and Dan dug ditches on the land of Rhydwen;"so that, " he said, "my creatures shall not perish of thirst. "

Of a sudden a sickness struck him, and in the hush which is sometimesbefore death, he summoned to him his sons. "Off away am I to thePalace, " he said. 

"Large will be the shout of joy among the angels, " Aben told him. 

"And much weeping there will be in Sion, " said Dan. "Speak you a littleverse for a funeral preach. "

"Cease you your babblings, now, indeed, " Sheremiah demanded. "Born firstyou were, Aben, and you get Rhydwen. And you, Dan, Penlan. "

"Father bach, " Aben cried, "not right that you leave more to me thanDan. "

"Crow you do like a cuckoo, " Dan admonished his brother. "Wise you are, father. Big already is your giving to me. "

Aben looked at the window and he beheld a corpse candle moving outwardthrough the way of the gate. "Religious you lived, father Sheremiah, andreligious you put on a White Shirt. " Then Aben spoke of the sight he hadseen. 

The old man opened his lips, counseling: "Hish, hish, boys. Break youtrenches in Penlan, Dan. Poor bad are farms without water. More thaneverything is water. " He died, and his sons washed him and clothed himin a White Shirt of the dead, and clipped off his long beard, whichceasing to grow, shall not entwine his legs and feet and his arms andhands on the Day of Rising; and they bowed their heads in Sion for thefull year. 

Dan and Aben lived in harmony. They were not as brothers, but asstrangers; neighborly and at peace. They married wives, by whom they hadchildren, and they sat in the Big Seat in Sion. They mowed their hay andreaped their corn at separate periods, so that one could help the other;if one needed the loan of anything he would borrow it from his brother;if one's heifer strayed into the pasture of the other, the other wouldsay: "The Big Man will make the old grass grow. " On the Sabbath they andtheir children walked as in procession to Sion. 

In accordance with his father's word, Dan dug ditches in Penlan; andagainst the barnyard--which is at the forehead of his house--watersprang up, and he caused it to run over his water-wheel into his pond. 

Now there fell upon this part of Cardiganshire a season of exceedingdrought. The face of the earth was as the face of a cancerous man. Therewas no water in any of the ditches of Rhydwen and none in those ofPenlan. But the spring which Dan had found continued to yield, and fromit Aben's wife took away water in pitchers and buckets; and to the pondAben brought his animals. 

One day Aben spoke to Dan in this wise: "Serious sure, an old bother isthis. "

"Iss-iss, " replied Dan. "Good is the Big Man to allow us water bach. "

"How speech you if I said: 'Unfasten your pond and let him flow into myditches'?"

"The land will suck him before he goes far, " Dan answered. 

Aben departed; and he considered: "Did not Penlan belong to Sheremiah?Travel under would the water and hap spout up in my close. Nice thatwould be. Nasty is the behavior of Dan and there's sly is the job. "

To Dan he said: "Open your pond, man, and let the water come into theditches which father Sheremiah broke. "

Dan would not do as Aben desired, wherefore Aben informed against him inSion, crying: "Little Big Man, know you not what a Turk is the fox? Oneeye bach I have, but you have two, and can see all his wickedness. Makeyou him pay the cost. " He raised his voice so high that the congregationcould not discern the meaning thereof, and it shouted as one person:"Wo, now, boy Sheremiah! What is the matter, say you?"

The anger which Aben nourished against Dan waxed hot. Rain came, and itdid not abate, and the man plotted mischief to his brother's damage. Inheavy darkness he cut the halters which held Dan's cows and horses totheir stalls and drove the animals into the road. He also poisoned pondPenlan, and a sheep died before it could be killed and eaten. 

Dan wept very sore. "Take you the old water, " he said. "Fat is mysorrow. "

"Not religious you are, " Aben censured him. "All the water is mine. "

"Useful he is to me, " Dan replied. "Like would I that he turns my wheelas he goes to you. "

"Clap your mouth, " answered Aben. 

"Not as much as will go through the leg of a smoking pipe shall youhave. "

In Sion Aben told the Big Man of all the benefits which he had conferredupon Dan. 

Men and women encouraged his fury; some said this: "An old paddy is Danto rob your water. Ach y fi"; and some said this: "A dirty ass is themule. " His fierce wrath was not allayed albeit Dan turned the course ofthe water away from his pond, and on his knees and at his labor askedGod that peace might come. 

"Bury the water, " Aben ordered, "and fill in the ditch, Satan. "

"That will I do speedily, " Dan answered in his timidity. "Do you give mean hour fach, for is not the sowing at hand?" Aben would not hearkenunto his brother. He deliberated with a lawyer, and Dan was made to diga ditch straightway from the spring to the close of Rhydwen, and he putpipes in the bottom of the ditch, and these pipes he covered with graveland earth. 

So as Dan did not sow, he had nothing to reap; and people mocked him inthis fashion: "Come we will and gather in your harvest, Dan bach. " Heheld his tongue, because he had nothing to say. His affliction pressedupon him so heavily that he would not be consoled and he hanged himselfon a tree; and his body was taken down at the time of the morning stars. 

A man ran to Rhydwen and related to Aben the manner of Dan's death. Abenwent into a field and sat as one astonished until the light of daypaled. Then he arose, shook himself, and set to number the ears of wheatwhich were in his field. 

VII

SAINT DAVID AND THE PROPHETS

God grants prayers gladly. In the moment that Death was aiming at him amissile of down, Hughes-Jones prayed: "Bad I've been. Don't let me fallinto the Fiery Pool. Give me a brief while and a grand one I'll be forthe religion. " A shaft of fire came out of the mouth of the Lord and theshaft stood in the way of the missile, consuming it utterly; "so, " saidthe Lord, "are his offenses forgotten. "

"Is it a light thing, " asked Paul, "to defy the Law?"

"God is merciful, " said Moses. 

"Is the Kingdom for such as pray conveniently?"

"This, " Moses reproved Paul, "is written in a book: 'The Lord shalljudge His people. '"

Yet Paul continued to dispute, the Prophets gathering near him forentertainment; and the company did not break up until God, as is thecustom in Heaven when salvation is wrought, proclaimed a period ofrejoicing. 

Wherefore Heaven's windows, the number of which is more than that ofblades of grass in the biggest hayfield, were lit as with a flame; andHeman and his youths touched their instruments with fingers and hammersand the singing angels lifted their voices in song; and angels in thelikeness of young girls brewed tea in urns and angels in the likeness ofold women baked pleasant breads in the heavenly ovens. Out of Hell therearose two mountains, which established themselves one over the other onthe floor of Heaven, and the height of the mountains was the depth ofHell; and you could not see the sides of the mountains for the vastmultitude of sinners thereon, and you could not see the sinners for thelive coals to which they were held, and you could not see the burningcoals for the radiance of the pulpit which was set on the furthermostpeak of the mountain, and you could not see the pulpit--from toe to headit was of pure gold--for the shining countenance of Isaiah; and asIsaiah preached, blood issued out of the ends of his fingers from theviolence with which he smote his Bible, and his single voice was louderthan the lamentations of the damned. 

As the Lord had enjoined, the inhabitants of Heaven rejoiced: eating anddrinking, weeping and crying hosanna. 

But Paul would not joy over that which the Lord had done, and soon hesought Him, and finding Him said: "A certain Roman noble labored hishorses to their death in a chariot race before Cćsar: was he worthy ofCćsar's reward?"

"The noble is on the mountain-side, " God answered, "and his horses arein my chariots. "

"One bears witness to his own iniquity, and you bid us feast and you say'He shall have remembrance of me. '"

"Is there room in Heaven for a false witness?" asked God. 

Again did Paul seek God. "My Lord, " he entreated, "what manner of man isthis that confesses his faults?"

"You will provoke my wrath, " said God. "Go and be merry. "

Paul's face being well turned, God moved backward into the RecordOffice, and of the Clerk of the Records He demanded: "Who is he thatprayed unto me?"

"William Hughes-Jones, " replied the Clerk. 

"Has the Forgiving Angel blotted out his sins?"

"For that I have fixed a long space of time"; and the Clerk showed Godeleven heavy books, on the outside of each of which was written:"William Hughes-Jones, One and All Drapery Store, Hammersmith. Hissins"; and God examined the books and was pleased, and He cried:"Rejoice fourfold"; and if Isaiah's roar was higher than the wailings ofthe perished it was now more awful than the roar of a hundred bullocksin a slaughter-house, and if Isaiah's countenance shone more thananything in Heaven, it was now like the eye of the sun. 

"Of what nation is he?" the Lord inquired of the Clerk. 

"The Welsh; the Welsh Nonconformists. "

"Put before me their good deeds. "

"There is none. William Hughes-Jones is the first of them that hasprayed. Are not the builders making a chamber for the accounts of theirdisobedience?"

Immediately God thundered: the earth trembled and the stars shivered andfled from their courses and struck against one another; and God stoodon the brim of the universe and stretched out a hand and a portion of astar fell into it, and that is the portion which He hurled into thegarden of Hughes-Jones's house. On a sudden the revels ceased: the breadof the feast was stone and the tea water, and the songs of the angelswere hushed, and the strings of the harps and viols were withered, andthe hammers were dough, and the mountains sank into Hell, and beholdSatan in the pulpit which was an iron cage. 

The Prophets hurried into the Judgment Hall with questions, and lo Godwas in a cloud, and He spoke out of the cloud. 

"I am angry, " He said, "that Welsh Nonconformists have not heard myname. Who are the Welsh Nonconformists?" The Prophets were silent, andGod mourned: "My Word is the earth and I peopled the earth with myspittle; and I appointed my Prophets to watch over my people, and thewatchers slept and my children strayed. "

Thus too said the Lord: "That hour I devour my children who haveforsaken me, that hour I shall devour my Prophets. "

"May be there is one righteous among us?" said Moses. 

"You have all erred. "

"May be there is one righteous among the Nonconformists, " said Moses;"will the just God destroy him?"

"The one righteous is humbled, and I have warned him to keep mycommandments. "

"The sown seed brought forth a prayer, " Moses pleaded; "will not thejust God wait for the harvest?"

"My Lord is just, " Paul announced. "They who gather wickedness shall notescape the judgment, nor shall the blind instructor be held blameless. "

Moreover Paul said: "The Welsh Nonconformists have been informed of youas is proved by the man who confessed his transgressions. It is a goodthing for me that I am not of the Prophets. "

"I'll be your comfort, Paul, " the Prophets murmured, "that you have donethis to our hurt. " Abasing themselves, they tore their mantles andhowled; and God, piteous of their howlings, was constrained to say:"Bring me the prayers of these people and I will forget yourremissness. "

The Prophets ran hither and thither, wailing: "Woe. Woe. Woe. "

Sore that they behaved with such scant respect, Paul herded them intothe Council Room. "Is it seemly, " he rebuked them, "that the Prophets ofGod act like madmen?"

"Our lot is awful, " said they. 

"The lot of the backslider is justifiably awful, " was Paul's rejoinder. "You have prophesied too diligently of your own glory. "

"You are learned in the Law, Paul, " said Moses. "Make us waywise. "

"Send abroad a messenger to preach damnation to sinners, " answered Paul. "For Heaven, " added he, "is the knowledge of Hell. "

So it came to pass. From the hem of Heaven's Highway an angel flew intoWales; and the angel, having judged by his sight and his hearing, returned to the Council Room and testified to the godliness of the WelshNonconformists. "As difficult for me, " he vowed, "to write the feathersof my wings as the sum of their daily prayers. "

"None has reached the Record Office, " said Paul. 

"They are always engaged in this bright business, " the angel declared, "and praising the Lord. And the number of the people is many and Heavenwill need be enlarged for their coming. "

"Of a surety they pray?" asked Paul. 

"Of a surety. And as they pray they quake terribly. "

"The Romans prayed hardly, " said Paul. "But they prayed to other gods. "

"Wherever you stand on their land, " asserted the angel, "you see atemple. "

"I exceedingly fear, " Paul remarked, "that another Lord has dominionover them. "

The Prophets were alarmed, and they sent a company of angels over theearth and a company under the earth; and the angels came back; onecompany said: "We searched the swampy marges and saw neither a god nor aheaven nor any prayer, " and the other company said: "We probed the loftyemptiness and we did not touch a god or a heaven or any prayer. "

Paul was distressed and he reported his misgivings to God, and Godupbraided the Prophets for their sloth. "Is there no one who can do thisfor me?" He cried. "Are all the cunning men in Hell? Shall I make allHeaven drink the dregs of my fury? Burnish your rusted armor. Departinto Hell and cry out: 'Is there one here who knows the WelshNonconformists?' Choose the most crafty and release him and lead himhere. "

Lots were cast and it fell to Moses to descend into Hell; and he stoodat the well, the water of which is harder than crystal, and he criedout; and of the many that professed he chose Saint David, whom hebrought up to God. 

"Visit your people, " said God to the Saint, "and bring me theirprayers. "

"Why should I be called?"

"It is my will. My Prophets have failed me, and if it is not done theyshall be destroyed. "

David laughed. "From Hell comes a savior of the Prophets. In the middleof my discourse at the Judgment Seat the Prophets stooped upon me. 'ToHell with him, ' they screamed. "

"Perform faithfully, " said the Lord, "and you shall remain inParadise. "

"My Lord is gracious! I was a Prophet and the living believe that I amwith the saints. I will retire. "

"Perform faithfully and you shall be of my Prophets. "

Then God took away David's body and nailed it upon a wall, and He putwings on the shoulders of his soul; and David darted through a cloud andlanded on earth, and having looked at the filthiness of theNonconformists in Wales he withdrew to London. But however actively hetried he could not find a man of God nor the destination of the fearfulprayers of Welsh preachers, grocers, drapers, milkmen, lawyers, andpoliticians. 

Loth to go to Hell and put to a nonplus, David built a nest in a tree inRichmond Park, and he paused therein to consider which way to proceed. One day he was disturbed by the singing and preaching of a Welsh soldierwho had taken shelter from rain under the tree. David came down fromhis nest, and when the mouth of the man was most open, he plunged intothe fellow's body. Henceforward in whatsoever place the soldier wasthere also was David; and the soldier carried him to a clothier's shopin Putney, the sign of the shop being written in this fashion:

J. PARKER LEWIS. The Little (Gents. Mercer) Wonder. 

Crossing the threshold, the soldier shouted: "How are you?"

The clothier, whose skin was as hide which had been scorched in atanner's yard, bent over the counter. "Man bach, " he exclaimed, "glad amI to see you. Pray will I now that you are all Zer Garnett. " Histhanksgiving finished, he said: "Wanting a suit you do. "

"Yes, and no, " replied the soldier. "Cheap she must be if yes. "

"You need one for certain. Shabby you are. "

"This is a friendly call. To a low-class shop must a poor tommy go. "

"Do you then not be cheated by an English swindler. " The clothier raisedhis thin voice: "Kate, here's a strange boy. "

A pretty young woman, in spite of her snaggled teeth, frisked into theroom like a wanton lamb. Her brown hair was drawn carelessly over herhead, and her flesh was packed but loosely. 

"Serious me, " she cried, "Llew Eevans! Llew bach, how are you? Very bighas the army made you and strong. "

"Not changed you are. "

"No. The last time you came was to see the rabbit. "

"Dear me, yes. Have you still got her?"

"She's in the belly long ago, " said the clothier. 

"I have another in her stead, " said Kate. "A splendid one. Would youlike to fondle her?"

"Why, yez, " answered the soldier. 

"Drat the old animal, " cried the clothier. "Too much care you give her, Kate. Seven looks has the deacon from Capel King's Cross had of her andhe hasn't bought her yet. "

As he spoke the clothier heaped garments on the counter. 

"Put out your arms, " he ordered Kate, "and take the suits to a room forLlew to try on. "

Kate obeyed, and Llew hymning "Moriah" took her round the waist andembraced her, and the woman, hungering for love, gladly gave herself up. Soon attired in a black frock coat, a black waistcoat, and blacktrousers, Llew stepped into the shop. 

"A champion is the rabbit, " he said; "and very tame. "

"If meat doesn't come down, " said the clothier, "in the belly she'll beas well. "

"Let me know before you slay her. Perhaps I buy her. I will study heragain. "

The clothier gazed upon Llew. "Tidy fit, " he said. 

"A bargain you give me. "

"Why for you talk like that?" the clothier protested. "No profit can Imake on a Cymro. As per invoice is the cost. And a latest style bowlerhat I throw in. "

Peering through Llew's body, Saint David saw that the dealer dealttreacherously, and that the money which he got for the garments was twopounds over that which was proper. 

Llew walked away whistling. "A simple fellow is the black, " he said tohimself. "Three soverens was bad. "

On the evening of the next day--that day being the Sabbath--the soldierworshiped in Capel Kingsend; and betwixt the sermon and the benediction, the preacher delivered this speech: "Very happy am I to see so manywarriors here once more. We sacrificed for them quite a lot, and if theyhave any Christianity left in them they will not forget what CapelKingsend has done and will repay same with interest. Happier still weare to welcome Mister Hughes-Jones to the Big Seat. In the valley of theshadow has Mister Hughes-Jones been. Earnestly we prayed for our dearreligious leader. To-morrow at seven we shall hold a prayer meeting forhis cure. At seven at night. Will everybody remember? OnMonday--to-morrow--at seven at night a prayer meeting for MisterHughes-Jones will be held in Capel Kingsend. The duty of every one is toattend. Will you please say something now, zer?"

Hughes-Jones rose from the arm-chair which is under the pulpit, andthrust out his bristled chin and rested his palms on the communiontable; and he said not one word. 

"Mister Hughes-Jones, " the preacher urged. 

"I am too full of grace, " said Hughes-Jones; he spoke quickly, as onewho is on the verge of tears, and his big nostrils widened and narrowedas those of one who is short of breath. 

"The congregation, zer, expects--"

"Well-well, I've had a glimpse of the better land and with a clearconscience I could go there, only the Great Father has more for me to dohere. A miracle happened to me. In the thick of my sickness a meetoritydropped outside the bedroom. The mistress fainted slap bang. 'If this ismy summons, ' I said, 'I am ready. ' A narrow squeak that was. I will nowsit and pray for you one and all. "

In the morning Llew went to the One and All and in English--that is thetongue of the high Welsh--did he address Hughes-Jones. 

"I've come to start, zer, " he said. 

"Why wassn't you in the chapel yezterday?"

"I wass there, zer. "

"Ho-ho. For me there are two people in the chapel--me and Him. "

"Yez, indeed. Shall I gommence now?"

"Gommence what?"

"My crib what I leave to join up. "

"Things have changed. There has been a war on, mister. They are allsmart young ladies here now. And it is not right to sack them and shovethem on the streets. "

"But--"

"Don't answer back, or I'll have you chucked from the premizes andlocked up. Much gratitude you show for all I did for the soders. "

"Beg pardon, zer. "

"We too did our bits at home. Slaved like horses. Me and the two sons. And they had to do work of national importance. Disgraceful I call it ina free country. "

"I would be much obliged, zer, if you would take me on. "

"You left on your own accord, didn't you? I never take back a hand thatleave on their own. Why don't you be patriotic and rejoin and finish upthe Huns?"

Bowed down, the soldier made himself drunk, and the drink enlivened hisdismettled heart; and in the evening he stole into the loft which isabove the Big Seat of Capel Kingsend, purposing to disturb the prayingmen with loud curses. 

But Llew slept, and while he slept the words of the praying men camethrough the ceiling like the pieces of a child's jigsaw puzzle; somefloated sluggishly and fell upon the wall and the roof, and some becauseof their little strength did not reach above the floor; and none wentthrough the roof. Saint David closed his hands on many, and there was nosoundness in them, and they became as though they were nothing. Heformed a bag of the soldier's handkerchief, and he filled it with thewords, but as he drew to the edges they crumbled into less than dust. 

He pondered; and he made a sack out of cobwebs, and when the sack couldnot contain any more words, he wove a lid of cobwebs over the mouth ofit. Jealous that no mishap should befall his treasure, he mounted a low, slow-moving cloud, and folding his wings rode up to the Gate of theHighway. 

VIII

JOSEPH'S HOUSE

A woman named Madlen, who lived in Penlan--the crumbling mud walls ofwhich are in a nook of the narrow lane that rises from the valley ofBern--was concerned about the future state of her son Joseph. Men whojudged themselves worthy to counsel her gave her such counsels as these:"Blower bellows for the smith, " "Cobblar clox, " "Booboo for crows. "

Madlen flattered her counselors, though none spoke that which waspleasing unto her. 

"Cobblar clox, ach y fy, " she cried to herself. "Wan is the lad bachwith decline. And unbecoming to his Nuncle Essec that he follows lowtasks. "

Moreover, people, look you at John Lewis. Study his marble gravestone inthe burial ground of Capel Sion: "His name is John Newton-Lewis; ParisHouse, London, his address. From his big shop in Putney, Home theybrought him by railway. " Genteel are shops for boys who are consumptive. Always dry are their coats and feet, and they have white cuffs on theirwrists and chains on their waistcoats. Not blight nor disease nor frostcan ruin their sellings. And every minute their fingers grabble in thepurses of nobles. 

So Madlen thought, and having acted in accordance with her design, shetook her son to the other side of Avon Bern, that is to Capel MountMoriah, over which Essec her husband's brother lorded; and him sheaddressed decorously, as one does address a ruler of the capel. 

"Your help I seek, " she said. 

"Poor is the reward of the Big Preacher's son in this part, " Essecannounced. "A lot of atheists they are. "

"Not pleading I have not the rent am I, " said Madlen. "How if Iprentice Joseph to a shop draper. Has he any odds?"

"Proper that you seek, " replied Essec. "Seekers we all are. Sit you. Noroom there is for Joseph now I am selling Penlan. "

"Like that is the plan of your head?" Madlen murmured, concealing herdread. 

"Seven of pounds of rent is small. Sell at eighty I must. "

"Wait for Joseph to prosper. Buy then he will. Buy for your mam youwill, Joseph?"

"Sorry I cannot change my think, " Essec declared. 

"Hard is my lot; no male have I to ease my burden. "

"A weighty responsibility my brother put on me, " said Essec. "'Dyingwith old decline I am, ' the brother mouthed. 'Fruitful is the soil. Watch Madlen keeps her fruitful. ' But I am generous. Eight shall be therent. Are you not the wife of my flesh?"

After she had wiped away her tears, "Be kind, " said Madlen, "and wisdomit to Joseph. "

"The last evening in the seiet I commanded the congregation to give theBig Man's photograph a larger hire, " said Essec. "A few of my proverbs Iwill now spout. " He spat his spittle and bundling his beard blew theresidue of his nose therein; and he chanted: "Remember Essec Pugh, whoseright foot is tied into a club knot. Here's the club to kick sinners asmy perished brother tried to kick the Bad Satan from the inside of hisfemale Madlen with his club of his baston. Some preachers search overthe Word. Some preachers search in the Word. But search under the Worddoes preacher Capel Moriah. What's the light I find? A stutterer wasMoses. As the middle of a butter cask were the knees of Paul. A splotchlike a red cabbage leaf was on the cheek of Solomon. By the signs shallthe saints be known. 'Preacher Club Foot, come forward to tell aboutMoriah, ' the Big Man will say. Mean scamps, remember Essec Pugh, for Ishall remember you the Day of Rising. "

It came to be that on a morning in the last month of his thirteenth yearJoseph was bidden to stand at the side of the cow which Madlen wasmilking and to give an ear to these commandments: "The serpent is in thebottom of the glass. The hand on the tavern window is the hand of Satan. On the Sabbath eve get one penny for two ha'pennies for the platecollection. Put money in the handkerchief corner. Say to persons you area nephew of Respected Essec Pugh and you will have credit. Pick thewhite sixpence from the floor and give her to the mishtir; she will havefallen from his pocket trowis. "

Then Joseph turned, and carrying his yellow tin box, he climbed into thecraggy moorland path which takes you to the tramping road. By the pumpof Tavarn Ffos he rested until Shim Carrier came thereby; and whileShim's horse drank of barley water, Joseph stepped into the wagon; andat the end of the passage Shim showed him the business of getting aticket and that of going into and coming down from a railway carriage. 

In that manner did Joseph go to the drapery shop of Rees Jones inCarmarthen; and at the beginning he was instructed in the keeping andthe selling of such wares as reels of cotton, needles, pins, bootlaces, mending wool, buttons, and such like--all those things which togetherare known as haberdashery. He marked how this and that were done, and inwhat sort to fashion his visage and frame his phrases to this or thatwoman. His oncoming was rapid. He could measure, cut, and wrap in aparcel twelve yards of brown or white calico quicker than any one in theshop, and he understood by rote the folds of linen tablecloths andbedsheets; and in the town this was said of him: "Shopmen quiteordinary can sell what a customer wants; Pugh Rees Jones can sell whatnobody wants. "

The first year passed happily, and the second year; and in the thirdJoseph was stirred to go forward. 

"What use to stop here all the life?" he asked himself. "Better to gooff. "

He put his belongings in his box and went to Swansea. 

"Very busy emporium I am in, " were the words he sent to Madlen. "And thewage is twenty pounds. "

Madlen rejoiced at her labor and sang: "Ten acres of land, and acow-house with three stalls and a stall for the new calf, and a pigsty, and a house for my bones and a barn for my hay and straw, and a loft formy hens: why should men pray for more?" She ambled to Moriah, divertingpassers-by with boastful tales of Joseph, and loosened her imaginings tothe Respected. 

"Pounds without number he is earning, " she cried. "Rich he'll be. Swells are youths shop. "

"Gifts from the tip of my tongue fell on him, " said Essec. "Religiouswere my gifts. "

"Iss, indeed, the brother of the male husband. "

"Now you can afford nine of pounds for the place. Rich he is and richerhe will be. Pounds without number he has. "

Madlen made a record of Essec's scheme for Joseph; and she said also:"Proud I'll be to shout that my son bach bought Penlan. "

"Setting aside money am I, " Joseph speedily answered. 

Again ambition aroused him. "Footling is he that is content withZwanssee. Next half-holiday skurshon I'll crib in Cardiff. "

Joseph gained his desire, and the chronicle of his doings he sent to hismother. "Twenty-five, living-in, and spiffs on remnants are the wages, "he said. "In the flannelette department I am and I have not been finedonce. Lot of English I hear, and we call ladies madam that the weddednor the unwedded are insulted. Boys harmless are the eight that sleep byme. Examine Nuncle of the price of Penlan. "

"I will wag my tongue craftily and slowly, " Madlen vowed as she crossedher brother-in-law's threshold. 

"I Shire Pembroke land is cheap, " she said darkly. 

"Look you for a farm there, " said Essec. "Pelted with offers am I forPenlan. Ninety I shall have. Poverty makes me sell very soon. "

"As he says. "

"Pretty tight is Joseph not to buy her. No care has he for his mam. "

"Stiffish are affairs with him, poor dab. "

Madlen reported to Joseph that which Essec had said, and she added:"Awful to leave the land of your father. And auction the cows. Even thered cow that is a champion for milk. Where shall I go? The House of thePoor. Horrid that your mam must go to the House of the Poor. "

Joseph sat on his bed, writing: "Taken ten pounds from the post I havewhich leaves three shillings. Give Nuncle the ten as earnest of myintention. "

Nine years after that day on which he had gone to Carmarthen Joseph saidin his heart: "London shops for experience"; and he caused a frock coatto be sewn together, and he bought a silk hat and an umbrella, and atthe spring cribbing he walked into a shop in the West End of London, asking: "Can I see the engager, pleaze?" The engager came to him andJoseph spoke out: "I have all-round experience. Flannelettes three yearsin Niclass, Cardiff, and left on my own accord. Kept the colored dressesin Tomos, Zwanssee. And served through. Apprentized in Reez JonesCarmarthen for three years. Refs egzellent. Good ztok-keeper andappearance. "

"Start at nine o'clock Monday morning, " the engager replied. "Thirtypounds a year and spiffs; to live in. You'll be in the laces. "

"Fashionable this shop is, " Joseph wrote to Madlen, "and I have to besmart and wear a coat like the preachers, and mustn't take more thanthree zwap lines per day or you have the sack. Two white shirts perweek; and the dresses of the showroom young ladies are a treat. Fivepounds enclosed for Nuncle. "

"Believe your mam, " Madlen answered: "don't throw gravel at the windowsof the old English unless they have the fortunes. "

In his zeal for his mother's welfare Joseph was heedless of himself, eating little of the poor food that was served him, clothing his bodyniggardly, and seldom frequenting public bath-houses; his mind spannedhis purpose, choosing the fields he would join to Penlan, counting thenumber of cattle that would graze on the land, planning the slate-tiledhouse which he would set up. 

"Twenty pounds more must I have, " he moaned, "for the blaguard Nuncle. "

Every day thereafter he stole a little money from his employers andevery night he made peace with God: "Only twenty-five is the wage, andspiffs don't count because of the fines. Don't you let me be found out, Big Man bach. Will you strike mam into her grave? And disgrace RespectedEssec Pugh Capel Moriah?"

He did not abate his energies howsoever hard his disease was wasting anddestroying him. The men who lodged in his bedroom grew angry with him. "How can we sleep with your dam coughing?" they cried. "Why don't youinvest in a second-hand coffin?"

Feared that the women whom he served would complain that the poison ofhis sickness was tainting them and that he would be sent away, Josephincreased his pilferings; where he had stolen a shilling he now stoletwo shillings; and when he got five pounds above the sum he needed, heheaved a deep sigh and said: "Thank you for your favor, God bach. I willnow go home to heal myself. "

Madlen took the money to Essec, coming back heavy with grief. 

"Hoo-hoo, " she whined, "the ninety has bought only the land. Selling thehouses is Essec. "

"Wrong there is, " said Joseph. "Probe deeply we must. "

From their puzzlings Madlen said: "What will you do?"

"Go and charge swindler Moriah. "

"Meddle not with him. Strong he is with the Lord. "

"Teach him will I to pocket my honest wealth. "

Because of his weakness, Joseph did not go to Moriah; to-day he said: "Iwill to-morrow, " and to-morrow he said: "Certain enough I'll goto-morrow. "

In the twilight of an afternoon he and Madlen sat down, gazing about, and speaking scantily; and the same thought was with each of them, andthis was the thought: "A tearful prayer will remove the Big Man from Hisjudgment, but nothing will remove Essec from his purpose. "

"Mam fach, " said Joseph, "how will things be with you?"

"Sorrow not, soul nice, " Madlen entreated her son. "Couple of weeks veryshort have I to live. "

"As an hour is my space. Who will stand up for you?"

"Hish, now. Hish-hish, my little heart. "

Madlen sighed; and at the door she made a great clatter, and the soundof the clatter was less than the sound of her wailing. 

"Mam! Mam!" Joseph shouted. "Don't you scream. Hap you will softenNuncle's heart if you say to him that my funeral is close. "

Madlen put a mourning gown over her petticoats and a mourning bodiceover her shawls, and she tarried in a field as long as it would take herto have traveled to Moriah; and in the heat of the sun she returned, laughing. 

"Mistake, mistake, " she cried. "The houses are ours. No undertanding wasin me. Cross was your Nuncle. 'Terrible if Joseph is bad with me, ' hesaid. Man religious and tidy is Essec. " Then she prayed that Josephwould die before her fault was found out. 

Joseph did not know what to do for his joy. "Well-well, there's better Iam already, " he said. He walked over the land and coveted the land ofhis neighbors. "Dwell here for ever I shall, " he cried to Madlen. "Agrand house I'll build--almost as grand as the houses of preachers. "

In the fifth night he died, and before she began to weep, Madlen liftedher voice: "There's silly, dear people, to covet houses! Only a smallishbit of house we want. "

IX

LIKE BROTHERS

Silas Bowen hated his brother John, but when he heard of John'ssickness, he reasoned: "Blackish has been his dealings. And trickish. Sly also. Odd will affairs seem if I don't go to him at once. "

At the proper hour he closed the door of his shop. Then he washed hisface, and put beeswax on the dwindling points of his mustache, and hecame out of Barnes into Thornton East; into High Road, where is hisbrother's shop. 

"That is you, " said John to him. 

"How was you, man?" Silas asked. "Talk the name of the old malady. "

"Say what you have to say in English, " John answered in a little voice. "It is easier and classier. "

That which was spoken was rendered into English; and John replied: "I ampleazed to see you. Take the bowler off your head and don't put her onthe harimonium. The zweat will mark the wood. "

"The love of brothers push me here, " said Silas. "It is pastunderstanding. As boyss we learn the same pray-yer. And we talked thesame temperance dialogue in Capel Zion. I was always the temperance one. And quite a champion reziter. The way is round and about, boy bach, fromZion to the grave. "

"Don't speak like that, " pleaded John. "I caught a cold going to theCity to get ztok. I will be healthy by the beginning of the week. "

"Be it so. Yet I am full of your trouble. Sick you are and how's trade?"

"Very brisk. I am opening a shop in Richmond again, " John said. 

"You're learning me something. Don't you think too much of that shop;Death is near and set your mind on the crossing. "

John's lame daughter Ann halted into the room, and stepped up to thebed. 

"Stand by the door for one minit, Silas, " John cried. "I am having mychat confidential. "

From a book Ann recited the business of that day; naming each articlethat had been sold, and the cost and the profit thereof. 

"How's that with last year?" her father commanded. 

"Two-fifteen below. "

"Fool!" John whispered. "You are a cow, with your gamey leg. You'reruining the place. "

Ann closed the book and put her fountain pen in the leather case whichwas pinned to her blouse, and she spoke this greeting: "How are you, Nuncle Silas. It's long since I've seen you. " She thrust out her archedteeth in a smile. "Good-night, now. You must call and see our Richmondestablishment. "

"Silas, " said John, "empty a dose of the medecyne in a cup for me. "

"There's little comfort in medecyne, " Silas observed. "Not much use isthe stuff if the Lord is calling you home. Calling you home. Shall Iread you a piece from the Beybile of the Welsh? It is a great pity youhave forgot the language of your mother. "

"I did not hear you, " said John. "Don't you trouble to say it over. " Hedrank the medicine. "Unfortunate was the row about the Mermaid Agency. Iwas sorry to take it away from you, but if I hadn't some one else would. We kept it in the family, Silas. "

"I have prayed a lot, " said Silas to his brother, "that me and you arebrought together before the day of the death. Nothing can break us frombeing brothers. "

"You are very doleful. I shall shift this little cold. "

"Yes-yes, you will. I would be glad to follow your coffin to Wales andlook into the guard's van at stations where the train stop, but thefare is big and the shop is without a assistant. Weep until I am soreall over I shall in Capel Shirland Road. When did the doctor give youup?"

"He's a donkey. He doesn't know nothing. Here he is once per day andcharging for it. And he only brings his repairs to me. "

"The largest charge will be to take you to your blessed home, " saidSilas. "The railway need a lot of money for to carry a corpse. I feelquite sorrowful. In Heaven you'll remember that I was at your deathbed. "

John did not answer. 

"Well-well, " said Silas, whispering loudly, "making his peace with theBig Man he is"; and he went away, moaning a funereal hymn tune. 

John thought over his plight and was distressed, and he spoke to God inWelsh: "Not fitting that you leave the daughter fach alone. Short inher leg you made her. There's a set-back. Her mother perished; and did Icomplain? An orphan will the pitiful wench be. Who will care for theshop? And the repairing workman? Steal the leather he will. A fuss willbe about shop Richmond. Paid have I the rent for one year in advance. Serious will the loss be. Be not of two thinks. Send Lisha to breathebreathings into my inside--in the belly where the heart is. Forgive methat I go to the Capel English. Go there I do for the trade. Generous amI in the collections. Ask the preacher. Take some one else to sit in mychair in the Palace. Amen. Amen and amen. " In his misery he sobbed, andhe would not speak to Ann nor heed her questionings. At the cold of dawnhe thought that Death was creeping down to him, and he screamed: "Allowme to live for a year--two years--and a grand communion set will I giveto the Welsh capel in Shirland Road. Individual cups. Silver-plated, Sheffield make. Ann shall send quickly for the price-list. "

His fear was such that he would not suffer his beard to be combed, norhave his face covered by a bedsheet; and he would not stretch himself orturn his face upwards: in such a manner dead men lie. 

Again came Silas to provoke his brother to his death. 

"Richmond shops are letting like anything, " he said. 

"The place is coming on, " replied John. "I was lucky to get one inKing's Row. She is cheap too. "

"What are you talking about? There's a new boot shop in King's Rowalready. Next door to the jeweler. "

"You are mistook. I have taken her. "

"Well, then, you are cheated. Get up at once and make a case. Wear anovercoat and ride in the bus. "

But John bade Ann go to Richmond and to say this and that to the ownerof the house. Ann went and the house was empty. 

A third time Silas came out of Barnes, bringing with him gifts. Theseare the gifts that he offered his brother John: a tin of lobster, a tinof sardines, a tin of salmon, and a tin of herrings; and through eachtin, in an unlikely place, he had driven the point of a gimlet. 

"Eat these, " he said, "and good they will do you. "

"Much obliged, " replied John. "I'll try a herring with bread and butterand vinegar to supper. Very much obliged. It was not my blame that wequarreled. Others had his eye on the agency. "

"Tish, I did not want the old Mermaid. You keep her. I got the soleagency for the Gwendoline. "

"How is Gwendolines going?"

"More than I can do to keep ztok of her. Four dozen gents' laces andthree dozen ladies' ditto on the twenty-fifth, and soon I order anotherfour dozen ladies' buttons. "

John called Ann and to her he said: "How is Mermaid ztok?"

"We are almost out of nine gents and four ladies, " answered Ann. 

"Write Nuncle Silas the order and he'll drop her in the Zity. Pay yourfare one way will I, Silas. "

Silas fled the next day into the Mermaid warehouse and sought out themanager. "My brother J. Owen and Co. Thornton East has sold his lastpair of Mermaids, " he said. 

He brought trouble into his eyes and made his voice to quiver as he toldhow that John was dying and how that the shop was his brother's legacyto him. "Send you the goods for this order to my shop in Barnes, " headded. "And all future orders. That will be my headquarters. "

He did not go to John's house any more; and although John ate of thelobster, the herrings, and the sardines and was sick, he did not die. Aweek expired and a sound reached him that Silas was selling Mermaidboots; and he enjoined Ann to test the truth of that sound. 

"It's sure enough, dad, " Ann said. 

John's fury tingled. He put on him his clothes and seized a stick, andby the strength of his passion he moved into Barnes; and he pitchedhimself at the entering in of the shop, and he saw that Ann's speech wasright. He came back; and he did not eat or drink or rest until he hadremoved all that was in his window and had placed therein no other bootsthan the Mermaids; and on each pair he put a ticket which was trulymarked: "Half cost price. " On his door he put this notice: "This FIRMhas no Connection with the shop in Barnes"; and this notice could beseen and read whether the door was open or shut. 

After a period people returned to him, demanding: "I want a pair ofMermaids, please"; and inasmuch as he had no more to sell, they who haddealt with him went to the shop of his brother. 

X

A WIDOW WOMAN

The Respected Davydd Bern-Davydd spoke in this sort to the people whowere assembled at the Meeting for Prayer: "Well-well, know you all theorder of the service. Grand prayers pray last. Boys ordinary praymiddle, and bad prayers pray first. Boys bach just beginning also comefirst. Now, then, after I've read a bit from the Book of Speeches andyou've sung the hymn I call out, Josi Mali will report. "

Bern-Davydd ceased his reading, and while the congregation sang, Josiplaced his arms on the sill which is in front of pews and laid his headthereon. 

"Josi Mali, man, come to the Big Seat and mouth what you think, " saidBern-Davydd. 

Josi's mother Mali touched her son, whispering this counsel: "Put toshame the last prayer, indeed now, Josi. "

By and by Josi lifted his head and stood on his feet. This is what hesaid: "Asking was I if I was religious enough to spout in the company ofthe Respected. "

"Out of the necks of young youths we hear pieces that are verysensible, " said Bern-Davydd. "Come you, Josi Mali, to the saintly BigSeat. "

As Josi moved out of his pew, his thick lips fallen apart and his highcheek bones scarlet, his mother said: "Keep your eyes clapped veryclose, or hap the prayers will shout that you spoke from a hidden booklike an old parson. "

So Josi, who in the fields and on his bed had exercised prayer in themanner that one exercises singing, uttered his first petition in CapelSion. He told the Big Man to pardon the weakness of his words, becausethe trousers of manhood had not been long upon him; he named those whoentered the Tavern and those who ate bread which had been swollen bybarm; he congratulated God that Bern-Davydd ruled over Sion. 

At what time he was done, Bern-Davydd cried out: "Amen. Solemn, dear me, amen. Piece quite tidy of prayer"; and the men of the Big Seat cried:"Piece quite tidy of prayer. "

The quality of Josi's prayers gave much pleasure in Sion, and it wasnoised abroad even in Morfa, from whence a man journeyed, saying: "Breakyour hire with your master and be a servant in my farm. Wanting a prayervery bad do we in Capel Salem. " Josi immediately asked leave of God totell Bern-Davydd that which the man from Morfa had said. God gave himleave, wherefore Bern-Davydd, whose spirit waxed hot, answered: "Boy, boy, why for did you not kick the she cat on the backhead?"

Then Josi said to his mother Mali: "A preacher will I be. Go will I atthe finish of my servant term to the school for Grammar inCastellybryn. "

"Glad am I to hear you talk, " said Mali. "Serious pity that mybelongings are so few. "

"Small is your knowledge of the Speeches, " Josi rebuked his mother. "Howgo they: 'Sell all that you have?' Iss-iss, all, mam fach. "

Now Mali lived in Pencoch, which is in the valley about midway betweenShop Rhys and the Schoolhouse, and she rented nearly nine acres of theland which is on the hill above Sion. Beyond the furnishings of hertwo-roomed house, she owned three cows, a heifer, two pigs, and fowls. She fattened her pigs and sold them, and she sold also her heifer; andJosi went to the School of Grammar. Mali labored hard on the land, andshe got therefrom all that there was to be got; and whatever that sheearned she hid in a hole in the ground. "Handy is little money, " shemurmured, "to pay for lodgings and clothes preacher, and the old scampsof boys who teach him. " She lived on potatoes and buttermilk, and shedressed her land all the time. People came to remark of her: "There's nodifference between Mali Pencoch and the mess in her cow-house. "

Days, weeks, and months moved slowly; and years sped. Josi passed fromthe School of Grammar to College Carmarthen, and Mali gave him all themoney that she had, and prayed thus: "Big Man bach, terrible wouldaffairs be if I perished before the boy was all right. Let you me keepmy strength that Josi becomes as large as Bern-Davydd. Amen. "

Even so. Josi had a name among Students' College, and even amongordained rulers of pulpits; and Mali went about her duties joyful andglad; it was as if the Kingdom of the Palace of White Shirts was withinher. While at her labor she mumbled praises to the Big Man for Hisgoodness, until an awful thought came to her: "Insulting am I to theLarge One bach. Only preachers are holy enough to stand in their pray. Not stop must I now; go on my knees will I in the dark. "

She did not kneel on her knees for the stiffness that was in her limbs. 

Her joy was increased exceedingly when Josi was called to minister untoCapel Beulah in Carmarthen, and she boasted: "Bigger than Sion is Moriahand of lofts has not the Temple two?"

"Idle is your babbling, " one admonished her. "Does a calf feed hismother?"

Josi heard the call. His name grew; men and women spoke his sayings oneto another, and Beulah could not contain all the people who would hearhis word; and he wrote a letter to his mother: "God has given me to wedMary Ann, the daughter of Daniel Shop Guildhall. Kill you a pig and salthim and send to me the meat. "

All that Josi asked Mali gave, and more; she did not abate in any of hertoil for five years, when a disease laid hold on Josi and he died. Malicleaned her face and her hands in the Big Pistil from which you drawdrinking water, and she brought forth her black garments and put them onher; and because of her age she could not weep. The day before that herson was to be buried, she went to the house of her neighbor Sara EyeGlass, and to her she said: "Wench nice, perished is Josi and off awayam I. Console his widow fach I must. Tell you me that you will milk mycow. "

Sara turned her seeing eye upon Mali. "An old woman very mad you are togo two nines of miles. "

"Milk you my cow, " said Mali. "And milk you her dry. Butter from me thewidow fach shall have. And give ladlings of the hogshead to my pigs andscatter food for my hens. "

She tore a baston from a tree, trimmed it and blackened it withblacking, and at noon she set forth to the house of herdaughter-in-law; and she carried in a basket butter, two dead fowls, potatoes, carrots, and a white-hearted cabbage, and she came to Josi'shouse in the darkness which is in the morning, and it was so that sherested on the threshold; and in the bright light Mary Ann opened thedoor, and was astonished. "Mam-in-law, " she said, "there's nasty for youto come like this. Speak what you want. Sitting there is notrespectable. You are like an old woman from the country. "

"Come am I to sorrow, " answered Mali. "Boy all grand was Josi bach. Lookat him now will I. "

"Talking no sense you are, " said Mary Ann. "Why you do not see that thehouse is full of muster? Will there not be many Respecteds at thefuneral?"

"Much preaching shall I say?"

"Indeed, iss. But haste about now and help to prepare food to eat. Slowyou are, female. "

Presently mourners came to the house, and when each had walked up andgazed upon the features of the dead, and when the singers had sung andthe Respecteds had spoken, and while a carpenter turned screws into thecoffin, Mary Ann said to Mali: "Clear you the dishes now, and cut breadand spread butter for those who will return after the funeral. After allhave been served go you home to Pencoch. " She drew a veil over her faceand fell to weeping as she followed the six men who carried Josi'scoffin to the hearse. 

Having finished, Mali took her baston and her empty basket and began herjourney. As she passed over Towy Street--the public way which is setwith stones--she saw that many people were gathered at the gates ofBeulah to witness Mary Ann's loud lamentations at Josi's grave. 

Mali stayed a little time; then she went on, for the light was dimming. At the hour she reached Pencoch the mown hay was dry and the people weregathering it together. She cried outside the house of Sara Eye Glass:"Large thanks, Sara fach. Home am I, and like pouring water were thetears. And there's preaching. " She milked her cows and fed her pigs andher fowls, and then she stepped up to her bed. The sounds of dawnaroused her. She said to herself: "There's sluggish am I. Dear-dear, rise must I in a haste, for Mary Ann will need butter to feed the babanbach that Josi gave her. "

XI

UNANSWERED PRAYERS

When Winnie Davies was let out of prison, shame pressed heavily on herfeelings; and though her mother Martha and her father Tim prayed almostwithout ceasing, she did not come home. It was so that one night Marthawatched for her at a window and Tim prayed for her at the door of theTabernacle, and a bomb fell upon the ground that was between them, andthey were both destroyed. 

All the days of their life, Tim and Martha were poor and meek andreligious; they were cheaper than the value set on them by theircheapeners. As a reward for their pious humility, they were appointedkeepers of the Welsh Tabernacle, which is at Kingsend. At that they tooktheir belongings into the three rooms that are below the chapel; andtheir spirits were lifted up marvelously that the Reverend Eylwin Jonesand the deacons of the Tabernacle had given to them the way of life. 

In this fashion did Tim declare his blessedness: "Charitable are Welshto Welsh. Little Big Man, boys tidy are boys Capel Tabernacle. "

"What if we were old atheists?" cried Martha. 

"Wife fach, don't you send me in a fright, " Tim said. 

They two applied themselves to their tasks: the woman washed the linenand cleaned the doorsteps and the houses of her neighbors, the man putposters on hoardings, trimmed gardens, stood at the doors of Welshgatherings. By night they mustered, sweeping the floor of the chapel, polishing the wood and brass that were therein, and beating the cushionsand hassocks which were in the pews of the most honored of thecongregation. Sunday mornings Tim put a white india-rubber collar underthe Adam's apple in his throat, and Martha covered her long, thin bodyin black garments, and drew her few hairs tightly from her forehead. 

Though they clad and comported themselves soberly Enoch Harries, who, atthis day, was the treasurer and head deacon of the chapel, spoke upagainst them to Eylwin Jones. This is his complaint: "Careless was Timin the dispatch department, delivering the parcel always to the wrongcustomers and for why he was sacked. Good was I to get him the capel. Careless he is now also. By twilight, dark, and thick blackness, lightelectric burns in Tabernacle. Waste that is. Sound will I my think. Whycannot the work be done in the day I don't know. "

"You cannot say less, " said Eylwin Jones. "Pay they ought for this, theirreligious couple. As the English proverb--'There's no gratitude in thepoor. '"

"Another serious piece of picking have I, " continued Harries. "I sawTim sticking on hoarding. 'What, dear me, ' I mumbled between theteeth--I don't speech to myself, man, as usual. The Apostles did, now. They wrote their minds. Benefit for many if I put down my religiousthinks for a second New Testament. What say you, Eylwin Jones? Lots ofsays very clever I can give you--'is he sticking?' A biggish paper wasthe black pasting about Walham Green Music Hall. What do you mean forthat? And the posters for my between season's sale were waiting to goout. "

Rebuked, Tim and Martha left over sinning: and Tim put Enoch Harries'posters in places where they should not have been put, wherefore Enochsmiled upon him. 

"Try will I some further, " said Tim by and by. 

"Don't you crave too much, " advised Martha. "The Bad Man craved thepulpit of the Big Man. "

"Shut your backhead. Out of school will Winnie be very near now. "

"Speak clear. "

"Ask Enoch Harries will I to make her his servant. "

"Be modest in your manner, " Martha warned her husband. "Man grand isEnoch. "

"Needing servants hap he does. "

"Perhaps, iss; perhaps, no. "

"Cute is Winnie, " said Tim; "and quick. Sense she has. "

Tim addressed Enoch, and Enoch answered: "Blabber you do to me, why for?Send your old female to Mishtress Harries. Order you her to go quiterespectable. "

Curtsying before Mrs. Harries, Martha said: "I am Tim Dafis' wife. "

"Oh, really. The person that is in charge of that funny little Welshchapel. " Mrs. Harries sat at a table. "Give me your girl's name, age, and names of previous employers for references. " Having written allthat Martha said, she remarked: "We are moving next week to a largeestablishment in Thornton East. I am going to call it Windsor. Of coursethe husband and I will go to the English church. I thought I could takeyour girl with me to Windsor. "

"The titcher give her an excellent character. "

"I'll find that out for myself. Well, as you are so poor, I'll give hera trial. I'll pay her five pounds a year and her keep. I do hope she isladylike. "

Martha told Tim that which Mrs. Harries had said, and Tim observed: "Iwill rejoice in a bit of prayer. "

"Iss, " Martha agreed. "In the parlor of the preacher. They go upquicker. "

God was requested by Tim to heap money upon Mrs. Harries, and to giveWinnie the wisdom, understanding, and obedience which enable one toserve faithfully those who sit in the first pews in the chapel. 

Now Winnie found favor in the sight of her mistress, whose personalmaid she was made and whose habits she copied. She painted her cheeksand dyed her hair and eyebrows and eyelashes; and she frequentedThornton Vale English Congregational Chapel, where now worshiped Enochand his wife. Some of the men who came to Windsor ogled her impudently, but she did not give herself to any man. These ogles Mrs. Harriesinterpreted truthfully and she whipped up her jealous rage. 

"You're too fast, " she chided Winnie. "Look at your blouse. You might beundressed. You are a shame to your sex. One would say you are aPiccadilly street-walker and they wouldn't be far wrong. I won't haveyou making faces at my visitors. Understand that. "

Winnie said: "I don't. "

"You must change, miss, " Mrs. Harries went on. "Or you can pack your boxand go on the streets. Must not think because you are Welsh you can doas you like here. "

On a sudden Winnie spoke and charged her mistress with a want of virtue. 

"Is that the kind of miss you are!" Mrs. Harries shouted. "Where did youget those shoes from?"

"You yourself gave them to me. "

"You thief! You know I didn't. They are far too small for your big feet. Come along--let's see what you've got upstairs. "

That hour Mrs. Harries summoned a policeman, and in due time Winnie wasput in prison. 

Tim and Martha did not speak to any one of this that had been done totheir daughter. 

"Punished must a thief be, " said Tim. "Bad is the wench. "

"Bad is our little daughter, " answered Martha. 

Sabbath morning came and she wept. 

"Showing your lament you are, old fool, " cried Tim. 

"For sure, no. But the mother am I. "

Tim said: "My inside shivers oddly. Girl fach too young to be in jail. "

A fire was set in the preacher's parlor and the doors of the Tabernaclewere opened. Tim, the Bible in his hands, stepped up to the pulpit, hiseyes closed in prayer, and as he passed up he stumbled. 

Eylwin Jones heard the noise of his fall and ran into the chapel. 

"What's the matter?" he cried. "Comic you look on your stomach. Greatone am I for to see jokes. "

"An old rod did catch my toe, " Tim explained. 

Eylwin changed the cast of his countenance. "Awful you are, " he reprovedTim. "Suppose that was me. Examine you the stairs. Now indeed forget ahandkerchief have I for to wipe the flow of the nose. Order Winnie togive me one of Enoch Harries. Handkerchiefs white and smelly he has. "

"Ill is Winnie fach, " said Martha. 

"Gone she has for brief weeks to Wales, " Tim added. 

In the morning Eylwin came to the Tabernacle. 

"Not healthy am I, " he said. "Shock I had yesterday. Fancy I do a rabbitfrom Wales for the goiter. "

"Tasty are rabbits, " Tim uttered. 

"Clap up, indeed, " said Martha. "Too young they are to eat and are theynot breeding?"

"Rabbits very young don't breed, " remarked Eylwin. 

"They do, " Martha avowed. "Sometimes, iss; sometimes, no. Poison theyare when they breed. "

"Not talking properly you are, " said Eylwin. "Why for you palaver aboutbreeding to the preacher? Cross I will be. "

"Be you quiet now, Martha, " said Tim. "Lock your tongue. "

"Send a letter to Winnie for a rabbit; two rabbits if she is small, "ordered Eylwin. "And not see your faults will I. "

Tim and Martha were perplexed and communed with each other; and Timwalked to Wimbledon where he was not known and so have his errandguessed. He bought a rabbit and carried it to the door of the minister'shouse. "A rabbit from Winnie fach in Wales, " he said. 

"Eat her I will before I judge her, " replied Eylwin; and after he hadeaten it he said: "Quite fair was the animal. Serious dirty is thecapel. As I flap my hand on the cushion Bible in my eloquence, likechimney smoke is the dust. Clean you at once. For are not theanniversary meetings on the sixth Sabbath? All the rich Welsh will bethere, and Enoch Harries and the wife of him. "

He came often to view Tim and Martha at their labor. 

"Fortunate is your wench to have holiday, " he said one day. "Hard havepreachers to do in the vineyard. "

"Hear we did this morning, " Tim began to speak. 

"In a hurry am I, " Eylwin interrupted. "Fancy I do butter from Waleswith one pinch of salt in him. Tell Winnie to send butter that issalted. "

Martha bought two pounds of butter. 

"Mean is his size, " Tim grieved. 

"Much is his cost, " Martha whined. 

"Get you one pound of marsherin and make him one and put him on a wettedcabbage leaf. "

The fifth Sunday dawned. 

"Next to-morrow, " said Martha, "the daughter will be home. Go you to thejail and fetch her, and take you for her a big hat for old jailers cutthe hair very short. "

"No-no, " Tim replied. "Better she returns and speak nothing. With noquestions shall we question her. "

Monday opened and closed. 

"Mistake is in your count, " Martha hinted. 

"Slow scolar am I, " said Tim. "Count will I once more. "

"Don't you, boy bach, " Martha hastened to say. "Come she will. "

At the dusk of Friday Eylwin Jones, his goitered chin shivering, ranfuriously and angrily into the Tabernacle. "Ho-ho, " he cried. "In jailis Winnie. A scampess is she and a whore. Here's scandal. Mother andfather of a thief in the house of the capel bach of Jesus Christ. RobbedMistress Harries she did. Broke is the health of the woman nice as aconsequent. She will not be at the anniversary meetings because theplace is contaminated by you pair. And her husband won't. Five shillingseach they give to the collection. The capel wants the half soferen. Outyou go. Now at once. "

Tim and Martha were sorely troubled that Winnie would come to the ChapelHouse and not finding them, would go away. 

"Loiter will I near by, " said Tim. 

"Say we rent a room and peer for her, " said Martha. 

Thereon from dusk to day either Tim or Martha sat at the window of theirroom and watched. The year died and spring and summer declined intoautumn, when on a moon-lit night men flew in machines over London andloosened bombs upon the people thereof. 

"Feared am I, " said Martha, "that our daughter is not in the shelter. "She screamed: "Don't stand there like a mule. Pray, Tim man. "

Remembering how that he had prayed, Tim answered: "Try a prayer will Inear the capel. "

So Martha watched at her window and Tim prayed at the door of theTabernacle. 

XII

LOST TREASURE

Here is the tale that is told about Hugh Evans, who was a commercialtraveler in drapery wares, going forth on his journeys on Mondays andcoming home on Fridays. The tale tells how on a Friday night Hugh sat atthe table in the kitchen of his house, which is in Parson's Green. Hehad before him coins of gold, silver, and copper, and also bills of hisdebts; and upon each bill he placed certain monies in accordance withthe sum marked thereon. Having fixed the residue of his coins and havingseen that he held ten pounds, his mind was filled with such bliss thathe said within himself: "A nice little amount indeed. Brisk areaffairs. "

"Millie, " he addressed his wife, "look over them and add them together. "

"Wait till I'm done, " was the answer. "The irons are all hotted up. "

Hugh chided her. "You are not interested in my saving. You don't care. It's nothing to you. Forward, as I call. "

"If I sit down, " Millie offered, "I feel I shall never get up again andthe irons are hotted and what I think is a shame to waste gas like thisthe price it is. "

"Why didn't you say so at the first opportunity? Be quick then. I shan'tallow the cash to lay here. "

Duly Millie observed her husband's order, and what time she proved thatwhich Hugh had done, she was admonished that she had spent too much onthis and that. 

"I'm doing all I can not to be extravagant, " she whimpered. "I don't buya thing for my back. " Her short upper lip curled above her broken teethand trembled; she wept. 

"But whatever, " said Hugh softening his spirit, "I got ten soferens inhand. Next quarter less you need and more you have. Less gass andelectric. You don't gobble food so ravishingly in warm weather. The moreI save. "

Having exchanged the ten pounds for a ten-pound note, remorse seizedHugh. "A son of a mule am I, " he said. "Dangerous is paper as he blows. If he blows! Bulky are soferens and shillings. If you lose two, you gotthe remnants. But they are showy and tempting. " He laid the note underhis pillow and slept, and he took it with him, secreted on his person, to Kingsend Chapel, where every Sunday morning and evening he sanghymns, bowed under prayer, and entertained his soul with sermons. 

Just before departing on Monday he gave the note to Millie. "Keep himsecurely, " he counseled her. "Tell nobody we stock so much cash. "

Millie put the note between the folds of a Paisley shawl, which wasprecious to her inasmuch as it had been her mother's, and she wrapped ablanket over the shawl and placed it in a cupboard. But on Friday shecould not remember where she had hidden the note; "never mind, " sheconsoled herself, "it will occur to me all of a sudden. "

As that night Hugh cast off his silk hat and his frock coat, he shouted:"Got the money all tightly?"

"Yes, " replied Millie quickly. "As safe as in the Bank of England. "

"Can't be safer than that. Keep him close to you and tell no one. Papermoney has funny ways. " Hugh then prophesied that in a year his wealth ina mass would be fifty pounds. 

"With ordinary luck, and I'm sure you desire it because you're always atit, it will, " Millie agreed. 

"No luck about it. No stop to me. We've nothing to purchase. And youdon't. At home you are, with food and clothes and a ceyling above you. Kings don't want many more. "

"Yes, " said Millie. "No. "

Weeks passed and Millie was concerned that she could not find the note, tried she never so hard. At the side of her bed she entreated to be ledto it, and in the day she often paused and closing her eyes prayed:"Almighty Father, bring it to me. "

The last Friday of the quarter Hugh divided his money in lots, and itwas that he had eleven pounds over his debts. "Eleven soferens now, " hecried to his wife. "That's grand! Makes twenty-one the first six monthsof the wedded life. "

"It reflects great credit on you, " said Millie, concealing herunhappiness. 

"Another eighty and I'd have an agency. Start a factory, p'raps. There'sJohn Daniel. He purchases an house. Ten hands he has working gents'shirts for him. "

Millie turned away her face and demanded from God strength with which toacquaint her husband of her misfortune. What she asked for was grantedunto her at her husband's amorous moment of the Sabbath morning. 

Hugh's passion deadened, and in his agony he sweated. 

"They're gone! Every soferen, " he cried. "They can't all have gone. Thewhole ten. " He opened his eyes widely. "Woe is me. Dear me. Dear me. "

Until day dimmed and night grayed did they two search, neither of themeating and neither of them discovering the treasure. 

Therefore Hugh had not peace nor quietness. Grief he uttered with histongue, arms, and feet, and it was in the crease of his garments. Hesought sympathy and instruction from those with whom he traded. "All thesteam is gone out of me, " he wailed. One shopkeeper advised him: "Has itslipped under the lino?" Another said: "Any mice in the house? Money hasbeen found in their holes. " The third said: "Sure the wife hasn't spentit on dress. You know what ladies are. " These hints and more Hugh wrotedown on paper, and he mused in this wise: "An old liar is the wench. Forwhy I wedded the English? Right was mam fach; senseless they are. Cryingshe has lost the yellow gold, the bitch. What blockhead lost one penny?What is in the stomach of my purse this one minute? Threeshillings--soferen--five pennies--half a penny--ticket railway. Hiebackwards will I on Thursday on the surprise. No comfort is mine beforeI peep once again. "

He pried in every drawer and cupboard, and in the night he arose andinquired into the clothes his wife had left off; and he pushed hisfingers into the holes of mice and under the floor coverings, and gropedin the fireplaces; and he put subtle questions to Millie. 

"If you'd done like this in a shop you'd be sacked without a ref, " hesaid when his search was over. "We must have him back. It's a sin to lethim go. Reduce expenses at once. "

Millie disrobed herself by the light of a street lamp, and she atelittle of such foods as are cheapest, whereat her white cheeks sunk andthere was no more luster in her brown hair; and her larder was as thoughthere was a famine in the country. If she said to Hugh: "Your boots areleaking, " she was told: "Had I the soferens I would get a pair"; or ifshe said: "We haven't a towel in the place, " the reply was: "Find thesoferens and buy one or two. "

The more Hugh sorrowed and scrimped, the more he gained; and word of hisfellows' hardships struck his broad, loose ears with a pleasant tinkle. While on his journeys he stayed at common lodging-houses, and he did notgive back to his employers any of the money which was allowed him tostay at hotels. Some folk despised him, some mocked him, and manynicknamed him "the ten-pound traveler. " To the shopkeeper who hesitatedto deal with him he whined his loss, making it greater than it was, andexpressing: "The interest alone is very big. "

By such methods he came to possess one hundred and twenty pounds in twoyears. His employers had knowledge of his deeds, and they summoned himto them and said to him that because of the drab shabbiness of hisclothes and his dishonest acts they had appointed another in his stead. 

"You started this, " he admonished Millie. "Bring light upon mattar. "

"What can I do?" Millie replied. "Shall I go back to the dressmaking asI was?"

Hugh was not mollified. By means of such women man is brought to apenny. He felt dishonored and wounded. Of the London Welsh he was theleast. Look at Enos-Harries and Ben Lloyd and Eynon Davies. There's boysfor you. And look at the black John Daniel, who was a prentice with himat Carmarthen. Hark him ordering preacher Kingsend. Watch him on theplatform on the Day of David the Saint. And all, dear me, out of J. D. 'sRitfit three-and-sixpence gents' tunic shirts. 

He considered a way, of which he spoke darkly to Millie, lest she mightcry out his intention. 

"No use troubling, " he said in a changed manner. "Come West and see theshops. "

Westward they two went, pausing at windows behind which were displayedcostly blouses. 

"That's plenty at two guineas, " Hugh said of one. 

"It's a Paris model, " said Millie. 

"Nothing in her. Nothing. "

"Not much material, I grant, " Millie observed. "The style is fashionableand they charge a lot. "

"I like to see you in her, " said Hugh. "Take in the points and make herwith an odd length of silk. "

When the blouse was finished, Hugh took it to a man at whose shop tradethe poorest sort of middle-class women, saying: "I can let you have aline like this at thirty-five and six a dozen. "

"I'll try three twelves, " said the man. 

Then Hugh went into the City and fetched up Japanese silk, and lace, andlarge white buttons; and Millie sewed with her might. 

Hugh thrived, and his success was noised among the London Welsh. Thepreacher of Kingsend Chapel visited him. 

"Not been in the Temple you have, Mistar Eevanss, almost since you werespliced, " he said. "Don't say the wife makes you go to the capel of theEnglish. "

"Busy am I making money. "

"News that is to me, Mistar Eevanss. Much welcome there is for you withus. "

In four years Hugh had eighteen machines, at each of which a skilledwoman sat; and he hired young girls to sew through buttons andhook-and-eyes and to make button-holes. These women and girls were underthe hand of Millie, who kept count of their comings and goings and thework they performed, holding from their wages the value of the materialthey spoilt and of the minutes they were not at their task. Millielabored faithfully, her heart being perfect with her husband's. She andHugh slept in the kitchen, for all the other rooms were stockrooms orworkrooms; and the name by which the concern was called was "The FrenchModel Blouse Co. Manageress--Mme. Zetta, the notorious French Modiste. "

Howsoever bitterly people were pressed, Hugh did not cease to prosper. In riches, honor, and respect he passed many of the London Welsh. 

For that he could not provide all the blouses that were requested ofhim, he rented a big house. That hour men were arrived to take theretohis belongings, Millie said: "I'll throw the Paisley shawl over my arm. I wouldn't lose it for anything"; and as she moved away the ten-poundnote fell on the ground. "Well, I never!" she cried in her dismay. "Itwas there all the time. "

Hugh seized the note from her hand. 

"You've the head of a sieve, " he said. Also he lamented: "All theseyears we had no interest in him. "

XIII

PROFIT AND GLORY

By serving in shops, by drinking himself drunk, and by shamming goodfortune, Jacob Griffiths gave testimony to the miseries and joys oflife, and at the age of fifty-six he fell back in his bed at hislodging-house in Clapham, suffered, drew up his crippled knees and died. On the morrow his brother Simon hastened to the house; and as he nearedthe place he looked up and beheld his sisters Annie and Jane fach alsohurrying thither. Presently they three saw one another as with a singleeye, wherefore they slackened their pace and walked with seemliness tothe door. Jacob's body was on a narrow, disordered bed, and in the stateof its deliverance: its eyes were aghast and its hands were clenched indeathful pangs. 

Then Simon bowed his trunk and lifted his silk hat and his umbrella inthe manner of a preacher giving a blessing. 

"Of us family it can be claimed, " he pronounced, "that even the Angel donot break us. We must all cross Jordan. Some go with boats and bridges. Some swim. Some bridges charge a toll--one penny and two pennies. A tollthere is to cross Jordan. "

"He'll be better when he's washed and laid out proper, " remarked thewoman of the lodging-house. 

"Let down your apron from your head, " Simon said to her. "We aremourning for our brother, the son of the similar father and mother. Youdon't think me insulting if I was alone with the corpse. I shan't belong at my religious performance. I am a busy man like you. "

The woman having gone, he spoke at Jacob: "Perished you are now, Shacob. You have unraveled the tangled skein of eternal life. Pray I do you willfind rest with the restless of big London. Annie and Jane fach, sorrowful you are; wet are your tears. Go you and drink a nice cup oftea in the café. Most eloquent I shall be in a minute and there'shysterics you'll get. Arrive will I after you. Don't pay for tea; thatwill I do. "

"Iss, indeed, " said Annie. "Off you, Jane fach. You, Simon, with her, for fear she is slayed in the street. Sit here will I and speak to thespirit of Shacob. "

"The pant of my breath is not back"--Jane fach's voice was shrill. "DidI not muster on reading the death letter? Witness the mud sprinkled onmy gown. "

"Why should you muster, little sister?" inquired Simon. 

"Right that I reach him in respectable time, was the think inside me, "Jane fach answered. "What other design have I? Stay here I will. A boy, dear me, for a joke was Shacob with me. Heaps of gifts he made me;enough to fill a yellow tin box. "

"Generous he was, " Simon said. "Hap he parted with all. Full of feelingyou are. But useless that we loll here. No odds for me; this is my dayin the City. How will your boss treat you, Annie, for being away withouta pass? Angry will your buyer be, I would be in a temper with my youngladies. Hie to the office, Jane. Don't you borrow borrowings from me ifyou are sacked. "

"You are as sly as the cow that steals into clover, " Annie cried out. She removed her large hat and set upright the osprey feathers thereon, puffed out her hair which was fashioned in a high pile, and whitenedwith powder the birth-stain on her cheek. "They daren't discharge me. I'd carry the costume trade with me. Each second you hear, 'MissWitton-Griffiths, forward, ' and 'Miss Witton-Griffiths, her heinness iswaiting for you. ' In favor am I with the buyer. "

"Whisper to me your average takings per week, " Simon craved. "Not repeatwill I. "

After exaggerating her report, Annie said: "You are going now, then. "

Jane fach took from a chair a cup that had tea in it, a candlestick--thecandle in which died before Jacob--and a teapot, and she sat in thechair. "Oo-oo, " she squeaked. "Sorry am I you are flown. "

"Stupid wenches you are, " Simon admonished his sisters. "And curious. Scandalous you are to pry into the leavings of the perished dead. "

Jane fach, whose shoulders were crumped and whose nose was as the beakof a parrot, put forth her head. "The reins of a flaming chariot can'tdrag me from him. Was he not father to me? Much he handed and more hepromised. "

"Great is your avarice, " Simon declared. 

"Fonder he was of me than any one, " Annie cried. "The birthdays hepresented me with dresses--until he was sacked. While I was cribbing, did he not speak well to my buyer? Fitting I stay with him this day. "

"I was his chief friend, " said Simon. "We were closer than brothers. Sogrand was he to me that I could howl once more. Iss, I could preach afuneral sermon on my brother Shacob. "

Jacob's virtues were truly related. Much had the man done for hisyounger brother and sisters; albeit his behavior was vain, ornamentinghis person garishly and cheaply, and comporting himself foolishly. Summer by summer he went to Wales and remained there two weeks; and hegave a packet of tea or coffee to every widow who worshiped in thecapel, and a feast of tea and currant bread and carraway-seed cake tothe little children of the capel. 

Wheedlers flattered him for gain: "The watch of a nobleman you carry"and "The ring would buy a field, " said those about Sion; "Never seen amore exact fact simily of King George in my life than you, " criedspongers in London public-houses. All grasped whatever gifts they couldand turned from him laughing: "The watch of the fob is brass"; "No moreworth than a play marble is the ring"; "Old Griffiths is the bloomin'limit. " Yet Jacob had delight in the thought that folk passed him richfor his apparel and acts. 

"Waste of hours very awful is this, " Simon uttered by and by. He broughtout his order book and a blacklead pencil. "Take stock will I now andput down. "

He searched the pockets of Jacob's garments and the drawers in thechest, and knelt on his knees and peered under Jacob's bed; and all thathe found were trashy clothes and boots. His sisters tore open the seamsof the garments and spread their fingers in the hollow places, and theydid not find anything. 

"Jewellary he had, " exclaimed Annie. "Much was the value of his diamondring. 'This I will to you, ' he said to me. Champion she would seem on myfinger. Half a hundred guineas was her worth. "

"Where is the watch and chain?" Jane fach demanded. "Gold they were. Link like the fingers of feet the chain had. These I have. "

"Lovely were his solitaires, " cried Annie. "They are mine. "

"Liar of a bitch, " said Jane fach. "'All is yours, ' mouthed Shacob mybrother, who hears me in the Palace. "

Simon answered neither yea nor no. He stepped down to the woman of thehouse. "I have a little list here of the things my brother left in yourkeeping, " he began. "Number wan, gold watch--"

The woman opened her lips and spoke: "Godstruth, he didn't have a beanto his name. Gold watch! I had to call him in the mornings. What withblacking his whiskers and being tender on his feet, which didn't allowof him to run to say the least of it, I was about pretty early. Elsehe'd never get to Ward's at all. And Balham is a long run from here. "

"I will come back and see you later, " Simon replied, and he returned tohis sisters. "Hope I do, " he said to them. "You discover his affairs. All belong to you. Tall was his regard for you two. Now we will prepareto bury him. Privilege to bury the dead. Sending the corpse to thecrystal capel. Not wedded are you like me. Heavy is the keep of threechildren and the wife. "

"For why could not the fool have saved for his burying, I don't say?"Annie cried. "Let the perished perish. That's equal for all. "

"In sense is your speech, " Simon agreed. "Shop fach very neat he mighthave if he was like me and you. "

"Throwing away money he did, " Annie said. "I helped him three years agowhen he was sacked. Did I not pay for him to sleep one month inlodgings?"

"I got his frock coat cleaned at cost price, " Jane fach remembered, "andsewed silk on her fronts. I lent him lendings. Where are my lendings?"

"A squanderer you were, " Simon rebuked the body. "Tidy sums you spentin pubs. Booze got you the sack after twenty years in the same shop. Disgraced was I to have such a brother as you, Shacob. Where was yourreligion, man? But he has to be buried, little sisters, or babblingthere'll be. Cheap funeral will suit in Fulham cematary. Reasonable yourshare is more than mine, because the Big Man has trusted me with sons. "

"No sense is in you, " Annie shouted. "Not one coin did he repay me. Thecoins he owed me are my share. "

"As an infidel you are, " said Simon. "Ach y fy, cheating the grave ofcustom. "

"Leaving am I. " Jane fach rose. "Late is the day. "

"Woe is me, " Simon wailed. "Like the old Welsh of Cardigan is yourcunning. Come you this night here to listen to funeral estimates. Don'tyou make me bawl this in your department, Annie, and in your officelaundry, Jane. "

From the street door he journeyed by himself to Balham, and habiting hisface with grief, he related to Mr. Ward how Jacob died. 

"He passed in my arms, " he said; "very gently--willingly he gave backthe ghost. A laugh in his face that might be saying: 'I see Thy wonders, O Lord. '"

"This is very sad, " said Mr. Ward. "If there is anything we can do--"

"You speak as a Christian who goes to chapel, sir. It's hard to discussbusiness now just. But Jacob has told he left a box in your keep. "

"I don't think so. Still, I'll make sure. " Mr. Ward went away, andreturning, said: "The only thing he left here is this old coat which hewore at squadding in the morning. Of course there is his salary--"

"Yes, yes, I know. I'd give millions of salaries for my brother back. "

"You are his only relative?"

"Indeed, sir. No father and mother had he. An orphan. Quite pathetic. Iwill never grin again. Good afternoon, sir. I hope you'll have asuccessful summer sale. "

"Hadn't you better take his money?" said Mr. Ward. "We pay quarterlyhere. "

"Certainly it will save coming again. But business is business, even inthe presence of the dead. "

"It's eighteen pounds. That's twelve weeks at one-ten. "

"Well, if you insist, insist you do. Prefer I would to have my brotherJacob back. "

Simon put the coat over his arm and counted the money, and after he haddrunk a little beer and eaten of bread and cheese, he made deals with agravedigger and an undertaker, and the cost for burying Jacob was eightpounds. 

That night he was with his sisters, saying to them: "Twelve soferenswill put him in the earth. Four soferens per each. "

"None can I afford, " Jane fach vowed. "Not paid my pew rent in CapelCharing Cross have I. "

"Easier for me to fly than bring the cash, " said Annie. "Larger is yourscrew than me. "

Simon smote the ground with his umbrella and stayed further words. "Givethe soferens, bullocks of Hell fire. "

Annie and Jane fach were distressed. The first said: "The flesh of theswine shall smell before I do. " The second said: "Hard you are on abent-back wench. "

Notwithstanding their murmurs, Simon hurled at them the spite of hiswrath, reviling them foully and filthily; and the women got afraid thatout of his anger would come mischief, and each gave as she wascommanded. 

The third day Simon and Annie and Jane fach stood at Jacob's grave; andAnnie and Jane were put to shame that Simon bragged noisily how that hehad caused a name-plate to be made for Jacob's coffin and a wreath ofglass flowers for the mound of Jacob's grave. 

THE END