THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 From the library of 
 Henry Goldman, Ph.D. 
 1886-1972
 
 so-
 
 MY PEOPLE
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 STORIES OF THE PEASANTRY OF 
 WEST WALES 
 
 BY 
 
 GARADOG EVANS 
 
 BONI AND LIVERIGHT 
 
 NEW YORK 1918
 
 < K 
 
 
 I. 
 
 II. 
 
 III. 
 
 IV. 
 
 V. 
 
 VI. 
 
 VII. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 IX. 
 
 X. 
 
 XI. 
 
 XII. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 XV. 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 A FATHER IN SIGN .. 
 A HEIFER WITHOUT BLEMISH 
 THE WAY OF THE EARTH . 
 THE TALENT THOU GAVEST 
 THE GLORY THAT WAS SIGN'S 
 THE DEVIL IN EDEN . . 
 
 A JUST MAN IN SODOM 
 BE THIS HER MEMORIAL 
 THE REDEEMER .. 
 As IT is WRITTEN . 
 A BUNDLE OF LIFE . 
 GREATER THAN LOVE . 
 LAMENTATIONS .. 
 THE BLAST OF GOD . 
 
 PAGE 
 
 3 
 23 
 41 
 65 
 85 
 105 
 
 THE WOMAN WHO SOWED INIQUITY 121 
 
 143 
 161 
 175 
 193 
 213 
 233 
 249 
 205
 
 A FATHER IN SIGN
 
 I 
 
 \ 
 
 A FATHER IN SION 
 
 ON the banks of Avon Bern there lived a 
 man who was a Father in Sion. His name 
 was Sadrach, and the name of the farm- 
 house in which he dwelt was Danyrefail. 
 He was a man whose thoughts were con- 
 tinually employed upon sacred subjects. 
 He began the day and ended the day with 
 the words of a chapter from the Book 
 and a prayer on his lips. The Sabbath 
 he observed from first to last ; he neither 
 laboured himself nor allowed any in his 
 household to labour. If in the Seiet, 
 the solemn, soul-searching assembly that 
 gathers in Capel Sion on the nights of 
 Wednesdays after Communion Sundays, he 
 was entreated to deliver a message to the 
 
 8
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 congregation, he often prefaced his re- 
 marks with, " Dear people, on my way to 
 Sion I asked God what He meant " 
 
 This episode in the life of Sadrach 
 Danyrefail covers a long period ; it has 
 its beginning on a March night with 
 Sadrach closing the Bible and giving 
 utterance to these words : 
 
 " May the blessing of the Big Man be 
 upon the reading of His Word." Then, 
 " Let us pray." 
 
 Sadrach fell on his knees, the open 
 palms of his hands together, his elbows 
 resting on the table ; his eight children 
 Sadrach the Small, Esau, Simon, Rachel, 
 Sarah, Daniel, Samuel, and Miriam 
 followed his example. 
 
 Usually Sadrach prayed fluently, in 
 phrases not unworthy of the minister, so 
 universal, so intimate his pleading: to- 
 night he stumbled and halted, and the 
 working of his spiritful mind lacked the 
 heavenly symmetry of the mind of the 
 
 4
 
 A FATHER IN SIGN 
 
 godly ; usually the note of abundant faith 
 and childlike resignation rang grandly 
 throughout his supplications : to-night 
 the note was one of despair and gloom. 
 With Job he compared himself, for was 
 not the Lord trying His servant to the 
 uttermost ? Would the all-powerful Big 
 Man, the Big Man who delivered the 
 Children of Israel from the hold of the 
 Egyptians, give him a morsel of strength 
 to bear his cross ? Sadrach reminded God 
 of his loneliness. Man was born to be 
 mated, even as the animals in the fields. 
 Without mate man was like an estate 
 without an overseer, or a field of ripe corn 
 rotting for the reaping-hook. 
 
 Sadrach rose from his knees. Sadrach 
 the Small lit the lantern which was to 
 light him and Esau to their bed over the 
 stable. 
 
 " My children," said Sadrach, " do you 
 gather round me now, for have I not 
 something to tell you ? " 
 
 5
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 Rachel, the eldest daughter, a girl of 
 twelve, with reddish cheeks and bright 
 eyes, interposed with : 
 
 " Indeed, indeed, now, little father ; you 
 are not going to preach to us this time of 
 night ! " 
 
 Sadrach stretched forth his hand and 
 motioned his children be seated. 
 
 " Put out your lantern, Sadrach the 
 Small," he said. "No, Rachel, don't 
 you light the candle. Dear ones, it is 
 not the light of this earth we need, but 
 the light that comes from above." 
 
 "Iss, iss," Sadrach the Small said. 
 " The true light. The light the Big Man 
 puts in the hearts of those who believe, 
 dear me." 
 
 " Well spoken, Sadrach the Small. Now 
 be you all silent awhile, for I have things 
 of great import to tell you. Heard you 
 all my prayer ? " 
 
 " Iss, iss," said Sadrach the Small. 
 
 " Sadrach the Small only answers. My 
 6
 
 A FATHER IN SIGN 
 
 children, heard you all my prayer ? Don't 
 you be blockheads now speak out." 
 
 " There's lovely it was," said Sadrach 
 the Small. 
 
 " My children ? " said Sadrach. 
 
 " Iss, iss," they answered. 
 
 "Well, well, then. How can I tell 
 you ? ' Sadrach put his fingers through 
 the thin beard which covered the opening 
 of his waistcoat, closed his eyes, and mur- 
 mured a prayer. " Your mother Achsah 
 is not what she should be. Indeed to 
 goodness, now, what disgrace this is ! Is 
 it not breaking my heart ? You did hear 
 how I said to the nice Big Man that I was 
 like Job ? Achsah is mad." 
 
 Rachel sobbed. 
 
 * Weep you not, Rachel. It is not for 
 us to question the all-wise ways of the 
 Big Man. Do you dry your eyes on your 
 apron now, my daughter. You, too, have 
 your mother's eyes. Let me weep in my 
 solitude. Oh, what sin have I committed, 
 
 7
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 that God should visit this affliction on 
 me?" 
 
 Rachel went to the foot of the stairs. 
 
 "Mam! "she called. 
 
 "She will not hear you," Sadrach inter- 
 rupted. " Dear me, have I not put her 
 in the harness loft ? It is not respectable 
 to let her out. Twm Tybach would 
 have sent his wife to the madhouse of 
 Carmarthen. But that is not Christian. 
 Rachel, Rachel, dry your eyes. It is not 
 your fault that Achsah is mad. Nor do I 
 blame Sadrach the Small, nor Esau, nor 
 Simon, nor Sarah, nor Daniel, nor Samuel, 
 nor Miriam. Goodly names have I given 
 you all. Live you up to them. Still, my 
 sons and daughters, are you not all re- 
 sponsible for Achsah's condition ? With 
 the birth of each of you she has got worse 
 and worse. Child-bearing has made her 
 foolish. Yet it is un-Christian to blame 
 you." 
 
 Sadrach placed his head in his arms. 
 8
 
 A FATHER IN SIGN 
 
 Sadrach the Small took the lantern and 
 he and Esau departed for their bed over 
 the stable; one by one the remaining six 
 put off their clogs and crept up the 
 narrow staircase to their beds. 
 
 Wherefore to her husband Achsah be- 
 came as a cross, to her children as one for- 
 gotten, to every one living in Manteg and 
 in the several houses scattered on the 
 banks of Avon Bern as Achsah the mad- 
 woman. 
 
 The next day Sadrach removed the har- 
 ness to the room in the dwelling-house in 
 which slept the four youngest children ; 
 and he put a straw mattress and a straw 
 pillow on the floor, and on the mattress 
 he spread three sacks ; and these were the 
 furnishings of the loft where Achsah spent 
 her time. The frame of the small window 
 in the roof he nailed down, after fixing on 
 the outside of it three solid bars of iron 
 of uniform thickness; the trap-door he 
 padlocked, and the key of the lock never 
 
 9
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 left his possession. Achsah's food he him- 
 self carried to her twice a day, a procedure 
 which until the coming of Martha some 
 time later he did not entrust to other 
 hands. 
 
 Once a week when the household was 
 asleep he placed a ladder from the floor 
 to the loft, and cried : 
 
 " Achsah, come you down now." 
 
 Meekly the woman obeyed, and as her 
 feet touched the last rung Sadrach threw a 
 cow's halter over her shoulders, and drove 
 her out into the fields for an airing. 
 
 Once, when the moon was full, the pair 
 was met by Lloyd the Schooling and the 
 sight caused Mishtir Lloyd to run like a 
 frightened dog, telling one of the women 
 of his household that Achsah, the mad- 
 woman, had eyes like a cow's. 
 
 At the time of her marriage Achsah was 
 
 ten years older than her husband. She 
 
 was rich, too: Danyrefail, with its stock 
 
 of good cattle and a hundred acres of fair 
 
 10
 
 A FATHER IN SIGN 
 
 land, was her gift to the bridegroom. Six 
 months after the wedding Sadrach the 
 Small was born. Tongues wagged that the 
 boy was a child of sin. Sadrach answered 
 neither yea nor nay. He answered neither 
 yea nor nay until the first Communion 
 Sabbath, when he seized the bread and 
 wine from Old Shemmi and walked to the 
 Big Seat. He stood under the pulpit, 
 the fringe of the minister's Bible-marker 
 curling on the bald patch on his head. 
 
 " Dear people," he proclaimed, the 
 silver-plated wine cup in one hand, the 
 bread plate in the other, " it has been said 
 to me that some of you think Sadrach 
 the Small was born out of sin. You do 
 not speak truly. Achsah, dear me, was 
 frightened by the old bull. The bull 
 I bought in the September fair. You, 
 Shemmi, you know the animal. The red- 
 and-white bull. Well, well, dear people, 
 Achsah was shocked by him. She was 
 running away from him, and as she crossed 
 11
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 the threshold of Danyrefail, did she not 
 give birth to Sadrach the Small ? Do 
 you believe me now, dear people. As the 
 Lord liveth, this is the truth. Achsah, 
 Achsah. stand you up now, and say you to 
 the congregation if this is not right." 
 
 Achsah, the babe suckling at her breast, 
 rose and murmured : 
 
 " Sadrach speaks the truth." 
 
 Sadrach ate of the bread and drank of 
 the wine. 
 
 Three months after Achsah had been 
 put in the loft Sadrach set out at daybreak 
 on a journey to Aberystwith. He re- 
 turned late at night, and, behold, a strange 
 woman sat beside him in the horse car ; 
 and the coming of this strange woman made 
 life different in Danyrefail. Early in the 
 day she was astir, bustling up the children, 
 bidding them fetch the cows, assist with 
 the milking, feed the pigs, or do whatever 
 work was in season. 
 
 Rachel rebuked Sadrach, saying, " Little 
 12
 
 A FATHER IN SIGN 
 
 father, why for cannot I manage the house 
 for you ? Indeed now, you have given to 
 Martha the position that belongs to me, 
 your eldest daughter." 
 
 " What mean you, my dear child ? " 
 returned Sadrach. " Cast you evil at your 
 father ? Turn you against him ? Go 
 you and read your Commandments." 
 
 " People are whispering," said Rachel. 
 "They do even say that you will not be 
 among the First Men of the Big Seat." 
 
 " Martha is a gift from the Big Man," 
 answered Sadrach. " She has been sent 
 to comfort me in my tribulation, and to 
 mother you, my children." 
 
 " Mother ! " 
 
 " Tut, tut, Rachel," said Sadrach, " Mar- 
 tha is only a servant in my house." 
 
 Rachel knew that Martha was more than 
 a servant. Had not her transfer letter been 
 accepted by Capel Sion, and did she not 
 occupy Achsah's seat in the family pew ? 
 Did she not, when it was Sadrach's turn to 
 13
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 keep the minister's month, herself on each 
 of the four Saturdays take a basket laden 
 with a chicken, two white-hearted cab- 
 bages, a peck of potatoes, a loaf of bread, 
 and half a pound of butter to the chapel 
 house of Capel Sion ? Did she not drive 
 with Sadrach to market and fair and barter 
 for his butter and cheese and cattle and 
 what not ? Did she not tell Ellen the 
 Weaver's Widow what cloth to weave for 
 the garments of the children of Achsah ? 
 
 These things Martha did ; and Danyre- 
 fail prospered exceedingly : its possessions 
 spread even to the other side of Avon Bern. 
 Sadrach declared in the Seiet that the 
 Lord was heaping blessings on the head 
 of His servant. Of all who worshipped in 
 Sion none was stronger than the male of 
 Danyrefail ; none more respected. The 
 congregation elected him to the Big Seat. 
 Sadrach was a tower of strength unto 
 Sion. 
 
 But in the wake of his prosperity lay 
 14
 
 A FATHER IN SIGN 
 
 vexation. Rachel developed fits ; while 
 hoeing turnips in the twilight of an after- 
 noon she shivered and fell, her head rest- 
 ing in the water ditch that is alongside 
 the hedge. In the morning Sadrach came 
 that way with a load of manure. 
 
 " Rachel fach," he said, " wake you up 
 now. What will Martha say if you get 
 ill ? " 
 
 He passed on. 
 
 When he came back Rachel had not 
 moved, and Sadrach drove away, without 
 noticing the small pool of water which had 
 gathered over the girl's head. Within 
 an hour he came again, and said : 
 
 " Rachel, Rachel, wake you up. There's 
 lazy you are." 
 
 Rachel was silent. Death had come 
 before the milking of the cows. Sad- 
 rach went to the end of the field and 
 emptied his cart of the manure. Then 
 he turned and cast Rachel's body into 
 the cart, and covered it with a sack, and 
 15
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 drove home, singing the hymn which 
 begins : 
 
 "Safely, safely gather'd in, 
 Far from sorrow, far from sin, 
 No more childish griefs or fears, 
 No more sadness, no more tears ; 
 For the life so young and fair 
 Now hath passed from earthly care ; 
 God Himself the soul will keep, 
 Giving His beloved sleep." 
 
 Esau was kicked by a horse, and was 
 hurt to his death; six weeks later Simon 
 gashed his thumb while slicing mangolds, 
 and he died. Two years went by, by 
 the end of which period Old lanto, the 
 gravedigger of Capel Sion, dug three more 
 graves for the children of Sadrach and 
 Achsah ; and over these graves Sadrach 
 and Martha lamented. 
 
 But Sadrach the Small brought glad- 
 ness and cheer to Danyrefail with the 
 announcement of his desire to wed Sara 
 Ann, the daughter of Old Shemmi. 
 Martha and Sadrach agreed to the 
 16
 
 A FATHER IN SIGN 
 
 union provided Old Shemmi gave to his 
 daughter a stack of hay, a cow in calf, a 
 heifer, a quantity of bedclothes, and four 
 cheeses. Old Shemmi, on his part, de- 
 manded with Sadrach the Small ten 
 sovereigns, a horse and a cart, and a 
 bedstead. 
 
 The night before the wedding Sadrach 
 drove Achsah into the fields, and he told 
 her how the Big Man had looked with 
 good-will upon Sadrach the Small, and 
 was giving him Sara Ann to wife. 
 
 What occurred in the loft over the cow- 
 shed before dawn crept in through the 
 window with the iron bars I cannot tell 
 you. God can. But the rising sun found 
 Achsah crouching behind one of the hedges 
 of the lane that brings you from Dany- 
 refail to the tramping road, and there 
 she stayed, her eyes peering through the 
 foliage, until the procession came by : 
 first Old Shemmi and Sadrach, with Sa- 
 drach the Small between them ; then the 
 C 17
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 minister of Capel Sion and his wife ; then 
 the men and the women of the congrega- 
 tion; and last came Martha and Sara 
 Ann. 
 
 The party disappeared round the bend : 
 Achsah remained. 
 
 "Goodness me," she said to herself. 
 " There's a large mistake now. Indeed, 
 indeed, mad am I." 
 
 She hurried to the gateway, crossed the 
 road and entered another field, through 
 which she ran as hard as she could. She 
 came to a hedge, and waited. 
 
 The procession was passing. 
 
 Sadrach and Sadrach the Small. 
 
 Achsah doubled a finger. 
 
 Among those who followed on the heels 
 of the minister was Miriam. 
 
 Achsah doubled another finger. 
 
 The party moved out of sight : Achsah 
 still waited. 
 
 " Sadrach the Small and Miriam I " she 
 said, spreading out her doubled-up fingers. 
 18
 
 A FATHER IN SIGN 
 
 'Two. Others? Esau. Simon. Rachel. 
 Sarah. Daniel. Samuel. Dear me, where 
 shall I say they are ? Six. Six of my 
 children. Mad, mad am I ? " . . . She 
 laughed. " They are grown, and I didn't 
 know them." 
 
 Achsah waited the third time for 
 the wedding procession. This time she 
 scanned each face, but only in the faces 
 of Sadrach the Small and Miriam did she 
 recognise her own children. She threw 
 herself on the grass. Esau and Simon and 
 Rachel, and Sarah and Daniel and Samuel. 
 She remembered the circumstances attend- 
 ing the birth of each. . . . And she had 
 been a good wife. Never once did she deny 
 Sadrach his rights. So long as she lasted 
 she was a woman to him. 
 
 " Sadrach the Small and Miriam," she 
 said. 
 
 She rose and went to the graveyard. She 
 came to the earth under which are Essec 
 and Shan, Sadrach's father and mother, 
 
 19
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 and at a distance of the space of one grave 
 from theirs were the graves of six of the 
 children born of Sadrach and Achsah. 
 She parted the hair that had fallen over 
 her face, and traced with her fingers the 
 letters which formed the names of each 
 of her six children. 
 
 
 
 As Sara Ann crossed the threshold of 
 Danyrefail, and as she set her feet on the 
 flagstone on which Sadrach the Small is 
 said to have been born, the door of the 
 parlour was opened and a lunatic em- 
 braced her.
 
 A HEIFER WITHOUT BLEMISH 
 
 21
 
 II 
 
 A HEIFER WITHOUT BLEMISH 
 
 DEIO and Katto Parcdu had been enter- 
 taining Job of the Stallion. Having made 
 an end to eating, and Job and his stallion 
 having taken to the road, Deio lifted his 
 voice : 
 
 " Tomos, come you in here now." 
 
 Tomos passed over the earthen floor 
 of the kitchen, and discarded his clogs on 
 the threshold of the lower end, which is the 
 parlour. 
 
 " Job of the old Stallion does say that 
 Enoch Dinas has taken a farm near the 
 shore of Morfa," said Deio. 
 
 " Indeed, now, there's a daft boy bach I " 
 exclaimed Tomos. " What say you does 
 23
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 Enoch want to do that for ! Sure me, 
 Dinas is as much as he can manage." 
 
 " Is not that what Job did say ? ' 
 spoke Katto. 
 
 " Dinas is a fairish farm," said Deio. 
 " Out of his old head is Enoch to leave it." 
 
 " Sad is Enoch's lot," said Katto. " A 
 high female is his wife. And an unprofit- 
 able madam is the female." 
 
 " Iss, iss," said Deio. " She is a burden 
 on the place. Where is the sense now in 
 Enoch keeping a wife and a servant ? ' 
 
 "Enoch is head-stiff," said Katto. 
 " Did not every one tell him before he 
 married that he would have to keep a 
 servant ? For why, dear me, did the iob 
 marry such a useless woman ? What is 
 the matter with the female ? She brought 
 with her nothing to Dinas." 
 
 11 Look you at the wife of Tydu," said 
 Deio gravely. " Isn't she a sampler ? ' 
 
 44 She's as useful as a male about the 
 place," added Katto. " And she works 
 24
 
 A HEIFER WITHOUT BLEMISH 
 
 like a black bach. And Evan her hus- 
 band is always in his place in the meeting 
 for prayer." 
 
 " Religion comes before all with Evan," 
 said Deio. 
 
 " Large money indeed he puts in the 
 Post Office," Katto went on. " Mistress 
 Morgan of the Post does say that he's got 
 thirty yellow sovereigns there now. What 
 pity Tomos cannot find a woman like her." 
 
 Tomos came near to the round table, 
 and bending his crooked body, spat into 
 the fire. 
 
 " Think you now of Sara Jane the 
 daughter of old Simon " he began. 
 
 " Boy bach foolish ! " cried Katto. 
 " What nonsense you talk out of the back 
 of your head ! Sober serious, mouth not 
 that you have thrown gravel at Sara 
 Jane's window I She's not worth her 
 broth." 
 
 " Katto is right," Deio put in. " There 
 was me and Katto talking about renting 
 25
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 Dinas for you if you could find a thrifty, 
 tidy female." 
 
 " How voice you then about Gwen 
 the widow of Noah ? " asked Tomos. 
 " There's a one she is for tending to the 
 house ! " 
 
 " You would have to pay her,'* said 
 Deio. "It is not some one to look after 
 the house you want. You need a woman 
 to look after the land, and the cattle, 
 and your milk, man. And after you. A 
 woman who will be profitable. Sara Jane, 
 indeed! No, boy bach, don't you deal 
 lightly with Old Simon's wench. Not 
 respectable is that to Capel Sion." 
 
 " Your father speaks sense, Tomos 
 nice," said Katto. "It's time you 
 wedded. Do you look round you for one 
 like the wife of Tydu. Is she not tidy and 
 saving ? Was she not carting dung into 
 the field when she was full ? You will be 
 five over forty in the eleventh month." 
 
 Deio took out from his mouth the 
 26
 
 A HEIFER WITHOUT BLEMISH 
 
 tobacco that was therein and placed it on 
 the table, and he also emptied his mouth 
 of its tainted spittle. "Be you restful now, 
 folk bach," he said, " for am I not going to 
 speak about religion?" Then he raised 
 his face and sang after the manner of 
 the Welsh preacher : "Me and your mam 
 are full of years, and the hearse from 
 Capel Sion will soon take us home to the 
 Big Man's Palace a home, Tomos, where 
 we will wear White Shirts, and where 
 there is no old rent to pay. Tomos, 
 Tomos, weepful you will be when I am 
 up above. Little Great One, keep an 
 eye on Tomos. Be with your son in 
 Capel Sion. Amen." 
 
 When he had made an end, he put the 
 tobacco back into his mouth, and he said : 
 " One hundred and half a hundred sove- 
 reigns is the mortgage on Parcdu now." 
 
 " Do you listen, Tomos bach," Katto 
 counselled her son. 
 
 
 
 " Go you off yourself to-morrow to the 
 
 27
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 April Fair to search for a woman," said 
 Deio. 
 
 Tomos said : " Iss, iss, indeed, then." 
 
 " And take you a cask of butter with 
 you," said Katto. " Leave you the butter 
 in the back of the old trap till your eyes 
 have fallen upon a maid ; and when she 
 has found favour with you, ask her to 
 sell for you the butter. If she has got a 
 sharp tongue in her mouth and makes a 
 good bargain, say to her that you will 
 marry her, but if she is not free of tongue, 
 say you nothing more to her, but go in 
 search of another." 
 
 Deio spoke : " Tell her your father sits 
 in the Big Seat in Sion, in the parish of 
 Troedfawr, in Shire Cardigan. As earnest 
 of your intention say that you are com- 
 manded to buy a heifer to start life with 
 in Dinas. Now, little son, don't you say 
 anything about the old mortgage." 
 
 Tomos promised to observe his father's 
 instructions. 
 
 28
 
 A HEIFER WITHOUT BLEMISH 
 
 " Get you there early in the morning, 
 then," his father said to him. "Put 
 the black mare in the car. And, Tomos, 
 don't you give a ride to anybody, for fear 
 those old robbers of excisemen will catch 
 you." 
 
 " Make yourself comely," said Katto. 
 " And when you get there, put out your 
 belly largely. See too that you get a 
 heifer without blemish." 
 
 Tomos shaved his chin and his long upper 
 lip and combed his side whiskers, and he 
 put axle-grease on his boots, and clothed 
 himself in his Sabbath garments of home- 
 spun cloth ; and harnessing the black mare 
 to the car, in the back of which he placed 
 a cask full of butter, he set out for the Fair 
 of the month of April. Tomos got out of 
 the car at Penrhiw, as the ascent therefrom 
 into Castellybryn is rocky and steep, and 
 guided the mare by the bridle. At the 
 foot of the hill this morning a street 
 of many people and much cattle he 
 29
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 turned into the yard of the Drivers' 
 Arms. 
 
 " Fair morning, Tomos the son of 
 Deio," said the ostler of the Drivers' Arms 
 to him. 
 
 " Say you have an empty stall, little 
 son ? " Tomos asked. 
 
 44 Surely." 
 
 " Fair morning, Tomos. How was 
 you, man ? And how was your old 
 father ? " 
 
 Tomos turned round and looked into 
 the face of Job of the Stallion. 
 
 " Quite well, thanks be to you, Job 
 bach." 
 
 44 What's your errand, boy bach ? Old 
 Deio your father did not say anything the 
 day before to-day." 
 
 Job, his small feet planted close together 
 underneath his bandy legs, gazed reproach- 
 fully at Tomos. 
 
 44 Well well," said Tomos, 44 am I not 
 selling a cask of butter, man ? " 
 30
 
 A HEIFER WITHOUT BLEMISH 
 
 " There's excuse for you now, dear me ; 
 old Katto must be mad to send you with 
 a cask of butter to the fair. Now, now, 
 Tomos, do you mouth to me then your 
 errand quick at once." 
 
 " For what you don't know that Dinas 
 is going, man?" replied Tomos. 
 
 "But, Tomos, why act so foolish ? Was 
 not me that told old Deio about it ? " 
 
 " Of course. Father wants me to take 
 it." 
 
 " Little Tomos, do you speak plainly. 
 I am not curious, but what in the name of 
 goodness are you doing here? Be you 
 immediate, for have I not a lot of busi- 
 ness to do ? 5: 
 
 " Job of the Stallion, why you are so 
 hasty for, man? Look you, indeed, I am 
 come for a wife." 
 
 Job pouted his lips reprovingly, and he 
 squeezed the large, cracked mole which 
 was between his eyebrows with forefinger 
 and thumb. 
 
 31
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 " I blame you, Tomos, for being so 
 secret about your affairs." 
 
 He thought. 
 
 " Dango ! ' : he exclaimed. " There's 
 Nell Blaenffos. Do you know Nell, 
 Tomos ? " 
 
 " Nell Blaenffos ? " 
 
 "You are as stupid as a frog, man. 
 BlaenffoS: Near Henllan. Nell the 
 daughter of Sam." 
 
 " Is she a tidy wench ? " 
 
 " For why you make me savage, Tomos ? 
 Nell is Sam's only child. She is here with 
 her old father paying off the last of the 
 mortgage." 
 
 Job shouted across the yard into the 
 inn : " Is Nell Blaenffos there ? " 
 
 " Dammo ! " came the reply. " She 
 was here this one minute. Nell Blaenffos ! 
 Nell Blaenffos ! " 
 
 Many voices repeated the call. They 
 cried : " Nell Blaenffos ! Nell Blaenffos ! 
 Job of the Stallion wants you." 
 
 32
 
 A HEIFER WITHOUT BLEMISH 
 
 The cry was taken up by folk standing 
 on the doorstep, and it reached a group of 
 men and women gossiping in the middle 
 of the roadway. " Nell fach," said one of 
 the group, " is not old Job of the Stallion 
 needing you ? ' 
 
 ** For shame ! " observed a ponderous- 
 waisted woman. " What for you are 
 thinking ? For shame, Nell Blaenffos ! " 
 
 The people laughed. 
 
 " Go you, little daughter," said the 
 large woman, " and see what that old Job 
 needs you for." 
 
 Nell stout and red of face, and puffing 
 appeared before Job, and Job informed 
 her that Tomos begotten of Deio Parcdu 
 (this Deio being the strongest farmer in the 
 parish of Troedfawr, and the saintliest 
 man in the Big Seat in Capel Sion) was 
 desirous of taking her into his bed. 
 
 Tomos nodded his head, and said : 
 " Iss iss. How was you, Nell fach ? " 
 
 Nell proved him with questions. 
 D 33
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 Job took Tomos to a corner in the yard, 
 and held a whispered conversation with 
 him ; returning he told Nell that Dinas, 
 a farm of sixty acres, was to be let, that 
 Deio was prepared to perform his share in 
 stocking the farm, that as earnest of this 
 Tomos was authorised that day to buy a 
 heifer for Dinas. 
 
 " You see, Nell fach, that you will have 
 to be quick, or else the best cattle will be 
 sold," said Job. 
 
 "" Dear, dear, now," said Tomos, " I 
 had forgotten the old cask of butter I 
 have to sell." 
 
 " There, indeed ! " said Job. " Go off 
 you two together and sell the cask and 
 talk this thing over. Remember when 
 you settle down in Dinas that my Stallion 
 bach is to serve your first mare. Thus 
 you will pay me for this." 
 
 Tomos lifted the cask out of the car 
 and placed it on Nell's shoulder, and he 
 followed Nell to the place where butter 
 34
 
 A HEIFER WITHOUT BLEMISH 
 
 merchants assemble. One dealer came 
 and offered tenpence three-farthings a 
 pound ; for him Nell refused to remove 
 even the cloth from the mouth of the cask. 
 Another came and offered tenpence half- 
 penny; in reply to him Nell said: "Go 
 your way, you fool. You would rob 
 me pure." Now the dealer was a young 
 man, who did not know the ways of 
 Castellybryn, and he was aware that 
 the first dealer was a big buyer and a 
 cunning bargainer ; so he purchased the 
 butter for elevenpence farthing a pound, 
 being a farthing a pound above the 
 market price of that day. 
 
 Tomos took the money and tied his 
 handkerchief over it, and he bought a 
 penny cake, and while he was eating it he 
 said to Nell : 
 
 " How speak you about Dinas ? " 
 
 " Is the land well watered ? " asked 
 Nell. 
 
 " Iss, indeed." 
 
 35
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 " Is there water in the close ? " 
 
 " Well, well, not in the close, Nell fach, 
 but at the bottom of the field under the 
 house." 
 
 "Mouth you now about the out- 
 houses." 
 
 " Enoch had a new roof put over the 
 stable when he went there four years ago." 
 
 " How much money has your father 
 Deio got ? " 
 
 " Now you've asked me a puzzle, Nell 
 fach. I don't know, for sure ! " 
 
 " Is Parcdu his ? " 
 
 " Indeed it is." 
 
 " Is it mortgaged ? " 
 
 *' Not for a red penny, Nell Blaenffos." 
 
 " How many brothers and sisters have 
 you got ? " 
 
 " Not one, Nell fach." 
 
 " Come you back with me to the 
 Drivers' and mouth to old father." 
 
 Sam Blaenffos had already seen Job of 
 the Stallion and had conversed with him, 
 
 36
 
 A HEIFER WITHOUT BLEMISH 
 
 and he had been told nothing except that 
 which was good about Deio Parcdu and 
 his son Tomos. 
 
 " When is the wedding to be, little 
 son ? " Sam asked Tomos. 
 
 " What say you now ? ' 
 
 " There's plenty of time to discuss 
 that," said Sam. "Tell you old Deio to 
 meet me here next market day, and we 
 will arrange matters." 
 
 " I will indeed, man," replied Tomos. 
 
 " Good-bye now, and good-bye to your 
 father as well," said Sam. 
 
 Tomos turned his back on the Drivers' 
 Arms, and on Nell Blaenffos, and on the 
 father of Nell Blaenffos, and with a hand 
 in the pocket of his coat and a hand in the 
 pocket of his trousers he moved slowly 
 in and out among the cattle. The fingers 
 of the clock over the door of the surgery 
 of Dr. Morgan pointed to fifteen minutes 
 past ten, wherefore Tomos bent his shoul- 
 ders and rebuked himself : 
 37
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 " The morning is far spent. And 
 there's a small bit of work I've done ! " 
 
 When he came that way again the 
 fingers of the clock pointed to twenty-five 
 minutes past five in the afternoon, and 
 there was a pleasing smile in his face, for 
 was he not leading on a halter a heifer 
 without blemish ? 
 
 88
 
 THE WAY OF THE EARTH
 
 Ill 
 
 THE WAY OF THE EARTH 
 
 SIMON and Beca are waiting for Death. 
 The ten acres of land over Penrhos their 
 peat-thatched cottage under the edge of 
 the moor grows wilder and weedier. For 
 Simon and Beca can do nothing now. 
 Often the mood comes on the broken, help- 
 less old man to speak to his daughter of 
 the only thing that troubles him. 
 
 " When the time comes, Sara Jane 
 fach," he says, " don't you hire the old 
 hearse. Go you down to Dai the son of 
 Mali, and Isaac the Cobbler, and Dennis 
 the larger servant of Dan, and Twm 
 Tybach, and mouth you like this to them : 
 * Jasto, now, my little father Simon has 
 gone to wear the White Shirt in the Palace. 
 
 41
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 Come you then and carry him on your 
 shoulders nice into Sion.' : 
 
 "Yea, Sara fach," Beca says, "and 
 speak you to Lias the Carpenter that you 
 will give no more than ten over twenty 
 shillings for the coffin." 
 
 Simon adds : " If we perish together, 
 make you one coffin serve." 
 
 Neither Simon nor Beca has further 
 use for life. Paralysis shattered the old 
 man the day of Sara Jane's wedding ; the 
 right side of his face sags, and he is lame 
 on both his feet. Beca is blind, and she 
 gropes her way about. Worse than all, they 
 stand without the gates of Capel Sion the 
 living sin of all the land : they were married 
 after the birth of Sara Jane, and though 
 in the years of their passion they were 
 all that a man and woman can be to each 
 other, they begat no children. But Sion, 
 jealous that not even his errant sheep 
 shall lie in the parish graveyard and swell 
 in appearance those who have worshipped 
 42
 
 THE WAY OF THE EARTH 
 
 the fripperies of the heathen Church, will 
 embrace them in Death. 
 
 The land attached to Penrhos was 
 changed from sterile moorland into a 
 fertile garden by Simon and Beca. Great 
 toil went to the taming of these ten acres 
 of heather into the most fruitful soil in 
 the district. Sometimes now Simon drags 
 himself out into the open and complains 
 when he sees his garden ; and he calls Beca 
 to look how the fields are going back to 
 heatherland. And Beca will rise from her 
 chair and feel her way past the bed which 
 stands against the wooden partition, and 
 as she touches with her right hand the 
 ashen post that holds up the forehead 
 of the house she knows she is facing the 
 fields, and she too will groan, for her 
 strength and pride are mixed with the soil. 
 
 " Sober serious, little Simon," she says, 
 " this is the way of the earth, man bach." 
 
 But she means that it is the way of 
 mortal flesh ... of her daughter Sara 
 43
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 Jane, who will no longer give the land the 
 labour it requires to keep it clean and 
 good. Sara Jane has more than she can 
 do in tending to her five-year-old twins 
 and her dying parents, and she lets the 
 fields pass back into wild moorland. 
 
 In the days of his sin and might Simon 
 had been the useful man of Manteg. He 
 was careless then that the gates of Sion 
 were closed against him. He possessed 
 himself of a cart and horse, and became 
 the carrier between the cartless folk of 
 Manteg and the townspeople of Castell- 
 ybryn, eight miles down the valley. He 
 and Beca saved ; oil lamp nor candle 
 never lit up their house, and they did not 
 spend money on coal because peat was to 
 be lifted just beyond their threshold. They 
 stinted themselves in halfpennies, gathered 
 the pennies till they amounted to shillings, 
 put the silver in a box till they had five 
 sovereigns' worth of it, and this sum 
 Simon took to the bank in Castellybryn
 
 THE WAY OF THE EARTH 
 
 on his next carrier's journey. They looked 
 to the time their riches would triumph over 
 even Sion and so open for them the gates 
 of the temple. 
 
 As soon as the Schoolin' allowed her to 
 leave the Board School, Sara Jane was 
 made to help Beca in all the farm work, 
 thus enabling Simon to devote himself 
 almost entirely to his neighbours. The 
 man was covetous, and there were mur- 
 murings that strange sheaves of wheat were 
 threshed on his floor, that his pigs fattened 
 on other people's meal. 
 
 In accordance with the manner of 
 labouring women Sara Jane wore clogs 
 which had iron rims beneath them, grey 
 stockings of coarse wool that were patched 
 on the heels and legs with artless darns, 
 and short petticoats ; in all seasons her 
 hands were chapped and ugly. Still with 
 her auburn hair, her firm breast, and her 
 white teeth, she was the desire of many. 
 Farm servants ogled her in public places ; 
 45
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 farmers' sons lay in wait for her in lonely 
 places. Men spoke to her frankly, and 
 with counterfeit smiles in their faces ; 
 Sara Jane answered their lustful sayings 
 with lewd laughter, and when the attack 
 became too pressing she picked up her 
 petticoats and ran home. Nor was she 
 put out over the attentions she received : 
 she was well favoured and she liked to be 
 desired ; and in the twilight of an evening 
 her full-bosomed, ripe beauty struck 
 Simon suddenly as he met her in the 
 close. Her eyes were dancing with de- 
 light, and her breast heaving. Sadrach 
 the Small had chased her right to 
 Penrhos. 
 
 Simon and Beca discussed this that had 
 happened, and became exceedingly afraid 
 for her. 
 
 " There's an old boy, dear me, for you 
 indeed ! " said Simon. " The wench fach 
 is four over twenty now, and fretful I 
 feel." 
 
 46
 
 THE WAY OF THE EARTH 
 
 " Iss, iss, Simon," said Beca. 
 
 " If she was wedded now, she would be 
 out of harm." 
 
 " Wisdom you mouth, Simon. Good, 
 serious me, to get her a male." 
 
 " How say you then about Josi Cwm- 
 twrch ? " 
 
 " Clap your old lips, little man. Josi 
 Cwmtwrch ! What has Josi to give her ? 
 What for you talk about Josi ? 5: 
 
 " Well, well, then. Tidy wench she is, 
 whatever. And when we go she'll have 
 the nice little yellow sovereigns in the 
 bank." 
 
 Beca interrupted : " The eggs fetched 
 three and ten pennies. Another florin 
 now, Simon, and we've got five yellow 
 sovereigns." 
 
 " Don't say then ! Pity that is. Am I 
 not taking the old Schoolin's pig to Castell- 
 ybryn on Friday too? Went you to all 
 the old nests, woman fach ? " 
 
 " Iss, man." 
 
 47
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 "What is old Rhys giving for eggs 
 now ? " 
 
 " Five pennies for six. Big is the for- 
 tune the cheater is making." 
 
 Beca dropped off her outer petticoat and 
 drew a shawl over her head, and she got 
 into bed ; an hour later she was followed 
 by Simon. In the morning she took to 
 Shop Rhys three shillings' worth of eggs. 
 
 This was the slack period between 
 harvests, and Sara Jane went with Simon 
 to Castellybryn ; and while Simon was 
 weighing the Schoolin's pig she wandered 
 hither and thither, and going over the 
 bridge which spans Avon Teify she paused 
 at the window of Jenkins Shop General, 
 attracted thereto by the soaps and per- 
 fumes that were displayed. 
 
 " How you are ? " said a young man 
 at her side. 
 
 "Man bach, what for you fright me? " said 
 Sara Jane. She was moved to step away, 
 for she had heard read that the corners 
 48
 
 THE WAY OF THE EARTH 
 
 of streets are places of great temptation. 
 The young man a choice young man and 
 comely : he wore spectacles, had the front 
 of his hair trimmed in waves, and his 
 moustaches ended in thin points the 
 young man seized her arm. 
 
 " Free you are, boy bach," Sara Jane 
 cried. " Go you on now ! " 
 
 44 Come you in and take a small peep at 
 my shop," said the young man. . . . 
 
 When Sara entered her father's cart 
 she had hidden in the big pocket of her 
 under-petticoat a cake of scented soap 
 and a bottle of perfume. 
 
 That night she extracted the hobnails 
 out of the soles of her Sabbath boots. That 
 night also she collected the eggs, and for 
 every three she gathered she concealed 
 one. This she did for two more days, and 
 the third day she purchased a blouse in 
 Shop Rhys. For this wastefulness her 
 parents' wrath was kindled against her. 
 The next Sunday she secretly used scented 
 E 49
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 soap on her face and hands and poured 
 perfume on her garments; and towards 
 evening she traversed to the gateway 
 where the moorland road breaks into the 
 tramping way which takes you to Morfa- 
 on-the-Sea. William Jenkins was waiting 
 for her, his bicycle against the hedge; he 
 was cutting the letters of his name into 
 the gatepost. On the fourth night Sara 
 Jane lay awake in bed. She heard the 
 sound of gravel falling on the window- 
 pane, and she got up and let in the visitor. 
 
 The rumour began to be spread that 
 William Jenkins, Shop General, was court- 
 ing in bed with the wench of Penrhos, and 
 it got to the ears of Simon and Beca. 
 
 " What for you want to court William 
 Shinkins, Shop General, in bed for ? " 
 said Simon. 
 
 " There's bad you are," said Beca. 
 
 " Is not Bertha Daviss saying that he 
 comes up here on his old iron horse ? " 
 said Simon. 
 
 50
 
 THE WAY OF THE EARTH 
 
 " Indeed to goodness," answered Sara 
 Jane, " what is old Bertha doing out so 
 late for ? Say she to you that Rhys Shop 
 was with her ? ' 
 
 " Speak you with sense, wench fach," 
 Beca said to her daughter. 
 
 " Is not William Shinkins going to wed 
 me then ? " said Sara Jane. 
 
 " Glad am I to hear that," said Simon. 
 " Say you to the boy bach : ' Come you to 
 Penrhos on the Sabbath, little Shinkins.' ' 
 
 " Large gentleman is he," said Sara 
 Jane. 
 
 " Of course, dear me," said Simon. 
 "But voice you like that to him." 
 
 The Sabbath came, and people on their 
 way to Capel Sion saw William Jenkins go 
 up the narrow Roman road to Penrhos, 
 and they said one to another : " Close will 
 be the bargaining." Simon was glad that 
 Sara Jane had found favour in William's 
 eyes: here was a godly man and one 
 of substance; he owned a Shop General, 
 51
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 his coat was always dry, and he wore a 
 collar every day in the week, and he re- 
 ceived many red pennies in the course of 
 a day. Simon took him out on the moor. 
 
 " Shall we talk this business then at 
 once ? " Mishtir Jenkins observed. " Make 
 plain Sara Jane's inheritance." 
 
 " Much, little boy." 
 
 "Penrhos will come to Sara Jane, 
 then ? " 
 
 " Iss, man." 
 
 " Right that is, Simon. Wealthy am 
 I. Do I not own Shop General ? Man 
 bach, there's a grand business for you ! " 
 
 44 Don't say ! " 
 
 " Move your tongue now about Sara 
 Jane's wedding portion," said Mishtir 
 Jenkins. 
 
 44 Dear me, then, talk will I to Beca 
 about this thing," answered Simon. 
 
 Three months passed by. Sara Jane 
 moaned because that her breast was hurt- 
 ful. Beca brewed for her camomile tea, 
 52
 
 THE WAY OF THE EARTH 
 
 but the pains did not go away. Then at 
 the end of a day Sara Jane told Beca and 
 Simon how she had done. 
 
 " Concubine ! " cried Beca. 
 
 " Harlot ! ' : cried Simon. 
 
 " For sure me, disgrace is this," said 
 Beca. 
 
 Sara Jane straightened her shoulders. 
 
 " Samplers bach nice you are ! 5: she 
 said maliciously. " Crafty goats you are. 
 What did the old Schoolin' use to say 
 when he called the names in the morning ? 
 1 Sara Jane, the bastard of Simon and 
 Beca.' Iss, that's the old Schoolin'. But 
 William Shinkins will wed me. I shan't 
 be cut out of the Seiet." 
 
 Simon and Beca were distressed. 
 
 "Go you down, little Simon, and word 
 to the boy," said Beca. 
 
 " I've nothing to go for," replied 
 Simon. 
 
 " Hap Madlen Tybach need coal ? " 
 
 " No no. Has she not much left ? 
 53
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 Did I not look upon the coal when I 
 fetched the eggs ? " 
 
 " Sorrowful it is you can find no errand. 
 Wise would be to speech to the male bach." 
 
 " Dear little me ! I'll go round and ask 
 the tailor if he is expecting parcels from 
 the station." 
 
 " Do you now. You won't be losing 
 money if you can find a little errand." 
 
 At dawn Simon rose and went to Castell- 
 ybryn. In going over the bridge of Avon 
 Teify he halted and closed his eyes and 
 prayed. This is his prayer : " Powerful 
 Big Man bach, deal you fair by your little 
 servant; And if Shinkins, Shop General, 
 says, 4 1 am not the father of your wench's 
 child,' strike him dead. We know he is. 
 Ask you Bertha Daviss. Have we not 
 seen his name on the gatepost? This, 
 Jesus bach, in the name of the little 
 White Jesus." 
 
 Outside Shop General he called in a 
 loud voice : " William Shinkins, where he 
 54
 
 THE WAY OF THE EARTH 
 
 is?" Then he came down and walked 
 into the parlour where Mishtir Jenkins was 
 eating. 
 
 Simon said : " Sara Jane is with child." 
 
 " And say you do that to me," said 
 Mishtir Jenkins. 
 
 " Iss, iss, man. Sore is Beca about it." 
 
 " Don't you worry, Simon bach, the 
 time is long." 
 
 " Mishtir Shinkins. There's religious 
 he is," said Simon, addressing William 
 Jenkins in the third person, as is the 
 custom in West Wales when you are 
 before your betters. " Put him up the 
 banns now then." 
 
 " I will, Simon." 
 
 "Tell he me, when shall I say to Beca 
 thus : ' On such and such a day is the 
 wedding ' ? Say him a month this day ? " 
 
 "All right, Simon. I'll send the old 
 
 fly from the Drivers' Arms to bring you 
 
 and Sara Jane. Much style there will be. 
 
 Did you voice to Beca about the matter ? " 
 
 55
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 " What was that now, indeed, Mishtir 
 Shinkins ? " 
 
 " Why was you so dull ? Sara Jane's 
 portion, old boy." 
 
 "Well-well, iss. Well-well, no. We're 
 poor in Penrhos, Mishtir Shinkins. Poor." 
 
 " Grudging you are with your money, 
 Simon Penrhos." 
 
 " Don't he say like that. Make speech 
 will I again with Beca." 
 
 Mishtir Jenkins stretched his face to- 
 wards Simon, and said : 
 
 " What would you say, Simon, if I 
 asked you to give me Sara Jane's portion 
 this one small minute ? " 
 
 " Waggish is his way, little Shinkins 
 bach," said Simon with pretended good- 
 humour. 
 
 " My father had a farm and sovereigns 
 and a cow when he wedded." 
 
 " Open my lips to Beca I will about 
 this," answered Simon. 
 
 " Good, very," replied Mishtir Jen- 
 56
 
 THE WAY OF THE EARTH 
 
 kins. " I will say about the wedding, 
 man, when you bring me Beca's words." 
 
 " Shinkins ! Shinkins ! " 
 
 " Leave you me half a hundred of 
 pounds of Sara Jane's portion and I'll 
 stand by my agreement." 
 
 " Joking he is, William Shinkins. Deal 
 well we will by Sara Jane on the day of 
 her wedding." 
 
 William Shinkins spoke presently. " I 
 am not a man to go back on my promise 
 to Sara Jane," he said. "And am I not 
 one of respect ? " 
 
 Simon went home and gave thanks 
 unto God Who had imparted under- 
 standing to the heart of William Jenkins. 
 But folks in Manteg declared that de- 
 signing men crossed the river in the search 
 of females to wed. Sara Jane was no 
 longer ashamed. She went about and 
 abroad and wore daily the boots from 
 which she had taken out the hobnails. 
 
 On the appointed day the fly came to 
 57
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 Penrhos, and Simon and Sara Jane went 
 away in it : and as they passed through 
 Manteg Bertha Daviss cried : " People 
 bach, tell you me where you are going." 
 
 Simon told her the glad news. 
 
 Bertha waved her hand, and she cried 
 to the driver: "Boy nice, whip up, whip 
 up, or you'll have another passenger to 
 carry." 
 
 Mishtir Jenkins met Simon and Sara 
 Jane at the door of the inn. 
 
 " Sara Jane," he said, " stop you out- 
 side while me and your father expound 
 to each other." 
 
 He took Simon into the stable. 
 
 *' Did you ask Beca about the yellow 
 sovereigns ? " he said. 
 
 " Iss, iss. Many sovereigns he will get." 
 
 "How many?" 
 
 " Shinkins bach, why for he hurry ? 
 Bad it looks." 
 
 " Sound the figures now, Simon." 
 
 * 4 Ten yellow sovereigns, dear me." 
 58
 
 THE WAY OF THE EARTH 
 
 "Simon Penrhos, you and your wench 
 go home." 
 
 41 William Shinkins, he knows that Sara 
 Jane is full. I'll inform against him. 
 The law of the Sessions I'll put on him. 
 Indeed I will." 
 
 " Am I not making Sara Jane mistress 
 of Shop General ? Solemn me, serious it is 
 to wed a woman with child ! " 
 
 " There's hard he is, Shinkins. Take 
 two over ten sovereigns and a little parcel 
 of potatoes, and a few white cabbages, 
 and many carrots." 
 
 " Is that your best offer, Simon ? " 
 
 " It's all we have, little man. We're 
 poor." 
 
 " Go with the wench. Costly the old 
 fly is for me." 
 
 Simon seized Mishtir Jenkins* coat. 
 
 " William Shinkins bach," he cried, 
 "don't he let his anger get the better of 
 his goodness. Are we not poor ? Accept 
 
 he our daughter " 
 
 59
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 " Simon Penrhos, one hundred of pounds 
 you've got in the bank, man. Give me 
 that one hundred this morning before the 
 wedding. If you don't do that you shall 
 
 see." 
 
 Simon shivered. He was parting with 
 his life. It was his life and Beca's life. 
 She had made it, turning over the heather, 
 and wringing it penny by penny from the 
 stubborn earth. He, too, had helped her. 
 He had served his neighbours, and thieved 
 from them. He wept. 
 
 " He asks too much," he cried. " Too 
 much." 
 
 " Come, now, indeed," said William 
 Jenkins. " Do you act religious by the 
 wench fach." 
 
 Simon went with him to the bank, and 
 with a smudge and a cross blotted out 
 his account. Then he witnessed the com- 
 pletion of the bargain in Capel Baptists, 
 which is beyond the Sycamore Tree. 
 
 The bridegroom took the bride home to 
 60
 
 THE WAY OF THE EARTH 
 
 Shop General, and he gave half of the 
 dowry to a broker's man who had been 
 put in possession. Some of the remaining 
 fifty sovereigns went to his landlord for 
 overdue rent, and on the rest William 
 Jenkins and Sara Jane lived for nearly a 
 year. Then the broker's man returned, 
 wherefore William Jenkins gave over the 
 fight and fled out of the land. 
 
 61
 
 THE TALENT THOU GAVEST 
 
 68
 
 IV 
 THE TALENT THOU GAVEST 
 
 EBEN the son of Hannah held up his 
 right arm and displayed the palm of his 
 hand. 
 
 Mishtir Lloyd the Schoolin' said : " Put 
 your old hand down now," and, gaping his 
 mouth, proceeded to call out the register 
 
 " Maggie Shones ? " 
 
 " Here, iss." 
 
 " Eben Tomos ? " 
 
 " Here, iss," answered three voices 
 together. 
 
 " For what you do not shut your chins, 
 you dirty cows ! >! said Mishtir Lloyd. 
 " Why do you all act like old horses with- 
 F 65
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 out any gumption ! Now, then, Eben the 
 son of Sarah the daughter of Silah ? " 
 
 "Here, iss." 
 
 " Eben, Marl's child by Job of the 
 Stallion ? " 
 
 "Here, iss." 
 
 " Eben the son of Hannah the widow 
 of Will ? " 
 
 " Here, iss." 
 
 Mishtir Lloyd called by name each of 
 the eighty-five scholars on his register ; 
 when he came to the end, he said : 
 
 " What for was your hand up just now, 
 man, Eben the son of Hannah ? " 
 
 " Did I not want to tell him, little 
 Mishtir, that I am not coming to school 
 any more then ? " replied Eben. 
 
 " Dear me, dear me, now indeed you are 
 not coming for why ? " 
 
 " Mishtir bach, does he not know that 
 I am going to the moor to mind the sheep 
 of Shames ? " 
 
 " Ho, and you say that ? " 
 66
 
 THE TALENT THOU GAYEST 
 
 Mishtir Lloyd picked up his round 
 ebony ruler and drew a straight line over 
 Eben's name on the register. 
 
 The next morning at daybreak Eben, a 
 crust of bread and a piece of cheese in 
 his trousers pocket, was ready to take up 
 his duties. Before he went Hannah ad- 
 dressed these words to him : 
 
 " Do you see now, little Eben, that none 
 of Shames's old sheep go astray, for 
 Shames is quick to anger. Don't you do 
 any evil pranks against him, because it is 
 not meet that Shames shall report us to 
 the Big Man. Earn every mite of the 
 shilling a week he gives you, Eben bach. 
 Do we not need these pennies badly ? Last 
 year I sacrificed only three half-crowns 
 to Sion. And for sure the Judge will 
 inform the Great Male about me." 
 
 Eben, having walked over the mile and 
 
 a half of heather, and having come to the 
 
 point from which you can on a clear day 
 
 see the waters of Cardigan Bay, opened the 
 
 67
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 gate of the enclosure in which Shames's 
 sheep spent the night. 
 
 This Eben did every day till he grew 
 out of knee-breeches into long corduroy 
 trousers. His life was lonely ; books 
 were closed against him, because he had 
 not been taught to read ; and the sense 
 of the beautiful or the curious in Nature 
 is slow to awake in the mind of the Welsh 
 peasant. After a time Eben began to 
 hold whispered conversations with himself. 
 Gradually he found consolation in his 
 voice, the sound of which fell pleasingly 
 upon his ears. He knew many hymns by 
 heart, and these hymns he recited to the 
 shivering heather and the grazing sheep. 
 
 One afternoon, his legs dangling over 
 the edge of the stone quarry, he fell 
 asleep, and in his dream the Big Man 
 a white-bearded, vigorous, stern, elderly 
 giant, broad as the front of Capel Sion 
 and taller than the roof came to him, 
 saying : 
 
 68
 
 THE TALENT THOU GAYEST 
 
 " Eben bach, why for now do you waste 
 your days in sleep ? Go you, little son, and 
 dig a hole in the place where stood Old 
 Shaci's hut." 
 
 "It'll be a big hole, little Big Man," 
 answered Eben, " if I must make it the 
 size of Old Shaci's hut." 
 
 The Big Man replied : " There's a boy 
 you are for pleading ! Go you up and 
 stand against the sour apple tree with 
 your face to the sea. At a distance of 
 three steps from the trunk of the tree 
 dig an old hole after the fashion of a 
 grave." 
 
 "Do you tell me now for what?" 
 Eben asked. 
 
 " For sure, is there not a talent buried 
 there ? " 
 
 Eben left Shames's sheep and came to 
 Penrhos. 
 
 "Little Simon," he said, "lend you me 
 an old pickaxe and a shovel." 
 
 Returning, he numbered the sheep, and 
 69
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 drove them to the summit of the moor, and 
 when he came to the mound on which a 
 hundred years ago Old Shaci built his 
 hut, he took off his coat and waistcoat, 
 and dug a hole as deep as a grave and of 
 the shape of a coffin. But he did not find 
 anything. 
 
 That night the God of Capel Sion came 
 to Eben again. 
 
 " Now that you have got the talent, 
 Eben bach, do you use it," He said. 
 
 " Dear little Big Man," answered 
 Eben, " there's foolish you talk. Did 
 I not dig till my old hands were 
 covered with blisters ? Provokeful you 
 
 are." 
 
 The Big Man spoke : " Eben bach, here 
 is the talent." 
 
 Eben opened his eyes. He sat up in 
 bed and held out his hands : the dawn 
 showed grey in his mother's face. 
 
 Weeks passed and months passed, and 
 each night Eben said this prayer : 
 70
 
 THE TALENT THOU GAYEST 
 
 "In God's name to my bed I go, 
 God keep the hale and those in woe ; 
 I'll lay my body down to sleep, 
 I'll give my soul to Christ to keep, 
 And in the name of God I'll sleep.'* 
 
 Adding : 
 
 1 God did promise me a talent : 
 Let Him show me what He meant." 
 
 Now in those days the ruler of Capel 
 Sion was the Respected Bern-Davydd, 
 famous throughout the land for his singing 
 eloquence ; thus oftentimes Eben sang 
 the minister's sayings while he kept guard 
 over Shames's sheep. 
 
 Understanding broke upon him suddenly. 
 
 " Dear, dear," he said to himself, " this 
 is the talent the Great Male gave me. I 
 am to be a preacher bach." 
 
 In the holiness of his joy he rose to his 
 feet and sang : 
 
 " The dear Big Man has given His little 
 servant a talent. Sheep bach that belong 
 to Shames, what do you think the talent 
 71
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 is now ? He has called Eben the son of 
 Hannah the widow woman of Will to 
 preach the Fair Word. Wise indeed is 
 the White Jesus to give His little servant 
 the strength to sing the Gospel." 
 
 Eben came home and said to his mother 
 Hannah : 
 
 " Mam fach, the talent the Almighty 
 gave me is for preaching." 
 
 " Eben, why you are so vain ? " Hannah 
 said to him. 
 
 But Hannah published the news to 
 the men who sat in the Big Seat in Capel 
 Sion, so it came about that Old Bensha of 
 the Road, in order to prove him, requested 
 him to say a little prayer in the Seiet. 
 Beautiful and songlike was the supplica- 
 tion that Eben offered : he sang mourn- 
 fully for those at sea, for sinners that wor- 
 shipped in places other than Capel Sion ; 
 he sang joyously for the First Men who 
 occupied the high places, for the many 
 blessings poured upon the congregation, 
 72
 
 THE TALENT THOU GAYEST 
 
 for the Big Man's gift of His Son to judge 
 over Sion. 
 
 Hannah clothed herself in her most 
 respectful garments, which were black 
 and decorated with ornaments of jet and 
 flowers of crepe, for this is the wear of 
 the women whose constant thoughts are of 
 Death and the burial of the dead ; and she 
 came down to the Shepherd's Abode, where 
 dwelt the Respected Bern-Davydd. 
 
 " Eben bach," she said, " is talking 
 about being a preacher." 
 
 " Religious hearing," said the Judge. 
 " Have I not had sound of the boy's nice 
 prayer ? " 
 
 " Little holy respected," said Hannah, 
 " good will it be if in his saintliness he lets 
 a concert religious be held in the Capel so 
 that Eben bach can be sent to College 
 Carmarthen." 
 
 " Sure, indeed," answered Bern-Davydd. 
 " I will cry from the pulpit : c Buy each 
 of you a ticket for Eben's concert. Two 
 73
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 silver shillings is the price, people 
 bach. 5 " 
 
 When Eben came away from College 
 Carmarthen his holiness was voiced abroad 
 the land and three Capels sent him word 
 to come and rule over them. Of the three 
 he distinguished the finger of God in the 
 weakest Capel Salem in Castellybryn. 
 In the time of the respected Caleb Daviss 
 it was said, " A fountain of light is Capel 
 Salem " ; but the godly Caleb ascended, 
 whereof the glory departed and the taber- 
 nacle became as a withered roadside tree 
 that harbours upon itself all the refuse 
 the wind brings. Eben summoned the 
 chief praying men into the Capel every 
 night for thirty days, to entreat the Lord 
 to restore the religious lustre of His taber- 
 nacle. Their prayers were answered : 
 whereas at the beginning of Eben's minis- 
 try the congregation could be counted 
 by the dozen, in two years their numbers 
 were above any in the shire. His fame 
 74
 
 THE TALENT THOU GAYEST 
 
 spread, and the people called him "Eben 
 bach the Singer." People said of him : 
 "He is exalted over all the judges." 
 
 But in the high day of his spiritual 
 prosperity Eben's powers decreased : his 
 discourses got to be less songlike, he 
 conversed with rather than preached to 
 his congregation, and he wrote out his 
 sermons. Men and women murmured : 
 " There's pity, now, dear me, about Eben 
 bach the Singer." 
 
 The men of the Big Seat reproached him. 
 
 " Well- well, Eben bach, no one wept 
 again the last Sunday," said Ben Shop 
 Draper. 
 
 " Indeed to goodness, not one ' Hale- 
 lujah ' or ' Amen ' did I hear," said Noah 
 Shop Boots and Clogs. 
 
 " For what he say that life is more than 
 religion ? " asked Ben. 
 
 " Little Ben and Noah," replied 
 Eben, " the Palace must be here on 
 earth." 
 
 75
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 Ben rose from his chair and said : 
 " Eben bach, an old atheist he is." 
 
 " Were he not the ruler," said Noah, 
 " pray for him I would this one night." 
 
 " Listen you to me now," said Eben. 
 " I have not preached to you at all the 
 real religion. I offered you the White 
 Palace or the Fiery Pool. Men, men, that 
 is not right. If you don't live in Heaven 
 here you won't live in Heaven when 
 you perish. Look you at Roberts of the 
 Shop Grocer. Did he not make his servant 
 Mari very full barely a year after he 
 stood up in the Seiet and said that he 
 prayed each night to be taken to Mistress 
 Roberts ? Did he not cry ' Halelujah ! ' 
 and 'Amen'?" 
 
 " Man, man, wrong you are to speak so 
 about Roberts of the Shop Grocer," said 
 Ben. " Poor Roberts bach was sorely 
 tempted, and he is forgiven. And has he 
 not sent the bad bitch about her business ? 
 Now think you over these things, and do 
 76
 
 THE TALENT THOU GAYEST 
 
 you not be a blockhead to throw away 
 your house and one hundred of sovereigns 
 a year." 
 
 So Eben bach the Singer short, square, 
 stooping, bushy, sandy hair falling over 
 his forehead and shoulders like a sheaf of 
 straw gave up his house, his one hundred 
 sovereigns a year, and his charge, and he 
 returned to the house of his mother. His 
 name became a proverb and a byword. 
 The deacons of Capel Sion prayed for him 
 in private and in public, but the voice of 
 the singer was silent. 
 
 On a day Ben Shop Draper journeyed 
 to Hannah's cottage. 
 
 "Eben, Eben," he cried, "woeful is 
 the errand I have to speech to you. The 
 new ruler cannot keep the flock together." 
 
 " Ho, indeed." 
 
 " You have sinned hardly against Capel 
 Salem, Eben bach." 
 
 " Don't you say that now." 
 
 " Iss, indeed. You took the temple in 
 77
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 marriage. Now you have divorced her. 
 The Big Man will count this serious against 
 you, Eben. Dear me, one hundred sove- 
 reigns and a house, and eight Sabbaths 
 off in the year." 
 
 " How could I preach against my con- 
 science ? ' asked Eben. 
 
 ;< Lok you not at things in that 
 light, dear man. Suppose now we 
 give you ten more sovereigns ? Awake 
 and gather yourself together, and ask 
 the Big Man bach to show you the 
 way." 
 
 People in the neighbourhood declared 
 Eben was mad, that he had spewed on 
 his own glory. 
 
 " Gird on your armour," remarked 
 Lloyd the Schoolin' to him. " Pray to be 
 rid of the Evil Spirit." 
 
 Eben made no answer. 
 
 "Wicked you are," proceeded Mishtir 
 Lloyd. " Has not the Big Man given 
 you a talent ? *' 
 
 78
 
 THE TALENT THOU GAVEST 
 
 " Iss, iss, for sure : He did give me a 
 large talent." 
 
 " Shame upon you, you old cow, for 
 throwing it against the Big Man's 
 teeth." 
 
 " But I want to use it," retorted Eben. 
 " The congregation won't let me, Lloyd 
 bach. So long as I employed half a talent 
 all went well." 
 
 If at this time you happened to be 
 taking the cart-road which cuts across 
 the moor, past the quarry and Old Shaci's 
 hut, you would have seen Eben sitting on 
 the fringe of the heather. 
 
 Folk who came that way were in the 
 habit of remarking to him : 
 
 " Glad day to you, Eben the son of 
 Hannah." 
 
 Without lifting his eyes, Eben would 
 reply : 
 
 " A glad day to you." 
 
 " What you are waiting for, man ? ' 
 
 44 For the Angel of the Lord." 
 79
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 " Indeed to goodness now, how will you 
 know him when he comes ? ' 
 
 " Sure me, I won't miss him.'* 
 
 The angel came towards the close of a 
 day. Eben saw him, and greeting him 
 with a wave of the hand, he hurried to 
 Penrhos. 
 
 " Simon bach," he said, " do you now 
 lend me your old pickaxe and shovel." 
 
 " Man, man," replied Simon, " foolish 
 you are to begin a job this time of the 
 night." 
 
 " He may not come this way again," 
 answered Eben. 
 
 Eben hastened over the heather to the 
 place where Old Shaci's hut was. Taking 
 off his coat and his waistcoat, and loosen- 
 ing his braces, he dug a hole in the ground, 
 a hole deep as a grave and of the shape of 
 a coffin. In the darkness he stood over the 
 open grave, his coat buttoned, india-rubber 
 cuffs on his wrists, his hair, wet with per- 
 spiration, thrown back over his head. 
 80
 
 THE TALENT THOU GAYEST 
 
 " Big Lord," he spoke, " the talent 
 Thou gavest me brought a great deal of 
 woe with it. Let Thy angel here, O Big 
 Man, bear witness now that I return to 
 Thee Thy talent. And do Thou let me 
 depart in peace, to make the best use I 
 can of the half-talent which is mine. . . ." 
 
 He opened his hands and spread his 
 palms over the open grave, as though he 
 dropped something into it ; and having 
 prayed he took off his coat, his waistcoat, 
 and his india-rubber cuffs, and cast the 
 earth back into the grave. 
 
 He returned to his mother's cottage, 
 and he shaved off his beard, and brought 
 forth from his box the black coat he wore 
 in the pulpit ; and in the morning he 
 clothed himself in his preacher's raiment, 
 and wrote this message : 
 
 " Beloved brothers in God of Capel 
 Salem, which is in the Castellybryn : 
 
 " Your judge has found the way. Hale- 
 lujah ! Amen ! Glory ! Rejoice with me, 
 81
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 my brothers. For I have found the true 
 light. The light that shineth sinners to 
 repentance ! My brothers, God has told me 
 to go forth into the vineyard. God has 
 told me to resume my labours in Capel 
 Salem. Pray, my beloved, that my labours 
 will be very fruitful among you. Let not 
 the matter of the little sovereigns engage 
 your minds at this joyful time. Has 
 not our dear brother Ben Shop Draper 
 arranged all that ? 
 
 " Your Ruler in the faith, 
 
 "EBEN."
 
 THE GLORY THAT WAS SIGN'S 
 
 83
 
 TWM TYBACH was abhorred of Capel Sion. 
 In all his acts he was evil. He was born 
 out of sin, and he walked in the company 
 of loose men. His features were fair, and 
 he had a rakish eye, before which the heart 
 of Madlen utterly melted. Now Madlen 
 owned two pigs, a cow and a heifer, several 
 heads of poultry, and Tybach, the stone- 
 walled cottage that is beyond the School- 
 house. In his fortieth year Twm coveted 
 Madlen's possessions ; and inasmuch as 
 Madlen was on the borderline of her woman- 
 hood she received Twm's advances with joy. 
 So Twm hired Old Shemmi's horse-car 
 85
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 and drove Madlen to Castellybryn, where 
 the two were married in the house of the 
 registrar. The occasion is memorable to 
 Madlen because that night she slept in a 
 virgin's bed, her husband having gone 
 into the bed of Old Mari who sold sweet 
 loshins in the market place. 
 
 Thereon Twm lived on Madlen. He 
 poached a little, but he was credited with 
 more rabbits and hares than he would 
 risk his liberty to trap; in season he 
 pretended to help his neighbours in the 
 hayfield, but nearly always succeeded in 
 getting under covert with a woman. 
 
 He was as irreligious as an irreligious 
 Welshman can be. He defied the Big 
 Man openly ; never except on market and 
 fair days did he wear his best clothes ; in 
 passing the Respected Josiah Bryn-Bevan 
 and Mistress Bryn-Bevan he kept his cap 
 on his head and whistled, and once he made 
 Mistress Bryn-Bevan sick by spitting loudly 
 on the ground ; he frequented the inn which 
 86
 
 THE GLORY THAT WAS SIGN'S 
 
 is kept by Mistress Shames, where he con- 
 sorted with the disreputable Shon the Pig 
 Drover one without honour in the land. 
 
 Six weeks after his wedding Twm was 
 stricken by illness. The Respected Josiah 
 Bryn-Bevan, then Judge of Capel Sion, 
 declared that the Lord was smiting His 
 enemy, a just fate for all that offendeth 
 Him. The third day of his illness Twm 
 crept into the four-poster bed in the 
 kitchen, and he ordered Madlen to bake 
 a loaf of leavened bread and to place it 
 on his belly ; and a stubby beard grew on 
 his chin. 
 
 The evening of that day Dr. Morgan 
 came by Tybach ; Madlen stopped him, 
 saying, " Indeed, now, doctor bach, come 
 him in and give me small counsel about 
 Twm." 
 
 The doctor examined Twm and he said 
 to him : " Well-well, Twm, you will perish 
 in a few days." 
 
 When Madlen heard this she placed a 
 87
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 kettle of water on the fire and brought 
 down her husband's razor from the highest 
 shelf of the dresser. 
 
 Twm's face turned very white, for the 
 man was afraid of Death. 
 
 *' There's no chance for you, little 
 Twm," the doctor said. " You are a 
 hundred times worse than the boy in 
 the Bible who took up his old bed and 
 walked." 
 
 The account of how the days of the evil- 
 favoured Twm Tybach were rounding on 
 him Was carried from mouth to mouth, 
 and none was sorry. It was told to the 
 Respected Josiah Bryn-Bevan in Shop 
 Rhys. The teller of it was Bertha Daviss. 
 This is what she said : 
 
 " Dear me ! Dear me ! The old calf of 
 Twm Tybach is passing." 
 
 " Madlen will want mourning," said 
 Rhys quickly. " She has not had a death 
 for many years." 
 
 The Respected Josiah Bryn-Bevan was 
 88
 
 THE GLORY THAT WAS SIGN'S 
 
 a religious man, and aware of Twm's evil 
 reputation. 
 
 " Indeed to goodness," he said, with 
 much solemnity. " And you do say so 
 now, Miss Daviss ? " 
 
 " Iss, iss," said Bertha, addressing the 
 minister. " Man, man, why for he does 
 not know that Twin Tybach is a Congre- 
 gationalist ? Was not old Eva his mother 
 cut out of the Seiet when Twm was 
 born ? For sure me, that was so." 
 
 " What iobish do you spout, Bertha ! " 
 said Rhys. " What credit is the scamp 
 unto Sion ? 5: 
 
 " Be you merciful, little Rhys," re- 
 turned the minister. " Do you forgive 
 others as you need forgiveness." 
 
 " Maybe Twm is no credit," observed 
 Bertha, " but we will have to bury him. 
 Is not our graveyard the fullest in all the 
 land ? " 
 
 " You say wisely, Bertha Daviss," said 
 the minister. " You say wisely, Bertha 
 89
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 fach. Iss not the grave our last home 
 then ? We must begrudge it to no man. 
 O little ones, there is largish space in the 
 Big Man's acre." 
 
 "No, no, Respected bach," cried 
 Bertha. " For why ? The graveyard is 
 full. Father was the last to be laid there. 
 And in comfort did he go up when he 
 knew of that glory." 
 
 Rhys Shop looked upon the minister. 
 The minister looked upon Bertha : his 
 gaze travelled from her clogs, her torn 
 stockings and her turned-over petticoat 
 to the yellow skin of her face and the 
 narrow eyes which looked out damply 
 over her bridgeless nose. 
 
 " Woman," he cried at last, " dost thou 
 speak what thou knowest to be true, or 
 dost thou repeat unto me yea, unto me 
 thy Judge that which is idle gossip ? ' 
 
 "The truth, Bryn-Bevan bach. The 
 truth." 
 
 The minister was confounded. The 
 90
 
 THE GLORY THAT WAS SIGN'S 
 
 muscles of his cheeks moved nervously 
 under his red beard. Then he arose and 
 saying, " Fair day, boys bach," but- 
 toned his frock-coat and grasped his var- 
 nished stick, and left the shop. Rhys and 
 Bertha stood by, and when he was gone 
 they stood in the way of the door and 
 watched the high, thin, tall-hatted figure 
 treading heavily down the road towards 
 Capel Sion; and at the week-night Meet- 
 ing for Prayer every one there knew that 
 though the Respected Bryn-Bevan was 
 blessed with much wisdom, understanding, 
 and knowledge, the Big Man had loaded 
 him with a burden heavy to bear. 
 
 Never within Capel Sion, nor within 
 the boundaries of the parish, has been 
 heard such a plea as that which was spoken 
 by Bryn-Bevan that night. In the lan- 
 guage of Adam and Eve he petitioned 
 that his brother Twm Tybach would find 
 repentance in the fulness of time, so that 
 Death would find his putrid body cleansed 
 91
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 and worthy of burial in the bosom of the 
 new graveyard. 
 
 With the minister's amen, Abel Shones, 
 the officer for poor relief, rose and sug- 
 gested a deputation to wait upon the vicar 
 seeking permission to inter Twm's body 
 in the church graveyard. 
 
 " Very mad is Abel Shones, males bach," 
 said Old Shemmi. " When Twm's sins are 
 forgotten, the Church will claim him as her 
 own." 
 
 " And possession, dear me, counts for 
 much in the law," said Sadrach Danyre- 
 fail. 
 
 Lloyd the Schoolin' was for compromise. 
 
 " At the entrance to Capel Sion," he 
 said, " we will put up an old stone on 
 which is written these words : ' Tomos 
 Tomos, Tybach, lieth not here. Tomos 
 lieth in the parish church. Why, dear 
 people ? Because the graveyard of Capel 
 Sion was so full that there was no room 
 for further burials.' : 
 92
 
 THE GLORY THAT WAS SIGN'S 
 
 " What's the use of a tombstone," 
 asked Old Shemmi, "if there is nothing 
 under it ? Does a landless man go to 
 Castellybryn to buy a plough ? " 
 
 " O you people," the Respected Bryn- 
 Bevan broke in, " you are all wandering 
 on the moorness. Dear me. Dear me ! 
 Let us now seek deliverance from this 
 trial which it has pleased God to inflict 
 upon us. Let them who go to church 
 tithe gatherers and the like be buried in 
 church ground. Well do we know the 
 fewness of graves there. We know where 
 the Angel and the trumpet will be. Our 
 graveyard, dear ones, is it not the glory 
 of Sion ? No, indeed then, we cannot 
 spare one clay. Sit you down now and 
 reason with one another." 
 
 " Very suitable," observed Old Shemmi, 
 " is the field over Abel Shones's house." 
 
 " I am not afraid to enter the Palace," 
 said Abel. " But, friends bach, does not my 
 drinking-water come through that field ? " 
 93
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 Wherefore the wrath of the minister 
 waxed hot against Abel. 
 
 " None except a dirty old atheist,*' 
 the Respected Bryn-Bevan said, " would 
 bring materialism to bear upon a sacred 
 subject. It is the water of life that 
 matters, Abel Shones." 
 
 Great is the Respected Josiah Bryn- 
 Bevan. 
 
 Abel protested against the use of para- 
 bles in debate. 
 
 " Dost thou then not believe in the 
 Parables ? " shouted the minister. " Come 
 ye now, speak. O man, man, where dost 
 thou expect to go to when thou hast 
 shuffled off thy carnal garments ? Dost 
 thou expect to wear the White Shirt?" 
 
 At the end of the Big Seat Abel Shones 
 was praying for Old Shemmi ; now as 
 Shemmi saw and heard this thing he too 
 fell on his knees and prayed for the cure 
 of Twm Tybach. Lloyd the Schoolin', 
 having taken off his boots, stood on the 
 94
 
 THE GLORY THAT WAS SIGN'S 
 
 seat of his pew, asking God to repent 
 of His intention of spoiling Capel Sion as 
 He had done with Sodom and Gomorrah. 
 44 Don't you now, little Big Man," he 
 prayed, "be influenced either this way or 
 that way by their talk. Think you to 
 yourself, they do not know what they 
 do." To this day the hour that remark 
 was uttered is a memorial to the occur- 
 rence, for the congregation turned their 
 faces to the clock, whose hands they did 
 not think would move again. 
 
 " Brethren " Mishtir Bryn - Bevan's 
 voice rose above the noises " Brethren, 
 at this moment Twm Tybach may be 
 passing into the Pool." 
 
 The First Men saw that Bryn-Bevan's 
 counsel was good, and they discussed and 
 disputed, and it came to be that Old 
 Shemmi's scheme was adopted. 
 
 This field belonged to the squire, 
 who regarded any one trading under the 
 name of Nonconformist as a thief and a 
 95
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 quibbler. In his dealings with the kind 
 the squire acted through his lawyer, and 
 therefore many days had to pass before the 
 ground would be transferred to Capel Sion. 
 
 Meanwhile those who worshipped in 
 Sion were commanded to pray without 
 ceasing that Twm's life would not end 
 until the new burial place came into 
 Sion's possession. But in spite of all 
 the prayers each hour seemed to take 
 Twm nearer the parish church. Three 
 times in one day Madlen laid her black 
 gown over the foot of the bed ; three 
 times she took the razor out of its case. 
 
 Many came to Tybach and prayed by 
 Twm's bedside; some came from a distance, 
 and they arrived weary and refreshed them- 
 selves with tea which Madlen brewed for 
 them ; and every visitor brought a present. 
 The sick man was tempted with offerings 
 of tins of sardines and corned beef, jars 
 of red cabbage pickles and home-made 
 jams. Mistress Bryn-Bevan sent a bottle 
 96
 
 THE GLORY THAT WAS SIGN'S 
 
 of rhubarb wine. The man was angry 
 when he was told that it would not 
 make anyone drunk. Every night Rhys 
 Shop came with a quarter of a pound of 
 biscuits which he laid on the pillow, and 
 he also brought with him samples of black 
 materials which were suitable for mourn- 
 ful garments. 
 
 Even the Respected Josiah Bryn-Bevan 
 came and stood over Twm's bed. Twm 
 opened his eyes and said he thought his 
 visitor was Shon the Pig Drover. 
 
 " Twm ! " Madlen cried. " Shameful 
 you are ! There's a squirrel for you ! Say 
 something religious to our little Judge." 
 
 The minister sat on the window-sill and 
 said : " Twm, indeed for sure, glad you 
 ought to be, sinner bach, that you are to 
 be laid in little Capel Sion." 
 
 If ever the minister was inclined to the 
 sin of unbelief in death-bed repentance 
 it was when he heard Twm's answer and 
 saw Twm's face. 
 
 H 97
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 " O Twm," he said, " there's glory that 
 is awaiting for you, man. After many 
 years I will come to Capel Sion with 
 my grandchildren and I will show them 
 your grave and say to them, ' This is the 
 grave of Tomos Tomos, Tybach. He 
 was buried the day the graveyard was 
 opened.' ! 
 
 But Twm hardened his heart and would 
 not take any comfort from the words of 
 the Ruler of Capel Sion. 
 
 44 Shon bach," he whimpered, 44 would 
 be nice to me." 
 
 44 You have been a bad man, Twm," 
 the minister sang. 44 But now you are 
 coming into a heritage of splendour. 
 Come forth from your house of bondage. 
 I am your deliverer, and I will walk 
 before your coffin, Twm bach, to your 
 last home in Capel Sion." 
 
 Twm turned his face to the wall ; and 
 he tried to stuff his ears with the ends of 
 the patchwork quilt that covered him, 
 
 98
 
 THE GLORY THAT WAS SIGN'S 
 
 The minister went away, and he said 
 to his congregation : 
 
 " Be comforted. Twm will be buried 
 in the new little burial-ground." 
 
 Time wore on. The title deeds of the 
 new burial-ground were made over to the 
 First Men, and Capel Sion lifted his head 
 and murmured, " The glory of Sion is 
 not departed." 
 
 Although light flickered in the window 
 of Tybach throughout several nights ; 
 although many saw the Candle of the 
 Corpse that spirit light which foretells 
 death going out of the house and along 
 the road to Capel Sion ; although Madlen 
 herself heard the moan of the Spirit 
 Hound, Twm did not die. 
 
 People did not come any more to 
 Tybach, and the praying men ceased to 
 pray for Twm ; for they knew he would 
 die, and whether he liked it or not his 
 sinful bones would rest in the land that 
 was the glory of Capel Sion. 
 99
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 Late one night Twm told Madlen to 
 read to him about the man who took up 
 his bed and walked. Barely had Madlen 
 begun her reading than Twm groaned and 
 gurgled. 
 
 " The end," said Madlen to herself. 
 " Twm bach is in the Jordan." 
 
 She moved to the bed ; Twm's eyes 
 were opened. She closed them. His 
 face was grey as if the Angel of Death 
 had cast the down from his wings 
 upon it. 
 
 The kettle was singing on the hob ; 
 Madlen shifted it on to the live coals, and 
 she took the razor out of its case and 
 stropped it on the leather which hung on 
 the bedpost. Twm heard the hissing of 
 the kettle, and he also heard the sound the 
 flat of the blade made on the leather ; and 
 he understood. He put his fingers through 
 the stubby beard which had grown on his 
 chin. A fear came over him. He threw 
 back the clothes which covered him, and 
 100
 
 THE GLORY THAT WAS SIGN'S 
 
 wrapped around him the patchwork quilt, 
 and he went and sat by the fire. 
 
 " Madlen ! " he cried. " Little Madlen, 
 is not the old kettle boiling then ? There's 
 slow mule you are ! Come, make you a 
 cup of tea now." 
 
 From first to last Twin's years were 
 five-and- forty. 
 
 101
 
 \
 
 THE DEVIL IN EDEN 
 
 103
 
 VI 
 
 THE DEVIL IN EDEN 
 
 IF ever the innermost meaning of the Word 
 was in dispute in Capel Sion the Big Man 
 sent an angel in a cloud with a message to 
 Old lanto of the Road, and this message 
 Old lanto interpreted to the congregation. 
 Thus, honoured above men, lanto got 
 puffed up and vain-glorious, whereat the 
 Big Man sent a tempter to test him. 
 
 The tempter, in the flesh of a tramp, 
 came to Manteg in the quiet of a Sabbath 
 eve, and he found lanto setting his 
 thoughts in tune with Sion on the bank of 
 the waters which are against the hedge of 
 Abel Shones's garden. 
 
 The tramp stood over Old lanto, and 
 spoke to him : 
 
 105
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 *' Tell you me now how far I am from 
 the poorhouse of Castellybryn." 
 
 " Man, man," answered lanto, " you're 
 seven miles good and more." 
 
 Although it was then dusk the tempter 
 made no move to pass on his journey. 
 
 " You seem weary, man bach," re- 
 marked lanto. 
 
 " Indeed to goodness now, weary I am," 
 answered the tramp. 
 
 " Sit you down and rest your little old 
 feet," lanto counselled him. 
 
 The tramp removed his shoes. His feet 
 were blistered, wherefore he rebuked the 
 sun and its heat and the stones on the 
 roads, and they were dusty. 
 
 " Say from where you are, boy bach 
 nice ? " asked lanto. 
 
 " From far enough, small male, not to 
 want to walk another step." 
 
 " Say you where you hail from and 
 your place of abode." 
 
 " The foxes in the fields have their 
 106
 
 THE DEVIL IN EDEN 
 
 holes," was the reply, " the birds of the 
 air their nests, but I have nowhere to lay 
 my head." 
 
 Old lanto turned his face upon the figure 
 on the ground, saying : 
 
 " For what you say that ? Dear, dear, 
 has not the little Big Man said, ' Ye are of 
 more value than many sparrows ' ? " 
 
 " Nowhere to lay this old head," the 
 tempter repeated through his thick lips. 
 
 " Welshman too ! " exclaimed lanto. 
 " Not religious are your words, man. 
 What for you don't know that you utter 
 these vain things in the Garden of Eden ? 
 Open your eyes, and look you. Does not 
 this river break out into four little heads ? 
 Saw you Shop Rhys as you came by ? 
 There the Creator placed Adam, and was 
 not Adam the first sinner ? Behind you 
 is the evil tree, boy bach. See you how 
 crooked the old trunk is ! And here just 
 is the spring that gave Eva fresh water 
 to brew tea." 
 
 107
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 The tempter opened his heavy eyelids 
 and said : 
 
 *' You male alive, now why you are not 
 a preacher ? " 
 
 lanto's heart rejoiced. 
 
 " Iss, indeed," he said, " this is the 
 Garden spoken of in the Book of Words. 
 The nice Respected Ruler of the Lord in 
 Capel Sion says that Eva ate of the 
 sour apples on the tree. Does not Abel 
 Shones still pray for Eva ? " 
 
 44 Who is Abel Shones, whatever ? " 
 asked the tramp. 
 
 "He is the officer for Poor Relief," 
 answered lanto. " Wise indeed is Abel. 
 Dear man, you should hear him praying 1 
 Asking the Big Man to help him find out 
 wrong-doers." 
 
 " Ho, ho, and you say like that I " 
 said the tempter. 
 
 Then Old lanto sang, and this is what 
 he sang : 
 
 44 Iss, iss, dear man. This is the Gar- 
 108
 
 THE DEVIL IN EDEN 
 
 den of Eden. This is the beginning of 
 the world. Goodness me, here was put 
 breath into clay; here God gave Adam 
 the tongue that I am speaking in now." 
 The song finished, the tempter said: 
 " Woe my poor flesh ! I am tired." 
 "Of course, of course," said lanto ; 
 and he raised his long, thin legs from the 
 ground. " Do you come with me, dear 
 stranger, and tarry a while in my house. 
 But first put on your old shoes, for it is 
 not seemly to go about in bare feet on the 
 eve of the Sabbath." 
 
 lanto took the tramp home, and he 
 bade his daughter Dinah warm up a bowl 
 of broth and lay it before his guest ; and 
 while the tempter ate of the broth and 
 bread, lanto, preparing for the Sabbath 
 when none shall work, went to the stream 
 and cleansed his hands and face with 
 small gravel ; and when he was returned 
 to the house he sheared the ends of his 
 beard. 
 
 109
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 The tempter having eaten his meal, 
 pulled off his shoes and lit his pipe. 
 
 " Do you ever pray, one's brother 
 bach ? " asked lanto. 
 
 " Brother, indeed ! " said Dinah. 
 
 " Hold thy chin, little Dinah," lanto 
 reproved her. " Brother I mean in the 
 spirit rather than in the letter. Brother 
 bach, do you pray steadfast ? >: 
 
 " What a question, dear me ! " answered 
 the tempter. " Indeed, do I not live by 
 faith ? " 
 
 lanto placed a bunch of tobacco inside 
 his right cheek, and the black mole thereon 
 moved up and down and in and out in 
 progress with it. 
 
 " Come you now," said Dinah, " speak 
 you your name." 
 
 " Michael," said the tempter. 
 
 lanto opened his Bible and read. After- 
 wards he removed the tobacco from his 
 mouth and laid it on the table, and he 
 reported to God with a clean mouth. 
 110
 
 THE DEVIL IN EDEN 
 
 When he had risen from his knees and 
 had shaken the stiffness out of his joints, 
 Dinah addressed him : 
 
 "Little father, for why you are an old 
 mule ? Shame on you to bring here a dirty, 
 bad tramp. What then will folk say ? 
 Tell you him to go about his business." 
 
 "Hush, hush, Dinah. Say you not so. 
 4 Inasmuch as ye do unto the least of my 
 little ones.' Michael is tired. Look you ! " 
 
 The tramp had fallen asleep ; a silver 
 line of spittle ran from his lips along the 
 stem of his pipe, dropping from the base 
 of the bowl. 
 
 lanto wound up his watch, and took 
 off his clothes, and stepped over the mud 
 floor to his bed, which stood against the 
 nailed-down window-frame. 
 
 Dinah rested her elbows on her stock- 
 inged knees, and she settled her eyes on 
 the sleeping stranger a muscular figure 
 with tanned, hairy skin showing under his 
 buttonless shirt. 
 
 Ill
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 Old lanto spoke from his bed : 
 
 "Dinah, go you off to your loft now. 
 Indulge in no evil thoughts concerning 
 Michael. Think you no less of him, little 
 daughter, because the Big Man has not 
 blessed him with much." 
 
 Dinah untied the tape which held her 
 skirt around her waist, and removed the 
 cotton bodice which covered her loosely 
 hanging breasts, and went up the ladder 
 into the loft. 
 
 In the morning she baked a loaf of 
 plank bread, which with a bowl of 
 milk warm from the cow she laid 
 before the tramp. To her father she 
 observed : 
 
 " I think that old serpent of a straggler 
 can abide here a time, and help to do 
 something about the place. What say 
 you now if he set to mend the wall of the 
 pigsty?" 
 
 The tempter fattened many days in 
 lanto's house. He built a new wall to 
 112
 
 THE DEVIL IN EDEN 
 
 the pigsty and on the inside of the door of 
 the cowshed he contrived a trickish bolt. 
 
 On the afternoon of the second Sunday 
 after his coming he fondled Dinah and 
 made mischief with her, and when they 
 had committed their sin, the woman was 
 revengeful, and she cried to him : 
 
 "Go your way! Take to the dung- 
 hill ! You lout ! For sure I will shout 
 your wickedness." She seized his head 
 and clawed his scalp, until the tramp's 
 hair was dyed red. 
 
 But Michael understood the ways of 
 women, and Dinah, far from divulging what 
 had taken place, went out in the darkness 
 of that night, and when she had secured 
 the door she laid with him on a little 
 straw spread on the floor of the cow-stall. 
 
 In the ripeness of time Dinah sorely 
 repented herself, and was much shamed ; 
 she drew in the seams of her garments, and 
 pressed herself as butter is pressed into 
 an over-full cask.
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 People remarked her, and said things 
 one to another. 
 
 lanto spoke to his daughter. 
 
 " Bad you were to go out of your way 
 to tempt poor Michael. Tell you the boy 
 bach that it's good for him to get beyond 
 the sense of your wickedness." 
 
 Dinah acted ; she said to Michael : 
 
 " Get you out of our home, the old 
 hen ! Get away off, else I'll stick this old 
 pitchfork in your eyes." 
 
 Michael grew feared, and departed; 
 and in a week he came back. 
 
 " Sure, dear me, now," he observed to 
 lanto, " you won't turn your guest into 
 the highway. Let me rest in your house 
 for a small period." 
 
 " Remain here as long as you like, little 
 son," replied lanto. " But steel your 
 heart against the wiles of my wench." 
 
 During the month which followed Dinah 
 employed divers methods to rid the house 
 of Michael. On a day she said to him : 
 114
 
 THE DEVIL IN EDEN 
 
 " Off now, you boy bach, and buy two 
 pounds of sugar in Shop Rhys. Take 
 you this silver little sixpence." On 
 another day she said to him: "Go off, 
 now indeed to death, and change these 
 eggs for money at Shop Rhys," and she 
 gave him thirty eggs, each egg worth a 
 penny. Yet on another day she said to 
 him: "A broom I must have. Take a 
 shilling and buy one in Shop Rhys." 
 But Michael, to her great distress, per- 
 formed these errands faithfully. 
 
 In the twilight of an afternoon Dinah 
 was preparing lanto's supper. Michael 
 was sleeping in a chair under the chimney. 
 The room was illumined by a thin light 
 from the fire ; Dinah turned around, and 
 she beheld that Michael's feet were cloven 
 hoofs, and that from his head there came 
 forth two horns. In the twinkling of 
 an eye she knew whom she had been 
 entertaining. Hastening into the lower 
 parlour, she placed the palms of her 
 115
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 hands on the cover of the Bible and 
 prayed : 
 
 " In the name of the Father, Son, and 
 Holy Ghost, get thee behind me, Satan. 
 Jesus bach, be with your Ruler in Capel 
 Sion. Amen." 
 
 She re-entered the kitchen. 
 
 " Michael, man," she said, " how say 
 you to a nice cup bach of tea? " 
 
 " Iss, indeed, Dinah," answered the 
 tramp. 
 
 Dinah lifted an empty tin pitcher. 
 
 " Dear now," she exclaimed, " what 
 pity ! There's not a drop of water. Go 
 you and draw some." 
 
 The tramp pushed his feet into his clogs. 
 
 " Give me the old pitcher then," he 
 said. 
 
 " Have I not need of the pitcher for 
 milking ? ' Dinah said. 
 
 "I'll bring it in the bucket that is 
 outside the pigsty," said Michael, walking 
 towards the door. 
 
 116
 
 THE DEVIL IN EDEN 
 
 " Don't you be dirty, boy bach," cried 
 Dinah. " That bucket is for the pigs' 
 wash." 
 
 Michael had moved to the threshold 
 and was holding the door ajar. He looked 
 along the road and saw that Abel Shones, 
 the officer for Poor Relief, was running 
 to the house. 
 
 He came back into the kitchen. 
 
 " What shall I fetch it in, then ? " he 
 asked. " Be you hasty now, for am I 
 not thirsty ? " 
 
 " Dear me, what a calf you are, man ! 
 Bring it in this," and Dinah gave him the 
 cinder sifter. 
 
 Since these things happened Dinah has 
 been blessed with second-sight and 
 visionary power. On dark nights she 
 goes to the well and mocks the Angel 
 Michael, who until he performs the task 
 that is set him, will remain upon the 
 earth in the flesh of a tramp. 
 
 117
 
 THE WOMAN WHO SOWED 
 INIQUITY 
 
 119
 
 VII 
 
 THE WOMAN WHO SOWED 
 INIQUITY 
 
 THIS is the chronicle of Betti Lancoch, 
 who was the daughter of Essec, the Essec 
 of whom is written on his gravestone 
 that he was possessed of two farms named 
 Lancoch and Llanwen, that he had a 
 name among the religious men of the 
 Big Seat in Capel Sion. On Essec's 
 death Betti's inheritance was Lancoch, 
 which is the smaller of the farms ; and 
 the inheritance of her brother Joshua was 
 Llanwen. 
 
 Until her thirtieth year Betti was a 
 
 princess in Sion. Her wealth was a prize 
 
 for which many intrigued and prayed ; 
 
 and although much gravel was thrown 
 
 121
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 at her window at nights she did not 
 give herself to anyone. 
 
 Her brother Joshua looked very keenly 
 after her interests. He was anxious that 
 she should marry a godly, humble man, 
 and from the tales he told her, godly, 
 humble men were scarce in the land. 
 Even the character of Rhys Shop was 
 shown in a bad light when he got to know 
 how the white-faced, big-paunched shop- 
 keeper one night tried to climb up the 
 wall to the room wherein Betti slept. 
 Joshua was married himself, and did not 
 find much pleasure, he said, in it, and he 
 wished to keep his sister as free and happy 
 and pure as the Big Man had ordained 
 she should remain. For he managed the 
 selling of most of the produce of Lancoch 
 and paid himself, one way or another, 
 for his trouble. 
 
 Betti answered only too well to her 
 brother's skilful guiding. She did not open 
 the window of her room to any man in 
 122
 
 THE WOMAN WHO SOWED INIQUITY 
 
 Capel Sion or in the place around. Now 
 on an August day she went to Eistedd- 
 fod Castellybryn and there met Gwylim, 
 the son of Silah and Tim, farmers in the 
 Vale of Towy. . . . Gwylim came and 
 courted Betti in full daylight, where- 
 fore the men of Sion grew angry, and 
 they called on Joshua and said to him : 
 " Speak you to her, little Josh, for is 
 she not your sister, man?" Joshua took 
 counsel of God. God answered him by 
 a dream. "Well-well, Josh bach," He 
 said, " very terrible is this about the wench 
 Betti. Windy is the female. Command 
 you her to remain unwed. Moreover, not 
 right for her to take a husband away from 
 Capel Sion. Ach y fi ! Giving her farm and 
 pennies and silver and yellow gold to a 
 male who worships trappings and cere- 
 monials in the old church ! Be you wrath- 
 ful with her in My name." Joshua spoke 
 these words, and more, to his sister, but 
 Betti refused to turn from her way, for 
 123
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 which reason Joshua and the men of Capel 
 Sion were disquieted, and they asked 
 God to deal according to His wisdom with 
 this woman who wilfully strayed from 
 the path of the religious. 
 
 Betti jerked her freckled face and 
 snapped her fingers, and boasted in the 
 security of her riches : " Goodness me, 
 must then I be instructed in my doings 
 by a pack of old hens ? Sure now, I am 
 not beholden to any in Capel Sion." 
 
 In the foolishness of her vanity she 
 curled her yellow hair like a Jezebel, and 
 she fashioned the front of her hair into a 
 fringe which she wore over her forehead. 
 Her brother Joshua came to her from 
 Llanwen. 
 
 Betti, heedless of the cow lowing to be 
 milked, was tying up her hair before a 
 looking-glass. 
 
 "Woman," cried Joshua, beholding what 
 his sister was doing, " have you no shame ? 
 Will you bring discredit on me then ? * 
 124
 
 THE WOMAN WHO SOWED INIQUITY 
 
 " Josh bach, there's good you are to 
 call, man. Do you take this bucket of 
 wash to the old pigs, and ask Madlen 
 Tybach to come over and milk the cow 
 on your way home." 
 
 " My sister Betti, for what you do not 
 know that the wages of sin is death ? " 
 said Joshua. 
 
 " Don't you get savage, Josh. Am I 
 not making myself look pretty for to 
 see Gwylim's father and mother to- 
 morrow? " 
 
 " Pretty ! This too on the eve of the 
 Sabbath ! Is not a pretty woman a snare 
 to the godly ? Look you at Potiphar's 
 wife now." 
 
 " Josh, indeed to goodness, what a 
 talkist you are ! " 
 
 " Dear me, what will Priscila say when 
 I tell her ? But then Priscila is content to 
 stand where the little Big King has placed 
 her an angel ministering to me and my 
 children," 
 
 125
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 "What do I count what Priscila thinks ! 
 Clap your lips, Josh bach." 
 
 " Don't you say wicked sayings now, 
 Betti fach," Joshua advised her. " Speech 
 you not that. Be you reasonable, my 
 girl." 
 
 " So that is why you've come here ? " 
 
 Joshua leaned his body against the 
 dresser, and drew his clog from his right 
 foot and removed the dirt that had 
 gathered on the sole between the iron 
 rims ; and he closed his mouth so that 
 the projecting birth-tooth in the middle 
 of it clawed his lower lip. 
 
 " The Big Man brought my feet here, 
 Betti fach," he remarked at last. " Listen 
 you to me now. How would you say 
 if I mouthed this to you: 'Betti the 
 daughter of Essec, this bit of land is very 
 vexatious to you. You don't get the best 
 from it. Let me, your religious brother 
 Joshua, trim it for you, and come you 
 and live with us in Llanwen." 
 126
 
 THE WOMAN WHO SOWED INIQUITY 
 
 " Josh, indeed you are leaving Gwylim 
 out 1 " 
 
 "Gwylim! You are not intent on 
 wedding Gwylim ? " 
 
 " Iss, man bach, I am. Think you I 
 curl my hair for Rhys Shop ? Think you 
 I bought this nice white petticoat for 
 him ? Dear, there's dense." 
 
 " Mercy me, what a bad wench you 
 are ! " cried Joshua. " Have you not 
 heard what a dissipated boy Gwylim is ? 
 Heard you not of his doings and his 
 cheatings over cattle ? Turn you away 
 from your purpose, and act as I bid you." 
 
 " I shall wed him in front of all you 
 say, Josh," said Betti. " Boy bach 
 swellish is Gwylim." 
 
 " O Betti, is it a light thing to you that 
 you take your possessions to a man who 
 never goes to capel ? " 
 
 " Little man senseless, you are eloquent 1 
 Do you think I could live for ten minutes 
 with that old hare of your wife Priscila ? " 
 127
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 Rhys Shop proclaimed in the Seiet 
 that the Terrible Man's anger was like 
 the pierce of a new pitchfork against 
 Betti Lancoch. Joshua fell on his knees 
 in his pew, wept, and prayed. Thus the 
 Lord comforts His children : when Joshua 
 arose, lo, his eyes were dry, and he turned 
 his face upon the Big Seat, and addressed 
 the men of the high places of Capel Sion. 
 He said : 
 
 " Little people, I pray you now not to 
 think too harshly of me because my sister 
 brings this abomination upon the nice 
 Capel. Look you mercifully upon my 
 affliction. Priscila fach is badly cut about 
 it. She is not here to-night. You know 
 how it is with Priscila how the Big 
 Father is blessing her with another child. 
 The Lord, little people, will administer 
 the rod of correction on this slut who so 
 shamelessly sows the seeds of iniquity ; she 
 will reap vanity. Stand you by me and 
 Capel Sion : if I am wrong, sure indeed the 
 123
 
 THE WOMAN WHO SOWED INIQUITY 
 
 Big Man will send a message to Sadrach 
 Danyrefail here." 
 
 Worshippers on their way to Capel Sion 
 the preceding Sunday had shuddered at 
 the sight of Betti Lancoch flaunting her- 
 self in fine garments. Rhys Shop spoke 
 to her : 
 
 " Whisper you to me now where you 
 are going." 
 
 " To the abode of Gwylim's people," 
 replied Betti. 
 
 " And you say so now. There's going 
 to be a wedding, then ? " 
 
 " Iss, iss, Rhys Shop," Betti answered, 
 and in her ostentatious pride she lifted 
 her frock and displayed the skirt of her 
 white petticoat. 
 
 Rhys bent himself and examined the 
 material from which it had been made. 
 
 "Jasto!" he cried. "Tell you me 
 now if you paid a shilling except a half- 
 penny a yard for this ? " 
 
 Betti laughed. 
 
 K 129
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 " Didn't you now, Betti fach ? " Rhys 
 persisted. " Beautiful and useful is the 
 cloth in the Shop that will do for your 
 wedding gown. It is only half a crown a 
 yard too. But there, don't you think any 
 more about it. ... Little white Jesui., 
 forgive me for saying like this on the 
 Sabbath. Dear me, forgetful male I was I 
 Be with your Ruler in Sion. Amen." 
 
 " Sabbath or no Sabbath, Rhys Shop, I 
 will not buy my wedding gown from you. 
 To Carmarthen will I journey and get it 
 from the grand shop of Llewellyn Shones 
 in the market." 
 
 Rhys then walked with Bertha Daviss, 
 to whom he spoke these words : 
 
 " Little Bertha, Abishag has gone by." 
 
 So Gwylim and Betti were married, and 
 all in and around Lancoch having been 
 sold and the house and the land having 
 been rented, they went to live in the town 
 of Carmarthen ; and the house of their 
 abode has ten stone steps in the front of 
 130
 
 THE WOMAN WHO SOWED INIQUITY 
 
 it, and it is named Avon Towy because 
 that river is the distance of a field 
 beyond it. A year after her mar- 
 riage Betti came to Manteg with her 
 child, and she magnified brazenly the 
 fortune of her husband. But she did not 
 say anything of the occasions that he had 
 come home drunk, or of the times when he 
 had struck her with the ring end of his razor 
 strop; nor did she show to any one the 
 sore that was on her left breast. 
 
 The man Gwylim was foolish in his drink. 
 He backed a bill for twenty sovereigns, 
 and when one came to redeem it he had 
 nothing with which to pay the price. He 
 went to his father's house and said how 
 this and that evil had befallen him. 
 
 " Give you the boy bach the money," 
 said Silah to her husband Tim. " Give 
 you him the money. This is not his fault, 
 Little Tim. Is he not wedded to a sloth- 
 ful woman ? " 
 
 Old Silah loved her son, and she 
 131
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 killed for him a chicken and laid it before 
 him. Gwylim was crafty and charged 
 himself falsely, saying : " An old rascal 
 am I to bring this upon you ; " therefore 
 Old Silah murmured in his hearing this 
 lullaby : 
 
 44 Pity such a concubine snared you, 
 little Gwylim, my son bach." 
 
 Old Silah's lullaby lodged itself in 
 Gwylim's brain ; and drank he never so 
 deep nor got he never so muddled, he 
 remembered it always. It was as if the 
 words were the first words he had been 
 taught to utter. 
 
 Betti ceased to visit Manteg ; she rarely 
 went out of her house. Always she was 
 either with child or she bore some mark 
 of her husband's savagery : often both 
 stopped her from going abroad. In com- 
 mon with the women of her race constant 
 child-bearing made her slovenly and sallow. 
 With the birth of her fifth boy arrived 
 her first act of humiliation : she wrote 
 132
 
 THE WOMAN WHO SOWED INIQUITY 
 
 to her brother Joshua for the loan of 
 thirty sovereigns. Joshua answered that 
 he would lend her fifteen sovereigns pro- 
 vided she signed a bill of sale on Lancoch. 
 
 Betti hid away the money in a decanter. 
 
 Now it happened that on an afternoon 
 Gwylim was very drunken, and he came 
 to the decanter in which the money 
 was hidden. 
 
 " Fiery Pool ! " he shouted. " Where 
 did you get this from ? Oh, ydu've been 
 whoring. You concubine ! You slut ! " 
 
 His rage was so great that he scattered 
 the gold on the floor. Then he gathered 
 it up and went out, and to all whom he 
 met he groaned that a harlot had lured 
 him and that a harlot was the mother of 
 his children. " Did not the old mam say," 
 he cried, " ' Pity the bitch of a concubine 
 snared you, boy bach ' ? " 
 
 In the morning of the day Betti opened 
 the door of her house, and she saw that 
 Gwylim was fallen at the foot of the stone 
 133
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 steps, his head resting on the first step. 
 She carried him into the house and took 
 off his clothes and put him into bed. Be- 
 fore the end of the day Betti thanked God 
 that paralysis had gripped him. Two 
 months later a hearse took away his body 
 to the consecrated ground where Silah and 
 Tim will some time join him. He will rest 
 between them. 
 
 Betti, a widow woman with five children, 
 returned to Manteg ; and in Manteg none 
 said to her " How be things with you, 
 Betti fach ? " for is it not known that the 
 woman who sows iniquity shall reap the 
 fruits thereof? 
 
 Out of the wreckage she had saved 
 enough to provide Lancoch with a poor 
 cow, ^a couple of pigs, and a few hens. She 
 tilled the soil as well as a woman without 
 implements can till it. But stray cattle 
 wandered into her fields because of the 
 broken hedges, and late in the springtime 
 a herd of cows spent a night in her garden. 
 134
 
 THE WOMAN WHO SOWED INIQUITY 
 
 These cows belonged to her brother 
 Joshua. 
 
 Betti then said to Joshua : " I might 
 indeed as well not have touched my garden, 
 Josh ; your old cows have trampled on 
 all my little beds.'* 
 
 Joshua replied : " Well- well, Betti fach, 
 for why you do not keep your hedges 
 in trim, then? Dear, dear, you are like 
 the foolish virgins." 
 
 " Keep you your cows under eye," 
 Betti answered. 
 
 44 What a wicked tongue you have, 
 Betti ! " answered Joshua. " To think 
 that we both come of the same religious 
 father ! " 
 
 Betti made no reply. 
 
 *' And Betti," Joshua resumed, " the 
 five over ten sovereigns are more than 
 due now. Give them to me." 
 
 41 Five over ten sovereigns ? " 
 
 44 Iss, iss. Dear me, it's a long time 
 since I lent them to you. Much did I 
 135
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 sacrifice for this. But I couldn't think of 
 you going in want, Betti fach. No, no, 
 are you not my own flesh and blood ? 
 Of course, you won't anger the Big Man 
 by trying to cheat your brother, will 
 you ? " 
 
 " I haven't any yellow gold," Betti 
 answered. " I don't know where to get it, 
 unless I sell Lancoch. Indeed, I've been 
 unlucky since I've had the place." 
 
 " Betti, for shame ! Don't you blas- 
 pheme. It's the Big Man's way. And 
 it will be sinful to sell Lancoch. Did not 
 our father and grandfather live here ? " 
 
 " What else can I do ? You must have 
 the money ? ' : 
 
 " According to the law, Betti fach, 
 Lancoch is mine if pay you cannot." 
 
 " Lancoch was given to me." 
 
 "For surely, Betti fach. For surely. 
 But did you not sign the little agree- 
 ment ? " 
 
 " Agreement or no, Lancoch is mine." 
 186
 
 THE WOMAN WHO SOWED INIQUITY 
 
 Joshua took possession of the land 
 around Lancoch. He put up new gates, 
 and repaired the hedges, and divers times 
 he drove Betti's cow out of the fields 
 into the roadway. It was a dry summer, 
 and water was scarce in the ditches 
 that are alongside the roads ; Betti's cow 
 went thirsty for three days, and then she 
 laid herself down on the moor whither 
 she had wandered, and perished. 
 
 Joshua turned in at Lancoch. 
 
 " Little Betti," he said, " grave is 
 the news I have for you. Priscila has 
 promised Lancoch to Hugh the Stone- 
 mason." 
 
 " You want me to go off ? >! 
 
 " Glad I'll be if you go off, Betti fach." 
 
 " Where ? " 
 
 " Pity now you didn't take the offer 
 to come and live in Llanwen. I can't go 
 back on Priscila's word to Hugh. And 
 he'll be handy about the place. There's 
 the money too. Josh the Small is costing 
 137
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 me a deal now. Educating a boy to be a 
 little preacher does take a lot of money, 
 Betti. But I am only lending to the 
 Big Man." 
 
 Betti broke in : " Josh, I've been a 
 foolish woman. I rejected your counsel, 
 and I mocked the Man of Terror. But 
 I am humbled now, Josh bach. All the 
 stiffness has gone out of me. And the 
 Big Man is angry with me." 
 
 " Repent you, Betti fach, and He will 
 forgive you." 
 
 " Little Josh, I have passed through the 
 Pool since I wedded Gwylim. Oh, Josh," 
 Betti cried, " deal gently with your sister 
 nice. Turn you not me out of my home. 
 What is the rent to you ? Listen you to 
 my plea, there's a boy bach." 
 
 " I would now, indeed, but you see 
 Priscila has given her word " 
 
 The infant nestling against Betti 's 
 breast touched the sore made there by 
 the ring end of Gwylim's razor strop, and 
 138
 
 THE WOMAN WHO SOWED INIQUITY 
 
 the place hurt her. She gave a cry ; and 
 with that cry there arose in her heart 
 something of the old spirit of the woman 
 who flaunted herself in fine vain gar- 
 ments on a Sabbath morning, and who 
 laughed in the faces of the men of the 
 Big Seat. 
 
 " Joshua," she cried, " you've stolen 
 Lancoch from me. Dear, dear, what an 
 old Satan you are, man ! Bad you are, 
 Joshua ! Look you, so long as there's 
 a roof over Lancoch, I will stop in the 
 house." 
 
 " You talk like an awful woman," said 
 Joshua. " Do you not know how you 
 are tempting the Big Man ? Be calm, 
 you wicked spider." 
 
 Joshua knelt by his bedside that night 
 and asked the Almighty to bring into 
 subjection the spirit of this most stubborn 
 of His creatures. 
 
 Betti locked the door of her house and 
 covered the windows with boards. At the 
 139
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 weakest point, which was in the doorway, 
 she stood armed with a crowbar. 
 
 In the morning Joshua spoke to Hugh 
 the Stonemason. 
 
 " I have spent the night in prayer," he 
 said. " The Big Man has not forsaken 
 the righteous, so whatever happens will 
 be His doing, not ours, Hugh bach. The 
 Lord's will be done. Go you down to 
 Lancoch now, and take an old ladder with 
 you and climb to the roof, and remove 
 the tiles one by one. Be careful lest any 
 untoward happening befall my sister Betti, 
 for has not the white little Jesus bidden 
 us love our enemies ? Do you see, Hugh 
 bach, that not one slate falls on the head 
 of our sister Betti. But if one does, 
 well-well, then, has not the Great Male 
 promised to be on the side of His religious 
 children ? " 
 
 140
 
 A JUST MAN IN SODOM 
 
 141
 
 VIII 
 A JUST MAN IN SODOM 
 
 THE haymakers, gathering in the hay of 
 Sadrach Danyrefail, rested in the shadow 
 of the hedge, eating their midday por- 
 ridge and skimmed milk. 
 
 Sadrach the Small raised his voice : 
 
 " Come you now, Pedr, give us a little 
 bit of a sermon, man. Stand you in the 
 old cart." 
 
 " Iss, iss," said Martha, the stranger 
 woman who ruled at Danyrefail, " do 
 you do this thing we ask of you." 
 
 The workers raised their mouths from 
 their wooden bowls. 
 
 " Goodness now," said Pedr, " why 
 should I, beloved of the little Big Man, 
 143
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 preach from a common cart when there 
 is a pulpit in Capel Sion ? " 
 
 " Oh, Pedr, Pedr," Sadrach the Small 
 said, " do we not always say that you 
 ought to judge us in Capel Sion ? Sure 
 there is something you can bear witness to 
 before we go on with the old hay. Turn 
 you your mind now, and say sayings to 
 us." 
 
 " Think you truly I ought to be a 
 preacher ? " asked Pedr, his eyes shining 
 with vanity. " There's happy would I 
 be if they'd let me preach from a pulpit 
 bach." 
 
 Sadrach the Large then addressed Pedr : 
 
 " Preach you to us for ten minutes, and 
 I'll take a hat round for a collection. 
 Indeed to goodness, I will now." 
 
 " Sadrach ! Sadrach ! >! said Martha, 
 " what for you make such a foolish 
 promise ? Man, man, you are as silly as 
 Pedr. Come, little people, have you not 
 rested long enough ? " 
 144
 
 A JUST MAN IN SODOM 
 
 But Pedr, open-mouthed, was standing 
 in the cart ; his large eyes looked upon 
 the fertile land between him and Avon 
 Bern, where grazed Sadrach's cows, the 
 best herd in the neighbourhood, and where 
 flourished Sadrach's corn, the most plea- 
 sing sight in all the land. Sadrach the 
 Small threw at him a handful of horse-dung, 
 which fell on Pedr's open lips and the 
 never-shaved hairs that curled on his chin. 
 
 44 Pedr, indeed to goodness, there's slow 
 are you, man," remarked Sadrach the 
 Large. 
 
 " Praying was I, Sadrach bach, for 
 strength to speak unto this gathering." 
 
 44 Sober now," said Sadrach the Large, 
 44 you must not go as far as that." 
 
 Pedr took a text and spoke to the 
 people, whereon one turned to the other, 
 whispering : 
 
 44 Dull Pedr brays like a mule." 
 
 From where he was lying on the ground 
 Sadrach the Small cried : 
 L 145
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 " Tell us, Pedr, man, about the vision 
 you had the last night but one. Do you 
 be soon." 
 
 " Woe is me ! " exclaimed Pedr. " The 
 Big Man forgive me for forgetting what 
 the little white Jesus told me." 
 
 " Come on, Pedr ; come on, Pedr," 
 cried the haymakers. 
 
 Pedr gazed on those below him. 
 
 " Boys bach nice," he said, " Jesus did 
 speak to me about you, and He did say 
 things of great concern about Capel Sion. 
 My dears, do you let Pedr now say a small 
 prayer first." 
 
 Pedr closed his eyes, and while he sang 
 Sadrach the Small crawled forward on his 
 belly and dug the prongs of his pitching- 
 fork into him. 
 
 " The message ! The message ! " he 
 cried. " Jasto, what a jolt-headed mare 
 you are." 
 
 " Do you let the fool be," said 
 Martha. " What is the matter for 
 146
 
 A JUST MAN IN SODOM 
 
 you, man ? Come down from the old 
 cart." 
 
 Pedr eyed the people indulgently. 
 
 " Wasn't that a fairish prayer ? >! he 
 asked. 
 
 " As good as Bryn-Bevan's," was the 
 response. 
 
 "As good as Bryn-Bevan's!" repeated 
 Pedr. 
 
 " Iss, iss, you old owl. Deliver the 
 message." 
 
 " Does not the least among you think 
 he is wiser than Pedr ? " he reproached 
 them. " But am I not rich in grace ? 
 To whom did the little white Jesus come 
 last night ? He never visited even Essec. 
 For why ? Because when old Essec was 
 dying he said wily words to his son Joshua 
 Llanwen : ' Keep your purse full and the 
 strings tight, and nothing will fail you.' : 
 
 " But, Pedr," Sadrach the Large ex- 
 plained, " Essec meant these things to 
 come after religion." 
 
 147
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 " Did he now ? " said Pedr. " Dear me, 
 there's a blockhead am I. I did not 
 know." 
 
 " If I die, Pedr is madder than ever ! " 
 said one. 
 
 " Oh, I am wise to-day. Pedr is wise 
 with the wisdom of God. Am I not among 
 the prophets ? See you, I am come after 
 little Elijah, and Jeremiah, and Daniel. 
 What a boy brave Dan bach was, for 
 sure. The white Jesus said to me, ' Pedr, 
 I look to you to save Capel Sion.' ! 
 
 " If we let the dog go on blaspheming," 
 Martha interrupted, " the revengeful Big 
 Man will punish us with rain before half 
 the hay is in stack." 
 
 " I am a man of God," Pedr drivelled. 
 " Hearken you now to my voice, for do 
 not my sayings come from Him whose 
 mercy is as bountiful as the hay around us, 
 and whose anger is as furious as the bull 
 who frightened Achsah the wife of Sadrach 
 into giving birth to Sadrach the Small on 
 148
 
 A JUST MAN IN SODOM 
 
 the threshold of Danyrefail. ' The children 
 of Capel Sion,' said the little white Jesus, 
 ' are walking in the ways of the Bad Man.' ' 
 
 " Pedr bach," said Sadrach the Large, 
 " have you care now. Don't you, little 
 male, trifle with the name of the Big Man." 
 
 Pedr closed his ears against the warning. 
 
 " The Big Man is angry with you," he 
 resumed, " and His anger consumes like 
 the fire which ate up the hay of Griffith 
 Graig, though His mercy is as the waters 
 of Morfa. ' Pedr bach,' said the little 
 white Jesus, ' tell you them to turn away 
 from their adulterous ways, for when the 
 Lord hurteth a man He hurteth him to 
 death. Tell you them that they are as 
 wicked as the old blacks of Sodom.' " 
 
 Sadrach the Small flung a rake at 
 Pedr's head. 
 
 " Now, now, that is not like the off- 
 spring of a religious father," Sadrach the 
 Large rebuked his son. " Be you calm, 
 my child. The temptation is great, but 
 149
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 remember you that Pedr is not sensible in 
 his head." 
 
 " O people," Pedr continued, " listen. 
 Thus said the Big Man : 4 Capel Sion 
 has become as a temple of pig buyers ; a 
 woman without glory. Pedr bach, do you 
 say to them that I will destroy their crops 
 and rot their bones, that not one male, 
 nor female, nor child shall rise from the 
 grave when my little servant Gabriel 
 blows on his old trumpet. They will 
 abide among the filthy, creeping things 
 of the earth.' " 
 
 Martha interposed : " Throw you the 
 vain crow out, Sadrach, else sure some- 
 thing bad will hap to me and your father 
 for harbouring him in our land." 
 
 Pedr continued : " Said the little white 
 Jesus : ' Mind you, Pedr bach, not to 
 forget to tell the sons of Capel Sion that 
 they have thieved from the widow and the 
 orphan ; tell you the daughters too, Pedr 
 bach, that they speak slander and deal 
 150
 
 A JUST MAN IN SODOM 
 
 lightly with the things that are holy in my 
 sight.' There's sayings for you! What 
 for you laugh, boys bach ? Is not the 
 Judge of the earth right ? Would you 
 laugh at Daniel ? At Elijah ? Why for 
 you laugh ? You will have, dear me, to 
 change your thinks if you will wear the 
 White Shirts." 
 
 So Pedr assumed the mantle of a prophet. 
 Children mocked him and stoned him, and 
 threw clods of earth at him ; men and 
 women reviled him, inquiring of him 
 always : " How now, Pedr, anything new 
 from the Palace ? " 
 
 He left the house where he dwelt, and 
 went to live on the moor. There, on the 
 brim of the stone quarry, he built a hut 
 of mud, and the roof he covered with dry 
 heather, and at a distance of eight feet 
 therefrom he threw up a mound of earth 
 which he called an altar and he dedicated 
 it unto God. 
 
 In the hut he fasted and meditated, 
 151
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 and by the altar he prayed continu- 
 ally. 
 
 The evening of the fifth day after 
 Sadrach's hay had been stacked a heavy 
 rain fell upon West Wales, and this rain 
 lasted many days, destroying much of the 
 crops. The men of the Big Seat proved 
 the congregation, and they found that 
 Sion was without sin, hence this deluge 
 of rain was not a judgment upon Sion. 
 They also gathered themselves together 
 and prayed for deliverance. 
 
 Pedr journeyed down from the moor 
 and waited outside the gates that admit 
 you into Capel Sion, and as the congrega- 
 tion departed, he cried : 
 
 " Little people, why value you the things 
 that perish more than the living soul ? " 
 
 Sadrach Danyrefail derided him. 
 
 " A bad prophet you are indeed," he 
 
 said. " What for you didn't say the rain 
 
 was coming, man, so as to save all this 
 
 nasty bother ? Goodness me, you are a 
 
 152
 
 A JUST MAN IN SODOM 
 
 frog ! There's vexed Martha is since you 
 waggled your wild tongue in the hayfield. 
 Prophet ! Who made you judge in Capel 
 Sion ? Think you the Big Man chooses 
 you before me and the Respected Bryn- 
 Bevan to be His mouthpiece ? " 
 
 " Woe to you, Sadrach Danyrefail," an- 
 nounced Pedr. " Your dishonour makes 
 the little angels weep." 
 
 Sadrach spat in his face. 
 
 " Dear people " began Pedr. 
 
 "Pedr," said Sadrach, "bits of sermons 
 now and again are all right, but when you 
 take the name of the Big Man in vain, 
 well-well, it is very sinful." 
 
 " My soul," exclaimed Pedr, " is*as clean 
 as the soul of Elijah." 
 
 "Hearken you now, Pedr," said Sadrach 
 jestingly, "can you bring the dead to 
 life ? Elijah could. And, dear me, where 
 are your sacrifices ? You can't bring an 
 old turnip to life, man." 
 
 The people pushed Pedr hither and 
 153
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 thither. In his terror he cried loudly to 
 God to protect his skin, but his words 
 did not save his body from a stone nor 
 a clod of earth. 
 
 All through that night Pedr prayed at 
 tHe side of the altar he had dedicated unto 
 the Big Father. 
 
 When Sadrach the Small fetched the 
 cows in the morning, which was the Sab- 
 bath, he saw that the bull-calf was missing. 
 He searched in all the field and in many 
 of those of his neighbours. Returning to 
 Danyrefail, he climbed up into his father's 
 room. 
 
 "Little father," he said, "the old bull- 
 calf is lost, man." 
 
 " Now careless some one has been. Was 
 the gate shut, Sadrach ? " 
 
 " Indeed, iss, it was." 
 
 " The calf couldn't open the gate, 
 boy," said Martha. 
 
 " Wise your speech," said Sadrach the 
 Large. " Hie you and look again. But 
 154
 
 A JUST MAN IN SODOM 
 
 mouth you to no one your mission. Re- 
 collect that this is the Sabbath. Still, it is 
 not sinning to look for a lost sheep on the 
 Sabbath, but let it not be said that a bad 
 sampler comes from Danyrefail." 
 
 That Sabbath morning Pedr hailed a 
 man who was crossing the moor to Capel 
 Sion. 
 
 " Man bach," he said to him, " do you 
 hurry quickly now, and tell them in Sion 
 to come up the mountain, because this 
 day the Big Creator is manifesting 
 Himself. For this hour, man bach, 
 you are a messenger of the white little 
 Jesus." 
 
 The man laughed the news to those 
 with whom he fell in. He laughed it to 
 Sadrach the Large. 
 
 " The old cuckoo must be sent to the 
 House of the Mad," said Sadrach. 
 
 Sadrach walked as far as the gates of 
 Capel Sion, then he turned back and went 
 up to the moor. As he neared the hut, 
 155
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 Pedr ran to him and threw his arm around 
 his neck. 
 
 " Sadrach Danyrefail," he said, " there's 
 joyous I am you've come. Sing a hymn 
 of gladness, Sadrach Danyrefail, for to-day 
 the Bad Man departs from Capel Sion." 
 
 Pedr led Sadrach to the altar, and on 
 the top of it was the bull-calf, slowly 
 bleeding to death. 
 
 "Son of hell! " cried Sadrach when he saw 
 what Pedr had done. " For what dp you 
 do this with my calf which is worth great 
 yellow gold ? I'll have the law on you in 
 half an hour, even if it is the Sabbath." 
 
 He hit out with his arm, and Pedr fell 
 against the altar, and the blood of the 
 calf dropped upon his face. 
 
 " Dear Sadrach," he said when he had 
 risen to his feet, " this is the sacrifice that 
 is going to wipe away the sins of Capel 
 Sodom. Indeed, indeed, it is now. But, 
 lo, the Big Man is not meanly. He is 
 satisfied with the blood only. Look you 
 156
 
 A JUST MAN IN SODOM 
 
 now, I will bring back your old calf to 
 life. The white Jesus will do this for His 
 prophet." 
 
 Pedr removed the blood from his fore- 
 head, because it was oozing into his eyes, 
 with a little heather, and he went and 
 stood on the altar ; and he turned his 
 face on the dying calf and stretched forth 
 his hands. 
 
 " In the name of the little white Jesus, 
 return you to life, little bull-calf," he said. 
 " Jesus bach, do you bring this about for 
 the sake of your servant's good name." 
 
 157
 
 BE THIS HER MEMORIAL 
 
 159
 
 IX 
 BE THIS HER MEMORIAL 
 
 MICE and rats, as it is said, frequent neither 
 churches nor poor men's homes. The story 
 I have to tell you about Nanni the 
 Nanni who was hustled on her way to 
 prayer-meeting by the Bad Man, who saw 
 the phantom mourners bearing away Twm 
 Tybach's coffin, who saw the Spirit Hounds 
 and heard their meanings two days before 
 Isaac Penparc took wing the story I 
 have to tell you contradicts that theory. 
 
 Nanni was religious ; and she was old. 
 No one knew how old she was, for she said 
 that she remembered the birth of each 
 person that gathered in Capel Sion ; she 
 was so old th^t her age had ceased to 
 concern. 
 
 M 161
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 She lived in the mud-walled, straw- 
 thatched cottage on the steep road which 
 goes up from the Garden of Eden, and 
 ends at the tramping way that takes you 
 into Cardigan town ; if you happen to be 
 travelling that way you may still see the 
 roofless walls which were silent witnesses to 
 Nanni's great sacrifice a sacrifice surely 
 counted unto her for righteousness, though 
 in her search for God she fell down and 
 worshipped at the feet of a god. 
 
 Nanni's income was three shillings and 
 ninepence a week. That sum was allowed 
 her by Abel Shones, the officer for Poor 
 Relief, who each pay-day never forgot to 
 remind the crooked, wrinkled, toothless 
 old woman how much she owed to him 
 and God. 
 
 " If it was not for me, little Nanni," Abel 
 was in the habit of telling her, " you would 
 be in the House of the Poor long ago." 
 
 At that remark Nanni would shiver and 
 tremble. 
 
 162
 
 BE THIS HER MEMORIAL 
 
 " Dear heart," she would say in the 
 third person, for Abel was a mighty man 
 and the holder of a proud office, " I pray 
 for him night and day." 
 
 Nanni spoke, the truth, for she did re- 
 member Abel in her prayers. But the 
 workhouse held for her none of the terrors 
 it holds for her poverty-stricken sisters. 
 Life was life anywhere, in cottage or in 
 poorhouse, though with this difference : 
 her liberty in the poorhouse would be so 
 curtailed that no more would she be able 
 to listen to the spirit-laden eloquence of 
 the Respected Josiah Bryn-Bevan. She 
 helped to bring Josiah into the world ; 
 she swaddled him in her own flannel 
 petticoat ; she watched him going to and 
 coming from school ; she knitted for him 
 four pairs of strong stockings to mark his 
 going out into the world as a farm servant ; 
 and when the boy, having obeyed the 
 command of the Big Man, was called to 
 minister to the congregation of Capel Sion, 
 163
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 even Josiah's mother was not more vain 
 than Old Nanni. Hence Nanni struggled 
 on less than three shillings and ninepence 
 a week, for did she not give a tenth of 
 her income to the treasury of the Capel ? 
 Unconsciously she came to regard Josiah 
 as greater than God : God was abstract ; 
 Josiah was real. 
 
 As Josiah played a part in Nanni's life, 
 so did a Seller of Bibles play a minor part 
 in the last few days of her travail. The 
 man came to Nanni's cottage the evening 
 of the day of the rumour that the Respected 
 Josiah Bryn-Bevan had received a call 
 from a wealthy sister church in Aberyst- 
 wyth. Broken with grief, Nanni, the first 
 time for many years, bent her stiffened 
 limbs and addressed herself to the living 
 God. 
 
 " Dear little Big Man," she prayed, 
 " let not your son bach religious depart." 
 
 Then she recalled how good God had 
 been to her, how He had permitted her 
 164
 
 BE THIS HER MEMORIAL 
 
 to listen to His son's voice ; and another 
 fear struck her heart. 
 
 " Dear little Big Man," she muttered 
 between her blackened gums, " do you 
 now let me live to hear the boy's farewell 
 words." 
 
 At that moment the Seller of Bibles 
 raised the latch of the door. 
 
 " The Big Man be with this household," 
 he said, placing his pack on Nanni's bed. 
 
 " Sit you down," said Nanni, " and rest 
 yourself, for you must be weary." 
 
 "Man," replied the Seller of Bibles, "is 
 never weary of well-doing." 
 
 Nanny dusted for him a chair. 
 
 " No, no ; indeed now," he said ; " 1 
 cannot tarry long, woman. Do you not 
 know that I am the Big Man's messenger ? 
 Am I not honoured to take His word into 
 the highways and byways, and has He 
 not sent me here ? " 
 
 He unstrapped his pack, and showed 
 Nanni a gaudy volume with a clasp 
 165
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 of brass, and containing many coloured 
 prints ; the pictures he explained at 
 hazard : here was a tall-hatted John 
 baptising, here a Roman-featured Christ 
 praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, 
 here a frock-coated Moses and the Tablets. 
 
 " A Book," said he, " which ought to be 
 on the table of every Christian home." 
 
 " Truth you speak, little man," re- 
 marked Nanni. " What shall I say to 
 you you are asking for it ? " 
 
 " It has a price far above rubies," an 
 swered the Seller of Bibles. He turned 
 over the leaves and read : " ' The labourer 
 is worthy of his hire.' Thus is it written. 
 I will let you have one copy one copy 
 only at cost price." 
 
 " How good you are, dear me ! ): ex- 
 claimed Nanni. 
 
 " This I can do," said the Seller of Bibles, 
 " because my Master is the Big Man." 
 
 " Speak you now what the cost price 
 
 is." 
 
 166
 
 BE THIS HER MEMORIAL 
 
 " A little sovereign, that is all." 
 
 " Dear, dear ; the Word of the little 
 Big Man for a sovereign ! " 
 
 " Keep you the Book on your parlour 
 table for a week. Maybe others who are 
 thirsty will see it." 
 
 Then the Seller of Bibles sang a prayer ; 
 and he departed. 
 
 Before the week was over the Respected 
 Josiah Bryn-Bevan announced from his 
 pulpit that in the call he had discerned 
 the voice of God bidding him go forth into 
 the vineyard. 
 
 Nanni went home and prayed to the 
 merciful God : 
 
 " Dear little Big Man, spare me to listen 
 to the farewell sermon of your saint." 
 
 Nanni informed the Seller of Bibles that 
 she would buy the Book, and she asked 
 him to take it away with him and have 
 written inside it an inscription to the 
 effect that it was a gift from the least 
 worthy of his flock to the Respected 
 167
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 Josiah Bryn-Bevan, D.D., and she re- 
 quested him to bring it back to her on the 
 eve of the minister's farewell sermon. 
 
 She then hammered hobnails into the 
 soles of her boots, so as to render them 
 more durable for tramping to such capels 
 as Bryn-Bevan happened to be preaching 
 in. Her absences from home became a 
 byword, occurring as they did in the hay- 
 making season. Her labour was wanted 
 in the fields. It was the property of 
 the community, the community which 
 paid her three shillings and ninepence a 
 week. 
 
 One night Sadrach Danyrefail called at 
 her cottage to commandeer her services for 
 the next day. His crop had been on the 
 ground for a fortnight, and now that there 
 was a prospect of fair weather he was 
 anxious to gather it in. Sadrach was 
 going to say hard things to Nanni, but the 
 appearance of the gleaming-eyed creature 
 that drew back the bolts of the door fright- 
 168
 
 BE THIS HER MEMORIAL 
 
 ened him and tied his tongue. He was 
 glad that the old woman did not invite 
 him inside, for from within there issued an 
 abominable smell such as might have come 
 from the boiler of the witch who one time 
 lived on the moor. In the morning he saw 
 Nanni trudging towards a distant capel 
 where the Respected Josiah Bryn-Bevan 
 was delivering a sermon in the evening. 
 She looked less bent and not so shrivelled 
 up as she did the night before. Clearly, 
 sleep had given her fresh vitality. 
 
 Two Sabbaths before the farewell ser- 
 mon was to be preached Nanni came to 
 Capel Sion with an ugly sore at the side 
 of her mouth ; repulsive matter oozed 
 slowly from it, forming into a head, and 
 then coursing thickly down her chin on to 
 the shoulder of her black cape, where it 
 glistened among the beads. On occasions 
 her lips tightened, and she swished a hand 
 angrily across her face. 
 
 " Old Nanni," folk remarked while dis- 
 169
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 cussing her over their dinner-tables, " is 
 getting as dirty as an old sow." 
 
 During the week two more sores ap- 
 peared ; the next Sabbath Nanni had a 
 strip of calico drawn over her face. 
 
 Early on the eve of the farewell Sabbath 
 the Seller of Bibles arrived with the 
 Book, and Nanni gave him a sovereign 
 in small money. She packed it up 
 reverently, and betook herself to Sadrach 
 Danyrefail to ask him to make the pre- 
 sentation. 
 
 At the end of his sermon the Respected 
 Josiah Bryn-Bevan made reference to the 
 giver of the Bible, and grieved that she was 
 not in the Capel. He dwelt on her sacri- 
 fice. Here was a Book to be treasured, 
 and he could think of no one who would 
 treasure it better than Sadrach Danyrefail, 
 to whom he would hand it in recogni- 
 tion of his work in the School of the 
 Sabbath. 
 
 In the morning the Respected Josiah 
 170
 
 BE THIS HER MEMORIAL 
 
 Bryn-Bevan, making a tour of his congre- 
 gation, bethought himself of Nanni. The 
 thought came to him on leaving Danyre- 
 fail, the distance betwixt which andNanni's 
 cottage is two fields. He opened the door 
 and called out : 
 
 " Nanni." 
 
 None answered. 
 
 He entered the room. Nanni was on 
 the floor. 
 
 " Nanni, Nanni ! " he said. " Why for 
 you do not reply to me ? Am I not your 
 shepherd ? " 
 
 There was no movement from Nanni. 
 Mishtir Bryn-Bevan went on his knees and 
 peered at her. Her hands were clasped 
 tightly together, as though guarding some 
 great treasure. The minister raised him- 
 self and prised them apart with the ferrule 
 of his walking-stick. A roasted rat re- 
 vealed itself. Mishtir Bryn-Bevan stood 
 for several moments spellbound and silent ; 
 and in the stillness the rats crept boldly 
 171
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 out of their hiding places and resumed their 
 attack on Nanni's face. The minister, 
 startled and horrified, fled from the house 
 of sacrifice. 
 
 172
 
 THE REDEEMER 
 
 173
 
 X 
 
 \ 
 
 THE REDEEMER 
 
 ADAM the son of Bern-Davydd Bern- 
 Davydd being the Ruler of Capel Sion 
 before the day of Bryn-Bevan was walk- 
 ing along the Road of the Romans, the 
 narrow way that begins at the forehead of 
 the School and disappears in the heather 
 of the moor. His companion was Lissi, 
 the servant of Ellen the Weaver's Widow. 
 Midway there is a breach in the hedge, 
 wherein, on a big stone, Adam and Lissi 
 rested, and while they rested Joshua 
 Llanwen came upon them. Joshua said : 
 " Say you are Adam the son of Bern- 
 Davydd, boy, and the wench Lissi ? " 
 " Iss, iss, little Adam am I." 
 "Now what for you mean to be here 
 in the dark ? " said Joshua. 
 175
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 Adam arose to his feet and answered : 
 
 " Goodness me, Josh bach, are we not 
 going home ? " 
 
 " What a big iob you are, you bull- 
 calf ! J!l Joshua shouted. " Why for you 
 are an old cow, man ? The other road 
 is to the Shepherd's Abode. Have I not 
 pledged that this is not to happen ? " 
 
 He clenched his hand and thrust out the 
 joint of his second finger, and therewith 
 dealt Adam three blows on the face. Adam 
 fell into the hedge, and while he nursed 
 his sores he moaned : 
 
 " Dear Josh bach, why then you are so 
 hasty, man ? Sure now you have cut my 
 nice face ! >! 
 
 Joshua, ignoring the plaint, turned 
 upon Lissi : 
 
 " Back you hie, you brazen slut ! Turn 
 your wicked eyes and foul heart to Ellen's 
 loom-shed. You sow, walk you off in 
 front of me." 
 
 Lissi obeyed ; as she moved towards 
 
 ire
 
 THE REDEEMER 
 
 the School Joshua raised his foot and 
 kicked her. 
 
 Presently Adam scrambled over the 
 hedge and across pasture-land and gorse 
 hurried to his father's house. This he did 
 because he was feared of meeting Joshua 
 on the road. 
 
 Bern-Davydd heard the sound of the 
 gate opening, whereupon he lifted his eyes 
 to his son Lamech and to Lamech's wife 
 Puah, and said : 
 
 " Don't you muchly catechise Adam. Is 
 not Joshua an eager counsellor ? Perhaps 
 his sayings have brought reason into the 
 boy's heart. Make pretence you are read- 
 ing your old books." 
 
 Thus, when Adam came into the room, 
 no face was raised to him, nor voice said 
 to him : " Dear me now, who has come 
 for fresh garments this day ? Much silver 
 the tailor is gathering," or " Well- well, 
 little Adam, now that you've come, our 
 religious father will thank the Big Father 
 N 177
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 for the mercies of the hour, and we'll go 
 to bed," this latter being the fashion the 
 household of Bern-Davydd had of spend- 
 ing the last wakeful moments of the eve 
 of the Sabbath. The transparent china 
 lamp on the tinsel-draped mantelpiece 
 lit up the group on the hearth : Bern- 
 Davydd, a loosely-woven rope of whitish 
 hair like a coil of sheep's wool which has 
 been caught in a barbed wire, and ex- 
 posed many days to the weather, extend- 
 ing from ear to ear ; Lamech, the ball of 
 his small nose glittering against swarthy 
 skin and bushy black beard and mous- 
 tache : Puah, her feet resting on the 
 fender, and the tuft of red hair on the 
 right side of her mouth shivering like 
 boar's hairs between the fingers of an 
 ancient cobbler as she turned over the 
 leaves of the book she was not reading. 
 
 Adam unravelled his leather boot-laces, 
 speaking the meanwhile : 
 
 " Dear folk, a sober thing has hap- 
 178
 
 THE REDEEMER 
 
 pened to me this night. Seven times did 
 Joshua Llanwen beat my face. Puah, 
 look you at me now. Touch my hand 
 and speak to them how it trembles." 
 
 Puah showed kindness to him and did 
 as he had asked her. 
 
 " Iss, indeed," she said, " there's blood 
 on your cheeks, Adam bach." 
 
 " What foolish man Josh is ! Has he 
 not opened the gash I did with the razor ? " 
 
 Lamech chided from his chair : 
 
 " Brother Adam, heard you never of 
 the speech of the Man of Terror, saying, 
 4 Vengeance is mine ' ? " 
 
 " Little Lamech, did not Joshua strike 
 me seven times on my nice chin ? " 
 
 " Adam, the son of Bern-Davydd, listen 
 you to me, man. Is it not written, * Hard 
 is the way of the transgressor ' ? " 
 
 The Respected Bern-Davydd said : 
 
 " Let me speak to the Big Man." 
 
 A period of twelve years divided these 
 two sons of Bern-Davydd, the years of 
 179
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 Lamech, the elder, being fifty-two. At the 
 age of forty-eight Lamech wedded Puah 
 the widow of John Shop Morfa, at whose 
 death she inherited the shop, many book 
 debts, and much gold ; and now, the 
 harvest of debts having been gathered in 
 and the shop sold, Lamech received a call 
 to preach the Word, and was spending a 
 little time in the Shepherd's Abode before 
 entering College Carmarthen. 
 
 But Adam the younger son was imbued 
 with little understanding ; he had never 
 risen above working in Shop Pugh Tailor. 
 Six months before this night he had desired 
 Lissi, the squint-eyed girl that Ellen the 
 Weaver's widow got from Castellybryn 
 Poorhouse. He had sent her a letter, 
 which Samson Post spoke in the public 
 places. Thereafter Lissi waited for Adam 
 every night outside Shop Pugh Tailor. 
 
 His doings came to the ears of Lamech 
 and Puah, who shook their heads dismally, 
 the wife saying to her husband : 
 180
 
 " Vile is Adam to covet the flesh of a 
 poorhouse brat." 
 
 " Doleful is my heart and anxious," 
 said Lamech. 
 
 " Go you and tell our father about this 
 madness," observed Puah. 
 
 Lamech opened his Bible for spiritual 
 guidance ; he read aloud these words : 
 " Ye shall bring down my gray hairs with 
 sorrow to the grave." 
 
 " Throw you your light of wisdom on 
 the speech, Lamech," said Puah. 
 
 " The Big Man means that it's better 
 for others to tell our father. Adam may 
 plead that what we say is not true, and 
 we will be rebuked. Let some cunning 
 one go and bear witness." 
 
 Puah tied her wide bonnet strings under 
 her chin, and drew on her feet her elastic- 
 side boots, and went to Llanwen and told 
 Joshua to go and inform her father-in- 
 law of the wickedness of Adam. 
 
 " For why he is so blind, Respected 
 181
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 Bern-Davydd ? " said Joshua. " And he 
 our ruler too ! If he cannot perceive the 
 enemy in his own household, how expect he 
 to find him among the congregation ? One 
 of his own lambs goes astray." 
 
 '* Joshua Llanwen, speak you plain to 
 
 me now." 
 
 " Is not that ram of an Adam courting 
 Lissi, the poorhouse bitch that works at 
 Ellen's loom? The pig that cackles his 
 son to the Pool ! The bellows that blows 
 him into the arms of Satan ! Why do 
 Adam and her go each night on the Road 
 of the Romans ? Bern-Davydd, this is no 
 light matter to him." 
 
 " Woe is me ! J1 cried Bern-Davydd. 
 " A sinner from my loins ! . . . This must 
 end. Joshua Llanwen, be you another 
 Paul. Keep watch over my son on the 
 Road of the Romans. Stay in hiding, and 
 if you see anything wrong, show yourself, 
 and counsel him, and drive the evil spirit 
 out of him." 
 
 182
 
 THE REDEEMER 
 
 So Adam came home with blood on 
 his chin, hence Bern-Davydd knew that 
 Joshua Llanwen had performed his ser- 
 vices faithfully ; and on many occasions 
 Joshua chastised Adam with his tongue, 
 and his fists, and with the oaken club he 
 employed to break in horses. Yet Adam 
 would not leave off courting Lissi. 
 
 One night Bern-Davydd and his son 
 Lamech spoke to Adam of their grief. 
 Bern-Davydd said : " Uncomfortable you 
 make us. There's little you show yourself 
 in the sight of Capel Sion." 
 
 " Mouth you to us now," said Lamech, 
 " that you will let the bad wench be." 
 
 " Iss, say you like that," said Puah. 
 " Think you the Big Man has chosen such 
 as Lissi to be a Bern-Davydd ? " 
 
 " Little people," answered Adam, 
 " shortsighted you be then. Expect you, 
 Lamech, the Big Father to perform a 
 miracle with Puah as He did with Sara ? 
 Will she conceive and bear for you a 
 183
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 child ? Puah has passed her fruitfulness, 
 and am I not the hope of the Bern- 
 Davydds ? " 
 
 " But, dull Adam bach," said Puah, 
 " why do you go low for a female ? Mercy 
 me ! Lissi a Bern-Davydd ! Repent you 
 now, and be a goldy boy." 
 
 Bern-Davydd's heart hardened against 
 his stubborn son, and the colour of his face 
 became that of the sun-dried walls of the 
 quarry on the moor ; and he informed God 
 of a just punishment for those who rebel. 
 
 Soon people began to whisper that 
 before long Adam would be a father ; the 
 whisper rose into a shout, and it was 
 cried on the tramping way, and even at 
 the gates of Capel Sion. Bern-Davydd 
 and Lamech heard it, and they trembled. 
 The father proclaimed from the pulpit : 
 
 " I have searched my soul for some sin 
 
 that, unbeknown to myself, I might have 
 
 committed. Did I find any ? No, indeed 
 
 to goodness, now, I didn't. Yet the Big 
 
 184
 
 THE REDEEMER 
 
 Man's hand is hard on the innocent. My 
 clean heart is bowed with shame. Why does 
 the Big Father punish His child so ? Last 
 night I said to Him : ' Lead me, big Je- 
 hovah bach.' Perhaps, dear me, Adam 
 has inherited the vanity of his mother 
 Silah. Pray for her, you boys bach re- 
 ligious of the Lord." 
 
 Three mournful days passed, then Bern- 
 Davydd said to Lamech : 
 
 " Go down and examine the dirty clod. 
 Look you for signs if she is indeed with 
 child. The wench may be crafty in the 
 manner of her clothes. And, little saintly 
 son, get you her to admit that others have 
 been with her." 
 
 Puah interrupted : "I will go with 
 Lamech, for I am a woman, and do I not 
 understand the signs ? " 
 
 Lissi was at her loom when Lamech and 
 Puah came into the shed. 
 
 " Hai, the dirty wench ! Walk here 
 and stand forth, you hussy," cried Lamech. 
 185
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 Lissi rose from her loom and came to 
 Lamech and his wife, and as she got near 
 they observed that the front of the girl's 
 petticoat hung high and away from her 
 clogs and grey stockings. 
 
 "Ach y fi! Take," said Puah, "the 
 stuffing away from your belly." 
 
 "Indeed me," answered Lissi, "not 
 stuffing is here for surely. Full is my 
 skin." 
 
 " O you Jezebel ! " Puah cried. " Tell 
 me, you ugly creature, how with your 
 squint you tempted Adam bach." 
 
 " Speak of the others who have been 
 bad with you," said Lamech. 
 
 Lissi, her mouth expressing an unin- 
 telligible grin, her large fingers twisting 
 and untwisting a length of yarn, stood 
 before them mute as a sheep in the hands 
 of the shearer. 
 
 " Indeed to goodness now," Puah went 
 on, " imagine you that Adam will marry 
 
 you ? " 
 
 186
 
 THE REDEEMER 
 
 The girl whined : " He'll have to. Ellen 
 says I can petty sessions him if he refuses." 
 
 " For sure now, Lissi, Adam is not the 
 father of the child," Puah said. 
 
 " What for you talk," Lissi replied, 
 her spirit rising, " for was he not bad 
 with me the night Josiah Llanwen's bull- 
 calf perished ? J: 
 
 " Iss, Lissi fach," said Puah, " Josh 
 Llanwen did this and that to your flesh." 
 
 "No, indeed, he didn't." 
 
 " Lissi, Lissi, that night on the Road of 
 the Romans, now. . . . Iss, iss, of course 
 he was. Did he not put you on the old 
 stone ? " 
 
 " No, no." 
 
 " Josh has repented," Puah said. " Does 
 he not say, ' I am the father of Lissi's 
 child ' ? " 
 
 " Sure me, Joshua is the father," said 
 
 Lamech. " His poor old flesh couldn't 
 
 withstand the temptation. But Capel 
 
 Sion won't be hard on you, Lissi, nor on 
 
 187
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 Josh. Isn't he the father, little daughter 
 fach ? " 
 
 " For sure, no," answered Lissi. " Josh 
 Llanwen is important in Sion. Is 
 not Priscila his wife ? The father of the 
 child is Adam. Did not Ellen peep into 
 the shed ? " 
 
 " Be you religious, Lissi," Puah urged. 
 " Do you admit to Josh. If you die in 
 childbirth there's glad you'll be that you 
 won't cross the Jordan with a lie in your 
 head." 
 
 " Great will be your reward," Lamech 
 added. " You can say to the Large Spirit, 
 4 1 am the truth.' " 
 
 " But Joshua has not been bad with 
 me," Lissi persisted. 
 
 After the result of this conversation had 
 been reported to Bern-Davydd, Puah 
 spoke to her father-in-law. Her words 
 pleased him, and he marvelled at her 
 skill and prudence. 
 
 Dusk having fallen, Puah went over 
 188
 
 THE REDEEMER 
 
 pasture and gorse to the Road of the 
 Romans. In the breach in the hedge she 
 hid behind the stone, and she remained 
 there until Adam and Lissi came by ; and 
 when she heard the girl coming back alone 
 she placed over herself a bed sheet, and 
 thus covered she stood in the middle of 
 the way. Lissi saw her thus arrayed, and 
 she was very frightened. She threw off 
 her clogs and ran. Before she reached 
 the forehead of the School she was over- 
 taken by unfamiliar pains. . . . The child 
 she delivered a man child was dead, 
 and from her travail Lissi passed into 
 madness. 
 
 189
 
 AS IT IS WRITTEN 
 
 191
 
 XI 
 AS IT IS WRITTEN 
 
 SAMSON POST placed his arms on the gate 
 of the close of Penyrallt, and cried loudly : 
 
 " Mali ! Mali ! Be you quick and come, 
 woman. Have I not a letter from your 
 son Dan ? Mali fach, do you haste now. 
 Woe me, there's provoking you are to 
 keep the post waiting ! " 
 
 From the inside of the pigsty Mali 
 answered : 
 
 " What old hurry you are in, man I 
 Do you wait one little minute and I'll be 
 with you." 
 
 Mali stooped her legs because she was 
 too fat to bend the middle of her body, 
 and came forth out of the pigsty, and 
 193
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 while she scraped off the refuse from off 
 the sides of her clogs, she called out : 
 
 " A writing from Dan, Samson bach ? " 
 
 " Iss, iss," answered Samson, " take you 
 the old letter." 
 
 " Goodness now, whatever does the 
 boy say then ? Little Samson, don't you 
 stand there like doited idiot. Speak Dan 
 bach's words." 
 
 " Dan says he is coming home for a 
 small holiday," said Samson, opening 
 the envelope. " And he is bringing a maid 
 with him." 
 
 " What for you say jokes, man ! Be 
 serious and truthful." 
 
 " Mali the daughter of Mati and the 
 wife of Shaci, truthful I am, indeed, dear 
 me." 
 
 " Peer at the letter now, Samson bach, 
 and interpret it to me without deceit," 
 said Mali. 
 
 " Woman alive, not joking am I. 
 Do I not speech that Dan and his 
 194.
 
 AS IT IS WRITTEN 
 
 maid will be home on the third day 
 then ? " 
 
 " Dan bach and his maid ! Serious 
 now ? Who may she be ? Samson, Sam- 
 son, there's shut up you are. Tell her 
 name, man ? " 
 
 " Curious was Mati your old mother, 
 and curious you are, Mali. But wait a 
 bit now while I have another peep at the 
 old letter. . . . Dear, where is she ? Here 
 she is. Alice Wite that's her name, 
 Mali. Miss Wite." 
 
 " That's vile English," said Mali. 
 
 "'English, little Mali." 
 
 " Doesn't the boy say how much yellow 
 gold she possesses ? " 
 
 " No-no, woman." 
 
 " Then she hasn't got any. Wite, in- 
 deed ! There's a bad concubine ! For 
 what then Dan doesn't throw gravel at 
 the window of some tidy wench who can 
 speak his native tongue ! " 
 
 Mali threw her voice across the close 
 195
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 and into the corner of the field which is 
 behind the barn where Shaci her husband 
 was thatching his hay. 
 
 " Shaci, man ! Are you deaf then, for 
 sure ! Why you do not listen ? Come you 
 here at once." 
 
 Shaci came down to the earth and walked 
 to the gate slowly, for though he was not 
 old, he stooped because of much earth toil. 
 
 When he was within twenty paces of her, 
 Mali called to him : 
 
 " Samson the Post does say that Dan 
 bach is coming home on the third day with 
 an old bitch of an English maid. A cow 
 as poor as a church mouse, I wager." 
 
 " Iss, iss, Shaci bach," said Samson 
 the Post, "what talk there is in Shop 
 Rhys about Dan 1 The religious Respected 
 Bryn-Bevan was there, and did he not 
 say that the abodes of the old English are 
 refreshment places on the way to the 
 Pool ? Grand indeed he spoke. Like a 
 
 sermon." 
 
 196
 
 AS IT IS WRITTEN 
 
 " Whatever is the matter with the 
 boy ? " said Shaci. " Little Samson, read 
 you writing of the letter now to me." 
 
 " Shaci ! Shaci ! " Samson admonished 
 him. " Inconsiderate you are, man. 
 Know you not that I am the post ? Has 
 there not been a letter in my bag for three 
 days for the owl of a Schoolin' telling him 
 the day of Sara's funeral ? " 
 
 Mali was sorrowful that her son Dan 
 was to be charged with this fault, and she 
 said to her husband : 
 
 " Shaci bach, here's disgrace. Put your 
 old head into the words that Dan has 
 written." 
 
 But Samson the Post had taken away 
 the letter. 
 
 " Full of wrath am I," said Shaci. 
 
 " Heard you what the old Satan said 
 about the Respected Bryn-Bevan ? " 
 
 " Iss, iss." 
 
 " This thing must not come to pass. 
 How shall we hold up our heads in 
 197
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 Capel Sion if Dan weds an old foreign 
 leech ? " 
 
 Shaci went out, and while he was labour- 
 ing he thought out a device and he came 
 into the house to take counsel of his wife. 
 This is what he said to Mali : 
 
 " Hearken to my speech, now, Mali 
 fach. I will, dear me, go to Mistress 
 Morgan Post and ask her to send a little 
 telegram to Dan saying, ' Remember Capel 
 Sion, Dan bach.' " 
 
 " Why speak so wasteful ? " Mali re- 
 plied. " Six red pennies old telegrams 
 cost, and is not Mistress Morgan meanly ? 
 She won't take a small penny off the 
 price." 
 
 " True-true. Iss, indeed." 
 
 Night came on, and Shaci read the 
 words with which Moses praised the Big 
 Man for the deliverance of the children of 
 Israel from the hands of the Egyptians. 
 
 But Mali did not hear anything of that 
 which Shaci said under the open chimney 
 198
 
 AS IT IS WRITTEN 
 
 or that which he read by the light of the 
 tallow candle. She felt shame for Dan, her 
 son, whose name would be denounced from 
 the pulpit and spoken with scorn by the 
 congregation, and she remembered his 
 deeds, first and last. Dear people, why was 
 it destined for Dan to trespass in the eyes 
 of Sion ? Heart alive, are not the evil ways 
 of the English known far and wide ? And 
 their helpless wastefulness ? Look you at 
 Owen, the son of Antony. Owen was in a 
 grand shop draper in Swansea. He took to 
 himself as wife a daughter of the English, 
 and she kept a house for lodgers. Good- 
 ness me, is it not engraved on Owen's 
 tombstone in the Old Burial Ground in 
 Capel Sion that he left only one hundred 
 yellow sovereigns ? Does not Antony 
 lament to this day that Owen bach would 
 have left half a hundred more yellow 
 sovereigns if he had wedded a Welsh 
 maid? Little Big Man, for why has not 
 a Welsh maid, with a bit of land in her 
 199
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 own name, found favour with Dan bach ? 
 There's sad it is. 
 
 Shaci closed his Bible. 
 
 " Pray will I now, Mali fach," he said, 
 " for Dan." 
 
 " What for you pray, Shaci," answered 
 Mali, " and do nothing ? Say now we 
 got Sadrach Danyrefail to come and speak 
 to the boy." 
 
 " Good that would be." 
 
 " And Joshua Llanwen." 
 
 " He too is a man of God." 
 
 Shaci went to Llanwen and spoke to 
 Joshua by the ditch under the house. 
 
 " Mali is wanting you to speak wise 
 words to Dan," he said. 
 
 " Dan's sins have reached my ears," 
 said Joshua. " By and by I will say 
 phrases to the dear Big Man, and the 
 words of the Terrible One will scorch your 
 son Dan." 
 
 Shaci then went across the fields (for 
 this horrid thing made him fearsome of 
 200
 
 AS IT IS WRITTEN 
 
 showing his face to his neighbours, lest 
 they should reproach him) to Danyrefail. 
 
 " Shaci ! Shaci ! Go you and wash your 
 dirty old heart," cried Martha to him. 
 " Unworthy you are." 
 
 " Now-now, humble is my carcase," 
 replied Shaci. 
 
 44 But are you humble before the Al- 
 mighty ? ' cried Martha the stranger 
 woman of Danyrefail. " Drato, go on 
 your dirty knees, old boy ugly." 
 
 44 There's no more spirit left in me, 
 little Martha," said Shaci. 44 Do you now 
 in the godliness of your heart say to 
 Sadrach the Large that I seek his in- 
 struction." 
 
 Sadrach took Shaci aside to speak to 
 him quietly. 
 
 44 Sure, little Shaci," he ended, t4 come 
 I will to prove this foreign hussy with 
 hard questions." 
 
 So Shaci's heart was lightened, and he 
 walked home over the tramping road ; 
 201
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 and though many asked him this and 
 thus, he saw none mocking him to his 
 face. 
 
 When he got home Mali was moaning 
 her grief to Bertha Daviss, and Rhys 
 Shop, and Sali the wife of Old Shemmi. 
 
 " For why does poor Dan bach want to 
 bring home a bad woman from the Eng- 
 lish ? " she said. " Alice Wite. There's 
 a nasty wench ! The cunning serpent to 
 lure away my boy bach. And I dare 
 wager she is as poor as Old Nanni's 
 rats." 
 
 Rhys Shop opened his lips and made 
 utterance : 
 
 " Vain are the English women who work 
 in these shops. Did not Tom Hughes, 
 the traveller, say they are all wasteful ? " 
 
 " And, little Rhys," Bertha Daviss said, 
 " did he not say they are barren ? Sober ! 
 Sober ! " 
 
 " Recollect you the female maid who 
 stayed with Wynne the vicar ? " said Sali 
 202
 
 AS IT IS WRITTEN 
 
 the wife of Old Shemmi. " Goodness, 
 what an old girl she was, for sure ! She 
 washed her flesh on the Sabbath in Avon 
 Bern." 
 
 " Say not like that," Rhys Shop inter- 
 rupted. 
 
 " Iss, she did. Did not word of her 
 doings reach Shemmi's ears, and did he 
 not hide himself behind Sadrach's hedge 
 to see the shameless woman for himself ? 
 And she used to take her old pagan dog 
 for walks over the fields on the afternoons 
 of the Sabbath." 
 
 " Dear people," said Rhys Shop, " have 
 we not much to be thankful for to the Big 
 Man ? " 
 
 " Indeed, iss," said Bertha Daviss. 
 
 " The white little Jesus will do me badly 
 if I give the bitch a bed in my house," 
 said Mali. 
 
 " Tell you me now what you are going 
 to do with her ? " asked Sali the wife of 
 Old Shemmi. 
 
 203
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 " Sadrach the Large and Joshua Llan- 
 wen will prove her," answered Shaci. 
 
 " Proper indeed to ask the Respected 
 Bryn-Bevan to speak to her also," said 
 Bertha. " Go you off, the two of you 
 together, and speak to him." 
 
 Mali followed closely behind Shaci, and 
 she was weeping the whole of the way, 
 and her grief was so much that she spoke 
 to none of the people who asked of her : 
 " Mali fach, what for you weep, woman 
 nice?" 
 
 " Come into the cowshed, sinners bach," 
 said the Respected Bryn-Bevan ; " the 
 mistress has been washing the flags. Ho, 
 iss, the hand of the Lord is hard upon 
 you this day." 
 
 " Iss, Respected bach," said Shaci. 
 
 " This thing, Shaci, does not please me. 
 Samson Post came to me for guidance, and 
 we agreed that Wite is not a Welsh word. 
 Ho, Shaci, no one in the Book of Words 
 is named Wite." 
 
 204
 
 AS IT IS WRITTEN 
 
 " Mishtir Bryn-Bevan ! " 
 
 " Not one, indeed." 
 
 " Awful," said Shaci. 
 
 " Sinful," said the minister. 
 
 " Do him come in the neighbourhood 
 of five in the afternoon and say a speech," 
 said Mali. " Thankful will we be if he do 
 this great deed." 
 
 " Sure me, I'll come, Shaci. Has not 
 the Big Man called me to judge over 
 Sion ? I'll talk fair to the wench, and if 
 she bears herself without modesty in my 
 presence then I will deal mightily with 
 her." 
 
 Now in the order of their importance 
 these are they that went up to Penyrallt 
 the day that Dan brought home a daughter 
 of the English : the Respected Bryn- 
 Bevan, Sadrach the Large, Joshua Llan- 
 wen, Rhys Shop, Sali the wife of Old 
 Shemmi, Bertha Daviss. 
 
 The Respected Bryn-Bevan sat at the 
 round table in the parlour, and the door of 
 205
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 the parlour was kept open so that his voice 
 reached the others who sat in the kitchen. 
 
 Mishtir Bryn-Bevan's reading of the 
 seventh chapter of Proverbs ended when 
 Shaci brought his horse and cart into the 
 close. 
 
 Rhys Shop rose to his feet and moved 
 towards the outer door. 
 
 Mishtir Bryn-Bevan spoke wrathfully. 
 
 " Rhys Shop," he cried, " an old black 
 you are to forget that I am here ! >: 
 
 The minister strode through the kitchen: 
 the people remarked the dignity of his 
 stride and marvelled. 
 
 Shaci approached him, shaking his head, 
 and saying, 
 
 " The old wench does not speak Welsh." 
 
 Mishtir Bryn-Bevan stood on the thresh- 
 old, his feet far from each other ; and he 
 stretched forth his right arm, and his hand 
 was covered in black kid, and he cried : 
 
 " Halt, you female woman. Why you 
 come here to spoil this godly house ? Dan 
 206
 
 AS IT IS WRITTEN 
 
 who is in a shop draper in Llanelly and 
 who is the son of Mali and Shaei, why must 
 you tempt the Big Man to anger, boy ? 
 Mournful is your dirt. Pack you the 
 woman about her business; let her walk 
 in shame back to her own people." 
 
 The woman's lips quivered, and she was 
 neither young nor pretty. 
 
 Mali came down to her. 
 
 " Our little daughter," she said, " dost 
 her come here to take our son bach away 
 from us now ? Let her him be. Shaci will 
 take her back to Castellybryn in the old 
 cart." 
 
 The woman whom Dan had brought 
 home could not answer a word, because 
 she did not know the meaning of the words 
 Mali had spoken. Dan was about to open 
 his lips, when Sadrach addressed the 
 minister. 
 
 " Mishtir Bryn-Bevan," he said, " you 
 are a great scholar. Do you inquire of 
 the fool if she can milk a cow." 
 207
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 " Iss," said Joshua Llanwen, " and if 
 she can clean a stable." 
 
 " And tell the rat of a bitch," shouted 
 Mali, " that Dan won't get a red penny 
 piece after us." 
 
 " But, mam fach," Dan broke in, " what 
 does that matter ? Is not Alice the owner 
 of a nice shop draper ? " 
 
 Mali now went to Dan, and she called 
 him her own boy bach, and the son of his 
 mother ; and she took Dan and his maid 
 into the parlour, and closed the door on 
 them. 
 
 Returning to the congregation, she 
 delivered to them this speech : 
 
 " There's good you were to come. Dan's 
 maid, dear me, has travelled a long dis- 
 tance this day. Weary she is. Gracious 
 now, isn't she tidy ? English she may be, 
 but has not the Big Man told us to love our 
 enemies ? Shop Draper ! There's wealth 
 for you. Rhys, come you up on a night 
 and speak to her." 
 
 208
 
 AS IT IS WRITTEN 
 
 To her husband Shaci she said : 
 '* Go you off away down to the Shop and 
 get white flour. I will make a little lot of 
 pancakes for Dan's maid. Be you fleet 
 of foot." 
 
 209
 
 A BUNDLE OF LIFE 
 
 211
 
 XII 
 A BUNDLE OF LIFE 
 
 WORD reached Jos Gernos Gernos is on 
 the brink of the ascent into the sea of 
 Morfa that the inheritance of Leisa the 
 only child of Nansi and Silas Penlon was 
 to be nearly one hundred acres of land and 
 all the gold that had been gathered by 
 Silas. After deliberating on this for a 
 day, Jos said to his mother that he was 
 going forth to compromise Leisa ; he 
 strapped whipcord leggings over his legs, 
 and saddled his pony, and rode out to 
 Penlon ; but Leisa did not respond to 
 the small stones he threw at her window. 
 Jos went back to Gernos, and in the morn- 
 ing he wrote a letter to Leisa, and he 
 sent it by the hand of Samson Post, and 
 213
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 he waited for an answer until after the 
 Sabbath, but none came. Jos refused 
 to give over his design on Leisa's inherit- 
 ance, because he had much need of money : 
 on the fourth night Leisa took out the 
 paper that filled a broken pane in the 
 window and cried to him : 
 
 " Say from where you are ? " 
 
 " Boy bach from Gernos am I," said Jos. 
 
 " Indeed, boy bach, all right ; is not the 
 old ladder in the cowhouse ? ' 
 
 Three weeks expired and on a day Jos 
 rode away from Penlon before sunrise, 
 and returned when Nansi was putting the 
 milk into the separator. 
 
 " Little Jos," she said, " for why he is 
 so early ? '' 
 
 "Woman, woman," replied Jos, "now- 
 now, do I not bring with me a ring for 
 wedding ? Look you, indeed." 
 
 Nansi's face was bound with bands of 
 flannel, which day and night wear had 
 made hard, and which stood on her cheeks 
 214
 
 A BUNDLE OF LIFE 
 
 in the manner of a horse's bonnet. Her 
 upper lip was broken into a gap that let 
 out a little blood while she spoke, and this 
 blood she licked away with her tongue. 
 
 " What did he give for the old ring ? " 
 she asked. " A crown, shall I say ? " 
 
 Jos showed his narrow teeth. " A 
 yellow sovereign all but a crown," he 
 answered. " If I die, go she and speak 
 to Peter Shop Watches in Castellybryn." 
 
 " Little Jos Gernos," said Nansi, 
 " there's wasteful he is. Why he now go 
 to Betti the widow of Shim, and say to 
 her : ' Betti fach, lend you me your old 
 ring for to wed Leisa the daughter of Silas 
 Penlon. In want you are, Betti, and I 
 will reward you with buttermilk.' " 
 
 Jos shifted a foot, and placed it near the 
 milk that had escaped and had formed 
 into a small pool in a hollow in the earthen 
 floor. 
 
 "Jos, Jos, what a frog he is!" Nansi 
 admonished him. " Don't he move his 
 215
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 foot now till I have scooped the precious 
 milk up into a clean pan." 
 
 Having done this, Nansi called : " Silas 
 now, Jos Gernos is here with his old ring." 
 
 Silas, straightway from his bed and clad 
 in flannel drawers and soleless stockings, 
 entered the zinc-roofed dairy. 
 
 " Did he go to the fair ? " he asked 
 Jos. 
 
 " Iss, iss, little man." 
 
 " How was the prices now ? >! 
 
 " Sober, little man. Sober bad." 
 
 " Did he sell his colt ? Dewi says he 
 had one to sell." 
 
 '* What Dewi says is the truth." 
 
 " What did the old colt bring ? " 
 
 " Little man, I didn't sell." 
 
 Jos placed a wooden bowl into the milk 
 and drank therefrom. 
 
 " Well, Silas Penlon," he observed, 
 " here is the costly ring. Has he matter 
 to say why Leisa should not share my 
 bed ? " 
 
 216
 
 A BUNDLE OF LIFE 
 
 " Not that I know of, Jos Gernos. But 
 do he marry from Gernos, for Nansi here 
 has not time to see to these things." 
 
 After they had spoken about this which 
 was going to happen, and Jos had gone 
 his way, Nansi said these words in praise 
 of Jos. 
 
 " Old Jos is very tidy." 
 
 Silas clothed himself and went to the 
 house of Bertha Daviss, and Bertha cut 
 three carrots into small pieces and fried 
 them for him, and also brewed tea for him. 
 Silas seldom ate at home; had not Nansi and 
 Leisa and his manservant Dewi enough to 
 do with the care of ten cows and ten pigs 
 and three horses without wasting time in 
 the preparation of food ? Thus he jour- 
 neyed from cottage to cottage, at each 
 cottage eating fried carrots and drinking 
 tea. That was the period when his riches 
 made him a power in the land, and when 
 housewives pandered to him because of 
 his riches. 
 
 217
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 " Old Jos Gernos is talking about taking 
 Leisa to his bed," said Silas. 
 
 *' What you call, man bach ? But 
 large has been the courting in Penlon," 
 said Bertha. 
 
 Silas took out of the frying-pan as much 
 of the carrots as would fill his mouth. 
 
 " Glad I'll be to see her going," he said. 
 " She's lately taken to attending the 
 foolish singing class in Capel Sion. And 
 she changes her garments to go there." 
 
 " And you say that, little Silas I Have 
 you killed your hay yet ? >: 
 
 " Dewi and Nansi are killing to-day." 
 
 Silas ate and drank, and departed. 
 
 Noontide he was sitting on the gate of 
 the field in which Nansi and Dewi were 
 mowing his hay. There came to him a 
 stalwart man named Abram Bowen, who 
 then was the chief singing man in Capel 
 Sion. 
 
 " Dear now, very good crop of hay 
 you've got, man," said Abram Bowen. 
 218
 
 A BUNDLE OF LIFE 
 
 " Silas bach, is this not a credit to 
 
 you ? " 
 
 Nansi and Dewi were approaching the 
 gate, making great curves with their 
 scythes. Nansi paused and looked at 
 the men. 
 
 " Nansi, you silly cow," cried Silas, 
 " what for you wait ? Dewi will cut off 
 your little legs if you don't go faster. Do 
 you hurry now, for the night cometh." 
 
 " Happy I am to hear you saying from 
 the Book of Words," said Abram Bowen. 
 " Dear, dear, am I not always holding you 
 up as a religious example in the School 
 of Sabbath ? . . . There's old talk that 
 Leisa is going to Gernos ? ' : 
 
 " So they say, Abram. So they say." 
 
 " Pity now she's leaving the singing- 
 class. She mustn't go before the party 
 bach tries at Eisteddfod Morfa." 
 
 " Well- well, mouth you to the wench 
 herself about that." 
 
 
 
 219
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 That night Leisa heard the sound of 
 gravel falling on the pane of her window. 
 Through the hole in the pane she called out: 
 
 " You blockhead of a tadpole, is not 
 the old ladder by the pigsty ? >! 
 
 Abram Bowen fetched the ladder and 
 climbed into Leisa's room. 
 
 " Bad jasto ! " Leisa exclaimed, when 
 she knew who her visitor was. " For 
 why you was not Jos Gernos ! Abram 
 Bowen, you frightened me, man, you did." 
 
 A tallow candle burnt on the chair, 
 and Leisa was on one side of the bed and 
 Abram was on the other side. 
 
 " Put on petticoats now," said Abram. 
 " Not religious that I eye any of your 
 naked flesh bach. But don't do that, 
 Leisa ; I'll blow on the old candle. How 
 speak you then about Eisteddfod Morfa ? " 
 
 
 At the end of the tenth day, when Nansi 
 was pitching the last load of hay on to the 
 stack, Jos Gernos came to the close of 
 220
 
 A BUNDLE OF LIFE 
 
 Penlon and he took his pony into a field 
 and said to him : "Go you now, beast 
 bach, and eat a little grass." Having 
 done that he came into the barnyard and 
 censured Nansi severely : 
 
 " Evil Nansi, for what she has not 
 heard about her daughter Leisa ? " 
 
 " Sober, sober, what's this Jos bach 
 Gernos would say to me now ? " 
 
 " Leisa won't wed me ! And did not the 
 old ring cost me a whole yellow sovereign ? 
 As I live ! Go you and ask Peter Shop 
 Watches." 
 
 Nansi, not ceasing in her labour, cried : 
 
 " Silas, do you come and converse with 
 Jos bach Gernos." 
 
 Silas was counting up the irregular lines, 
 each line representing a load of hay, which 
 he had scratched on the door of the stable. 
 
 " Well, Jos Gernos ? " asked Silas. 
 
 " Leisa says she won't come to Gernos." 
 
 " Man, man ! " 
 
 " Iss, the female is wedding Abram 
 221
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 Bowen. Try he to make her sense better, 
 little Silas." 
 
 Thrice Silas spat on the ground, for his 
 mind was grief-stricken. 
 
 " Nansi," he said, " Leisa is going 
 against her father." 
 
 " So Jos Gernos does say." 
 
 " You have been a bad mother to the 
 wench," Silas shouted. ' What for you 
 have not looked after her, you old ram ? " 
 
 Nansi came out of the cart, now that it 
 was empty, and raked together the small 
 hay that lay scattered on the ground, 
 and while she was doing this she said : 
 
 " Silas bach, speak you not harshly to 
 me now. Am I not always out in the 
 fields tending the animals and seeing to 
 the crops ? Your little place needs a lot of 
 watching." 
 
 Silas took his stick, and went out into 
 the high roads groaning. 
 
 He came upon Abram Bowen sitting on 
 a log of wood outside his mother's house ; 
 222
 
 A BUNDLE OF LIFE 
 
 marking up the hymn-tunes for the 
 Sabbath's services, and humming them 
 over. 
 
 " Abram," said Silas, " what's this do 
 I hear about you ? ' 
 
 " Speak on, little Silas." 
 
 " Sure now, you don't speech that 
 Leisa is to wed you ? " 
 
 " Dear me, iss." 
 
 " Don't you be hard of heart, Abram 
 bach," said Silas. " Say you that people 
 are voicing lying stories." 
 
 " Shameful you talk, Silas Penlon," 
 Abram said. " Angry is the Big Man 
 against you." 
 
 " Has she not laid with Jos Gernos ? 
 Has not the boy bought a ring for wed- 
 ding ? " 
 
 Abram Bowen sang : 
 
 " O Silas Penlon, why you are not 
 
 religious ? Is it for you to throw 
 
 stones ? Old male you are, Silas, indeed 
 
 to goodness, and the time is shortly 
 
 223
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 coming for you to be screwed down in 
 your coffin." 
 
 " Abram Bowen," Silas urged, " do 
 you listen to reason now, there's a nice, 
 godly little boy bach." 
 
 " Silas Penlon," answered Abram, " I 
 say unto you, sinner, that you will go down 
 on your knees and thank the Big Man 
 that I came to Penlon. Dear me, there's 
 dirty the place is, man. I will plough 
 your land and sow seeds, and the land 
 will be yellow with corn." 
 
 " In the name of the Big Man," cried 
 Silas, " you shall not come to Penlon," 
 and he was going to hit Abram with his 
 stick. 
 
 Abram stayed Silas's arm, saying: 
 "Where is that stick with you ? " When 
 he had taken the stick away from him, he 
 said : " Wicked you are, man. Pray to 
 the Big Man for a little grace." 
 
 Silas moaned, for he knew that Abram 
 Bowen was a man of nothing, and his tears 
 224
 
 A BUNDLE OF LIFE 
 
 mixed with the tobacco spittle that 
 dribbled from each corner of his mouth 
 and formed curves around his chin, 
 and stained the tannish fringe of hair 
 thereon. 
 
 Leisa wedded Abrarn Bowen, and in a 
 set time she gave birth to a child, whom 
 Abram named Jos, saying : " This is 
 Leisa's bundle of sin." 
 
 Abram made fruitful the starving soil 
 of Penlon ; and he caused a brick flooring 
 to be put in the dairy, and trained Leisa 
 to wash her hands before separating milk 
 and before making butter. 
 
 And as Abram grew in strength and 
 regard, so the spirit of Silas forsook him. 
 His name was derided at wheresoever it 
 was said, and people sneered at him in his 
 presence. None fried carrots nor brewed 
 tea for him any more. He submitted unto 
 the new King. 
 
 Once he said to Bertha Daviss : 
 
 " Dammo, boy of Satan is Abram." 
 Q 225
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 Whereupon Bertha went to Penlon and 
 said to Abram : 
 
 " Terrible indeed to goodness is Silas's 
 tongue about you, little Abram." 
 
 Abram ordered Nansi to give Bertha a 
 pat of butter, and then hurried to the 
 tramping road. He met Silas outside 
 Shop Rhys, and in the eye of the village 
 he thrashed the blasphemy out of him. 
 After that there was no more spirit left 
 in Silas. 
 
 In their day Silas and Nansi had saved 
 eighty sovereigns, and when Abram 
 had spent all that money in improving 
 the land and the outhouses of Penlon, 
 he called up Silas and Nansi before 
 him : 
 
 " Silas and Nansi," he said to them, 
 " have I not been long-suffering with your 
 filthy old ways ? " 
 
 " Iss, indeed, little Abram," replied 
 Nansi, " like the white little Jesus you 
 are to us." 
 
 226
 
 A BUNDLE OF LIFE 
 
 " You stink like an old sow, Nansi," 
 said Abram. 
 
 Nansi whimpered : " Don't you be 
 hard on me." 
 
 " Dear me now," Silas said, " do I not 
 bear your old smell ? ' : 
 
 44 Ach y fi ! " exclaimed Abram. " Move 
 away. You stuff my nose." 
 
 Nansi moved back. 
 
 " Dear, dear," said Abram, " have I not 
 prayed all the night then ? The Big Man 
 say you and Nansi must leave Penlon." 
 
 Nansi breathed : " Abram, little Abram 
 bach, you won't send us off away ? " 
 
 " You are a drag on the place," replied 
 Abram. " Do not all speak about your 
 mudlike ways, then ? Every one got eleven 
 pennies a pound for butter at Castell- 
 ybryn on Friday ; I got only ten pennies 
 and three farthings. People said : ' Who 
 will eat old Nansi's butter ? ' " 
 
 " Give him me a little bed alone in the 
 barn loft, boy bach of God," said Silas. 
 227
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 " Why speak you so foolish ? " said 
 Abram. " Where am I to put the straw 
 and the fowls ? Little, blockhead bach, 
 is your understanding ! But I will not 
 deal harshly with you. You two can live in 
 Old Nanni's cottage. Very happy you'll 
 be there. There's no rent to pay, and 
 you, Silas, can mind my sheep on the 
 
 rnoor." 
 
 " Man, man," cried Silas, " why should 
 I leave Penlon ? Did not my father give 
 it to me ? " 
 
 " Silas, indeed to goodness," said Abram, 
 " for sure you are possessed. Religious 
 Big Man, give you now me strength 
 the strength you gave the little Apostles 
 to cast out the Evil Spirit from old 
 Silas." 
 
 He took in his hand his new carriage 
 whip, and held it as he used to the thresher, 
 and he brought the thong down upon Silas's 
 back, and belly, and arms, and face. 
 
 Nansi made weepful sounds. She 
 228
 
 A BUNDLE OF LIFE 
 
 was very old, and she wept until she 
 could weep no more. 
 
 When Silas's make-believe laughter was 
 turned into yells of pain, Abram his son- 
 in-law said : 
 
 " Get you up, now, Silas the sinner, 
 and ask you the Big Man to forgive you 
 your trespasses." 
 
 Silas and Nansi made ready to depart 
 to the mud-walled, straw-thatched cottage 
 in which the rats had bitten sores into old 
 Nanni's face ; before they set out, Abram 
 brought to them Jos, Leisa's first-born 
 child. 
 
 " Take you this brat of sin with you now, 
 little people," he said, " for he is not of my 
 bowels." 
 
 229
 
 GREATER THAN LOVE 
 
 231
 
 XIII 
 GREATER THAN LOVE 
 
 ESTHER knew the sun had risen because 
 she could number the ripening cheeses 
 arrayed on the floor against the wall. 
 She threw back the shawl and sacks 
 that covered her, and descending by 
 the ladder into the kitchen, withdrew the 
 bolt and opened the door. 
 
 " Goodness all ! Late terrible am I," 
 she said to the young man who entered. 
 " Bring you the cows in a hurry, boy 
 bach." 
 
 " Talk you like that, Esther, when the 
 old animals are in the close." 
 
 Esther knelt on the hearth and lit the 
 dried furze thereon. 
 
 233
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 " The buckets are in the milk-house," 
 she went on. " Boy bach, hie you away 
 off and make a start. Come I will as 
 soon as I am ready." 
 
 The young man shuffled across the floor 
 into the dairy. He came back with two 
 buckets and a wooden tub, and he placed 
 the tub on the ground and sat on its 
 edge. 
 
 " This is the day of the seaside," he 
 said. 
 
 Esther turned her face away from the 
 smoke that ascended from the fire. 
 
 " Indeed, indeed, now, Sam bach ! " 
 she cried, " and you don't say so 
 then ! " 
 
 " Esther fach, vexful the move of your 
 tongue. Say to me whose cart is carting 
 you ? " 
 
 " Who speeched that I was going, Sam 
 the son of Ginni ? " 
 
 " Don't you be laughing, Esther. Tell 
 me now whose cart is carting you." 
 234,
 
 GREATER THAN LOVE 
 
 " Go I would for sure into Morfa, but, 
 dear me, no one will have me," said 
 Esther. 
 
 " What for you cry mischief when 
 there's no mischief to be ? " said 
 Sam. 
 
 Esther tore off pieces of peat and ar- 
 ranged them lightly on the furze. 
 
 " Nice place is Morfa," she observed. 
 
 " Girl fach, iss," Sam said. " Nice will 
 be to go out in Twmmi's boat. Speak 
 you that you will spend the day with 
 
 me." 
 
 " How say Catrin ! Sober serious 1 How 
 will Catrin the daughter of Rachel speak 
 if you don't go with her ? " 
 
 " Mention you Catrin, Esther fach, what 
 for ? " 
 
 " Is there not loud speakings that you 
 have courted Catrin in bed ? Very full is 
 her belly." 
 
 " Esther ! Esther 1 Why you make 
 me savage like an old rabbit ? Why for 
 235
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 play old pranks ? Wench fach, others have 
 been into Catrin. If I die, this is true. 
 Do you believe me now ? >! 
 
 Esther plagued him, saying : 
 
 " Bring me small fairings home, Sam 
 bach. Did I not give you a knife when I 
 went to the Fair of the Month of April ? )! 
 
 Sam took out his knife, and sharpened 
 the blade on the leather of his clog. 
 
 " Grateful was I for the nice knife," he 
 said. " Did I not stick Old Shemmi's pig 
 with it, Esther fach ? " 
 
 "Well well, then?" 
 
 " Look you, there's old murmuring that 
 you were taken in mischief with the 
 Schoolin' in Abram's hen loft," said Sam. 
 
 Esther rose to her feet and looked upon 
 him. This is the manner of man she saw : 
 a short, bent-shouldered, stunted youth ; 
 his face had never been shaved and was 
 covered with tawny hair, and his eyes were 
 sluggish. 
 
 Esther laughed. 
 
 236
 
 GREATER THAN LOVE 
 
 " Boy bach, unfamiliar you are," she 
 said. 
 
 " Mam did say," Sam proceeded, " that 
 I ought not to wed a shiftless female 
 who doesn't take Communion in Capel 
 Sion." 
 
 " Your mother Old Ginni is right," said 
 Esther. " Keep you on with Catrin. Ugly 
 is Catrin with bad pimples in her face. But 
 listen you, Sam ; a large ladi I will be. 
 I don't want louts like you." 
 
 The fire was under way ; Esther rolled 
 up to her waist her outer petticoat and she 
 put on an apron. 
 
 " Why sit you there like a donkey ? " 
 she cried. " Away you and do the milk- 
 ing." 
 
 " Esther fach, come you to Morfa," 
 Sam pleaded. 
 
 " For sure I'm coming to Morfa," 
 Esther answered. " But not with you. 
 Am I not going to find a love there ? " 
 
 Then they went forth into the close to 
 237
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 milk Old Shemmi's cows, and while they 
 did so each chanted : 
 
 'There's a nice cow is Gwen I 
 
 Milk she gives indeed ! 
 More milk, little Gwen ; more milk ! 
 
 A cow fach is Gwen," 
 
 thereby coaxing the animals to give their 
 full yield. 
 
 When the milk was separated Esther 
 put on her Sabbath garments and drew her 
 red hair tightly over her forehead, and she 
 took her place in Shemmi's hay-waggon. 
 There were many in the waggon other 
 than Esther and Sam, for the custom is 
 that the farmer takes his servants and 
 those who have helped him without pay- 
 ment in the hayfield freely on a set day 
 to the Sea of Morfa. 
 
 Shemmi's waggon reached Morfa before 
 
 the dew had lifted, and towards the heat 
 
 of the day (after they had eaten) the 
 
 people of Manteg gathered together. One 
 
 238
 
 GREATER THAN LOVE 
 
 said : " Come you down to the brim now, 
 and let us wash our little bodies." The 
 men bathed nakedly : the women had 
 brought spare petticoats with them, and 
 these they wore when they were in the 
 water. 
 
 Esther changed her behaviour when 
 she got to Morfa, and she feigned herself 
 above all who had come from Manteg, and 
 while she sat alone in the shadow of a cliff 
 there came to her Hws Morris, a young 
 man who was in training to be a minister. 
 Mishtir Morris was elegant : his clothes 
 were black and he had a white collar 
 around his neck and white cuffs at the 
 ends of his sleeves, and on his feet he had 
 brown shoes of canvas. 
 
 Hws Morris took off from his head his 
 black hat, which was of straw, and said 
 to Esther : 
 
 " Sure now, come you from Squire 
 Pryce's household ? You are his daughter 
 indeed ? " 
 
 239
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 " Stranger bach," answered Esther, " say 
 you like that, what for ? " 
 
 " A ladi you seem," said Hws Morris. 
 
 Esther was vain, and she did not per- 
 ceive through the man's artifice. 
 
 " Indeed, indeed, then," said Hws Mor- 
 ris, " speak from where you are." 
 
 " Did you not say I was Squire Pryce's 
 daughter ? " said Esther. 
 
 " Ho, ho, old boy wise is Squire Pryce." 
 
 Esther turned her eyes upon the bathers. 
 Catrin and another woman were knee-deep 
 in the water; between them, their hands 
 linked, Sam. She heard Bertha Daviss 
 crying from the shore : " Don't you wet it, 
 Sam bach." 
 
 Hws Morris placed the tips of his fingers 
 into his ears. 
 
 " This," he mourned, " after two thou- 
 sands years of religion. They need the 
 little Gospel." 
 
 " Very respectable to be a preacher it is," 
 said Esther. 
 
 240
 
 GREATER THAN LOVE 
 
 " And to be a preacher's mistress," said 
 Hws Morris. " Great is the work the Big 
 Man has called me to do." 
 
 A murmuring came from the women 
 on the beach : Sam was struggling in the 
 water. Esther moved a little nearer the 
 sea. 
 
 " Where was you going to, then ? r 
 asked Hws Morris. " You was not going 
 to bathe with them ? ' 
 
 " Why for no ? " 
 
 " See you how immodest they are. Girl 
 fach, stay you here. If you need to wash 
 your body, go you round to the backhead of 
 the old stones and take off your clothes and 
 bathe where no eyes will gaze on you." 
 
 The murmuring now sounded violent : 
 Lloyd the Schoolin' was swimming to- 
 wards Sam. 
 
 Esther passed beyond the stones, and in 
 
 a cave she cast off her clothes and walked 
 
 into the sea ; and having cleansed herself, 
 
 she dried her skin in the heat of the sun. 
 
 H 241
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 When she got out from the cave, Hws 
 Morris came up to her. 
 
 " Hungry you are," he said to her. 
 " Return you into the cave and eat a 
 little of this cake." 
 
 He led her far inside, so far that they 
 could not see anything that was out- 
 side. Hws Morris placed his arm over 
 Esther's shoulders, and his white fingers 
 moved lightly over her breast to her 
 thigh. He stole her heart. 
 
 Esther heard a voice crying her name. 
 
 " Wench fach," said Hws Morris to her, 
 " let none know of our business." 
 
 Sam shouted her name against the 
 rocks and over the sea ; he cried it in the 
 ears of strange people and at the doors 
 of strange houses. Towards dusk he said 
 to the women who were,, waiting for 
 Shemmi's hay waggon to start home : 
 " Little females, why is Esther not here ? ' 
 
 Catrin jeered at him : " Filling her 
 belly is Esther." 
 
 242
 
 GREATER THAN LOVE 
 
 44 But say you've seen Esther fach ! " 
 Sam cried. 
 
 " Twt, twt ! " said Bertha Daviss. 
 44 What's the matter with the boy ? Take 
 him in your arms, Catrin, and take him 
 to your bed." 
 
 " Speak you Esther is not drowned," 
 Sam urged. 
 
 " Drowned ! " Catrin repeated loudly. 
 " Good if the bad concubine is." 
 
 " Evil is the wench," said Bertha Daviss. 
 " Remember how she tried to snare Rhys 
 Shop." 
 
 " Fond little women," Sam cried, 
 " say you that Esther fach is not 
 drowned." 
 
 " Sam, indeed to goodness," Bertha 
 said to him, " trouble not your mind about 
 a harlot." 
 
 44 Now, dear me," answered Sam, 44 fool- 
 ish is your speech, Bertha. How shall 
 I come home without Esther ? " 
 
 " There's Catrin, Sam bach. Owe you 
 243
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 nothing to Catrin ? Is she not in child 
 by you ? " 
 
 Old Shemmi's hay waggon came into 
 the roadway, and Sam said to the man who 
 drove the horse : 
 
 " Male bach nice, don't you begin before 
 Esther comes, and she will be soon. Maybe 
 she's sleeping." 
 
 " In the arms of a man," said Catrin. 
 
 Sam placed his hands around his mouth 
 and shouted Esther's name. 
 
 The people entered the waggon : Sam 
 remained in the road. 
 
 " Find you her, Sam bach ! " Catrin 
 cried. " Ask the Bad Spirit if he has 
 
 seen her." 
 >^ 
 
 Old Shemmi's mare began the way 
 home. 
 
 Sam hastened back to the beach : the 
 tide was coming in, and he walked through 
 the waters, shouting, moaning, and lament- 
 ing. At last he beheld Esther, and an 
 awful wrath was kindled within him. As 
 244
 
 GREATER THAN LOVE 
 
 he had loved her, so he now hated her : he 
 hated even more than he had loved her. 
 He had gone on the highway that ends in 
 Llanon. At a little distance in front of 
 him he saw her with a man, and he crept 
 close to them and he heard their voices. 
 He heard Esther saying : 
 
 "Don't you send me away now. Let 
 me stay with you." 
 
 The man answered : " Shut your throat, 
 you temptress. For why did you flaunt 
 your body before my religious eyes ? " 
 
 " Did you not make fair speeches to 
 me ? " said Esther. 
 
 " Terrible is your sin," said the man. 
 " Turn away from me. Little Big Man 
 bach, forgive me for eating of the wench's 
 fruit." 
 
 Sam came up to them by stealth. 
 
 " Out of your head you must be, boy 
 bach, to make sin with Esther," he said. 
 
 Hws Morris looked into Sam's face, and 
 a horrid fear struck him, and he ran : and 
 245
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 Sam opened his knife and running after 
 him, caught him and killed him. He 
 had difficulty in drawing away the blade, 
 because it had entered into the man's 
 skull. Then he returned to the place 
 where Esther was, and her he killed also. 
 
 246
 
 LAMENTATIONS 
 
 247
 
 XIV 
 LAMENTATIONS 
 
 THE Big Man despised Evan Rhiw, and 
 said to the Respected Davydd Bern- 
 Davydd, who then ruled from Cape! 
 Sion : 
 
 " Bern-Davy dd, oppress Evan Rhiw. 
 Go you off up and down the land now and 
 say to the people : * Lo, you animals in 
 the image of the Big Man, God's blast is 
 on the old male of Rhiw.' ' 
 
 Bern-Davydd descended from the top 
 of the moor and did according as he had 
 been commanded ; and his words got to 
 the ears of Evan, who said : " Why must 
 I be confused, dear me, because of that 
 crow without sense, Bern-Davydd ? Call 
 you reasons to me." 
 249
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 Turning away from the man, the Judge 
 of Sion answered by the mouth of Bertha 
 Daviss (who was the tale-bearer of the 
 district) : " Evan Rhiw, what are your 
 works in Capel Sion ? Did not the Big 
 Man say, ' Bern bach, speak to me the 
 sacrifices of Evan Rhiw for my Terrible 
 Temple.' ' Little Big Man,' I answered, 
 ' the least of my flock gives more 
 than him.' ' Then Bern-Davy dd, by the 
 mouth of Bertha, sang : " Evan Rhiw, 
 swifter is the hand of the Lord than 
 the water which turns Old Daniel's mill. 
 Awful are the fingers that will grasp you 
 by your rib trousers and throw you 
 through the spouting flames into the 
 Fiery Pool." 
 
 Evan did not regard this warning 
 and stiffened his legs, because his sub- 
 stance consisted of fifty acres of land, 
 a horse, three cows, and swine and hens : 
 he was neither perfect nor upright, nor 
 did he fear the men who sat in the high 
 250
 
 LAMENTATIONS 
 
 places in Capel Sion ; and he revelled 
 with loose, wild men in the inn which is 
 kept by Mistress Shames. 
 
 Now the day the Big Man chastened 
 him he drank much ale, and, unaware of 
 what he was doing, he sinned against his 
 daughter Matilda. In the morning he 
 perceived what he had done, and was 
 fearful lest his wife Hannah should revile 
 him and speak aloud his wickedness. So, 
 having laid a cunning snare for her, and 
 finding that the woman did not know any- 
 thing, he spoke to her harshly and with- 
 out cause. This is what he said : 
 "Filthier you are than a cow." 
 " Evan, indeed to goodness," Hannah 
 replied, '* iobish you talk. Sober dear, do 
 I not work to the bone ? J! With a knife 
 she scraped through the refuse on her 
 arm and displayed to him the thinness 
 to which she referred. Then in her anger 
 she spoke : " Slack you are, Evan Rhiw. 
 Your little land you drink in the tavern 
 251
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 of Mistress Shames. Are not the people 
 mouthing your foolish ways on the tramp- 
 ing road and in Shop Rhys ? " 
 
 Matilda entered the kitchen, and threw 
 these words at him : " Dull and whorish 
 you are, son of the Bad Spirit. Serious 
 me, clean your smelly flesh in the pond." 
 
 Hannah interpreted the meaning of 
 Matilda's words, and she reproached him 
 bitterly. 
 
 But Evan answered none of the women. 
 He went to the inn, and in his muddle he 
 sorrowed : " Five over twenty years have 
 I been wedded. When I took Hannah the 
 servant of Bensha to my bed, rich was I. 
 Did I not have six pairs of drawers, and 
 six pairs of stockings, and six pairs of 
 shirts of white linen ? And three pairs of 
 rib trousers ? There's rib, people bach. 
 Ninepence over half a crown a yard it cost 
 in the Shop of the Bridge in Castellybryn. 
 Not a shirt of linen do I possess this day. 
 Wasteful has Hannah been with mine. 
 252
 
 LAMENTATIONS 
 
 Sad is my lot. Disorderly is the female, 
 and Matilda says this and that about me 
 to my discredit." 
 
 He brayed his woe also in the narrow 
 Roman road which takes you past the 
 Schoolhouse and in the path that cuts 
 over Gorse Penparc into the field wherein 
 stands Rhiw. At an early hour in the 
 morning Matilda said to her mother : 
 " Mam now, the cows fach are lowing to 
 be milked," and receiving no answer she 
 looked into Hannah's face and examined 
 her body, and she saw that the woman was 
 cold dead, whereupon she went out and 
 into the stable, in the loft of which Evan 
 slept, and cried up to him : " Father bach, 
 do you stir yourself. Old mam has gone 
 to wear a White Shirt." 
 
 While Sara Ann was clothing herself in 
 mournful raiment Evan put on his clogs 
 and went to the house of Lias the Carpen- 
 ter, and to Lias he said : " The nice man, 
 for why you don't know there is a desolate 
 253
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 place in my heart this one minute ? Come 
 you with your little rule that shows the 
 inches and measure the body of old Hannah 
 for a coffin." 
 
 The second day that Hannah rested in 
 the burial-ground of Capel Sion, Evan 
 rubbed his face and hands with small 
 gravel in the little water which runs at 
 the foot of the close of Rhiw, and he 
 drew a comb through his thinnish beard, 
 and he walked to the house of Bern- 
 Davydd. 
 
 " Respected and religious preacher," 
 he said, " full of repentance am I, son of 
 the little White Jesus." 
 
 " Happy you make me, Evan Rhiw," 
 answered Bern-Davy dd. " Grand will the 
 angels sing, man, in the White Palace, 
 when you take the communion. The 
 wine, Evan, is it not the blood and the 
 bread the flesh of the Big Man ? " 
 
 " Discreet and wise ruler, let me make 
 him a nice little offering." 
 254
 
 LAMENTATIONS 
 
 " Religious proper, you are, Evan. Not 
 to me, man, not to Mistress Bern-Davydd 
 you make your sacrifices, but to the Big 
 Man. I keep your gift in trust for Him. 
 What shall I say is the name of the sacri- 
 fice, Evan bach ? ' 
 
 " This day the wench Sara Ann is churn- 
 ing, and is she not bringing him a pound 
 of little butter ? " 
 
 " Evan Rhiw, there is no sound of such 
 a sacrifice in the Bible." 
 
 " And a tin pitcher full of buttermilk." 
 
 " Did Abram offer the three Strangers 
 buttermilk, Evan ? " 
 
 " And a big cabbage with a white 
 heart." 
 
 "The Children of Israel, Evan bach, 
 ate flesh." 
 
 " And a full wheelbarrow of potatoes." 
 
 " Tarry you awhile," said Bern-Davydd, 
 
 " and I will commune with the Big Man." 
 
 Presently he made utterance : " This is 
 
 what the Great One of Capel Sion says : 
 
 255
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 ' I will abate my oppression of Evan Rhiw 
 if he makes a sacrifice of a pig.' ' 
 
 Evan brought the pig ; and he was ad- 
 mitted into Sion, and for two years he 
 sinned not, and there was much pious joy 
 in his way, and he prospered exceedingly. 
 People said one to another : u Behold now, 
 this man Evan is among the wisest in the 
 Capel. And there's rich he is." More- 
 over he had given over feasting on the 
 Devil's brew with loose, wild men, and his 
 lips constantly moved in silent prayer, and 
 he had respect for those who sat in the 
 high places. 
 
 But as the man's possessions multiplied, 
 his daughter Matilda got dull and became 
 a cumbersome thing on him : and he 
 charged the Big Man foolishly before the 
 congregation of the Seiet. " Why, God 
 bach," he said, " is your foot so heavy on 
 me ? Anf I not religious ? Ask you the 
 Respected Davydd Bern-Davydd. Matilda 
 is strange and amaze'd in her eyes, 
 256
 
 LAMENTATIONS 
 
 and she is set on mischief, and why brawls 
 she loudly about me ? Ach, indeed ! Bad 
 is this for your male son." For this God 
 cursed his belongings : two horses sickened 
 and perished, great rain fell upon his 
 hay, which was ripe to be stacked ; a cow 
 destroyed her calf. The congregation was 
 sore and murmured against him : " Pity 
 now that our hay is rotting because of the 
 bad sin of Evan Rhiw." A body of them 
 wailed to Bern-Davydd. 
 
 " Speech him' to the Great Harvester 
 about this man Evan Rhiw," they 
 said. 
 
 " Children bach," said Bern-Davydd, 
 " run you about and about, and I will go 
 to the top of the old moor and sing this 
 lamentation to Him : ' Now then, why 
 for you see our costly hay ruined ? Is 
 it a light thing that our precious 
 animals starve throughout the hard 
 days ? ' " 
 
 They looked at one another and 
 8 257
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 marvelled at the familiarity between 
 Bern-Davydd and the Big Man. " Sure," 
 they said, " he is as important as 
 God." 
 
 The third day the Judge of Sion com- 
 manded his flock to him, and he said to 
 them : " Boys, boys, glad was the Big 
 Man that I spoke to Him. Do you know 
 what He said ? ' Large thanks, Bern bach. 
 Religious are you to remind me of the sin 
 of Evan Rhiw. The man has a clean heart, 
 and an adder in his house.' ' Big Man, 
 don't you vex me,' I said. ' Whisper you 
 me the name of the adder.' The Big Man 
 said, ' Maltida. Evan may sin again, 
 grievously, but I will restore him to Capel 
 Sion, and I will bless him abundantly, for 
 his freewill offerings to my Temple are 
 generous.' Little boys, He went back to 
 Heaven in a cloud, and the cloud was 
 no bigger than the flat of this old 
 hand." 
 
 The night of the Hiring Fair Evan drank 
 258
 
 LAMENTATIONS 
 
 in the inn, and the ale made him drunk, 
 and he cried a ribald song ; the men with 
 whom he drank mocked him, and they 
 carried him into the stable and laid him 
 in a manger, and covered him with hay ; 
 and in the stall they put a horse, thinking 
 the animal would eat Evan's hair and 
 beard. But the Big Man watched over 
 Evan, and the horse did not eat his 
 beard. 
 
 "What shall we do," said the light 
 men, " to humble him before the con- 
 gregation ? " 
 
 One said : " Let us strip the skin from 
 the horse that perished, which is buried 
 in the narrow field, and we will throw it 
 over his head." 
 
 Thus they did, and Evan went home 
 with the skin of the horse covering the 
 back of him like a mantle. 
 
 His daughter Maltida saw him and was 
 disturbed, and she kept out of his way until 
 he slept. Then she issued forth from her 
 259
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 hiding place, and said to herself : " Jesus 
 bach, if the sons of men wear the habit 
 of horses the daughters of God must 
 go naked." She cast from her body her 
 clothes, and went down the Roman road 
 and into the village. The people closed 
 their doors on her, and for four days she 
 wandered thereabouts nakedly. The men of 
 the neighbourhood laid rabbit traps on the 
 floor of the fields, and one trap caught the 
 foot of Maltida, and she was delivered into 
 Evan's hands. Having clothed her, he 
 took a long rope, the length and thickness 
 that is used to keep a load of hay intact, 
 and one end of the rope he fastened round 
 her right wrist and one end round the left 
 wrist. In this wise he drove her before him, 
 in the manner in which a colt is driven, 
 to the madhouse of the three shires, which 
 is in the town of Carmarthen, and the 
 distance from Manteg to Carmarthen is 
 twenty-four miles. 
 
 After that Evan did not sin any more ; 
 260
 
 LAMENTATIONS 
 
 his belongings increased, and he had ten 
 milching cows and five horses, and he hired 
 a manservant and a maidservant, and he 
 rented twenty-five acres of land over and 
 beyond the land that was his, and his 
 house remained religious as long as he 
 lived. 
 
 261
 
 THE BLAST OF GOD 
 
 263
 
 XV 
 
 THE BLAST OF GOD 
 
 OWEN TYGWYN Tygwyn is the zinc-roofed 
 house that is in a group of trees at the 
 back of Capel Sion was ploughing when 
 his wife Shan came to the break in the 
 hedge, crying : 
 
 " For what you think, little man ? Dai 
 is hanging in the cowhouse. Come you 
 now and see to him." 
 
 Owen ended the furrow and unharnessed 
 the horse, which he led into the stable 
 and fed with hay. Then he unravelled 
 the knot in the rope which had choked 
 the breath of his son Dai. When he was 
 finished and Dai was laid on the floor of 
 the cowhouse, Shan said to him : 
 
 " Eat you your middle-of-the-day 
 265
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 morsel now, before you go back to the old 
 plough." 
 
 Having eaten to his liking of the beaten 
 potatoes and buttermilk, Owen resumed 
 his labour, and while he was labouring he 
 rehearsed a prayer he would make for a 
 male child, and that prayer he said to 
 the Big Husband at the far end of the 
 light. His petition reached the ears of 
 God, and after twenty months it was 
 answered : the cry of the infant woke 
 him, and he got out of bed and lit a tallow 
 candle, and read his Bible, because he was 
 very glad. With the rising of the sun 
 he brought his three cows into the close. 
 
 " Lissi Mari," he said to his daughter, 
 who slept at the foot of the bed, " get 
 you up now, wench fach, and milk the 
 creatures, for things are so-so with Shan. 
 Are not their old udders bursting ? >; 
 
 The child was named Samuel, and in 
 Capel Sion on the Sabbath Owen glorified 
 the Big Man. 
 
 266
 
 THE BLAST OF GOD 
 
 But his words were not pleasing to 
 Joshua Lancoch, who corrected him, 
 saying : 
 
 " An old veil females wear must divide 
 you from the face of the Big Man. In- 
 deed, like lead is my heart for you. Over- 
 vain you are to expect too much from your 
 brat. He is not of the Lord's giving." 
 
 " Sober, Joshua," said Owen, " speak 
 you out, dear me, there's a wise little man." 
 
 " Well-well, now, ill is my stomach to 
 make speech, but Shan is a miscarrying 
 woman, and a miscarrying woman is 
 dung in the nose of the Man of Terror. 
 Two she miscarried before Dai, Owen 
 bach, and Dai hanged himself to the Fiery 
 Pool in the cowhouse. Ach y fi ! Do you 
 be humble, and tempt you the Big Man 
 not overmuch. He is quick to anger." 
 
 Because of this chiding Owen entreated 
 the Lord continually, and he also made 
 sacrifices unto Capel Sion : his possessions 
 got small and he whipped his spirit into 
 
 267
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 humility and subjection, for is it not 
 written that the meek shall inherit the 
 Kingdom ? He sold live stock to pay his 
 rent, and this stock he was never able to 
 replace. After the birth of Samuel Shan 
 miscarried two children, and the price of 
 two pigs provided them with coffins and 
 graves. 
 
 In his bitterness Owen turned to his wife 
 and said : " Pity the Big Man has made 
 you such a spoilful curse." 
 
 Shan spread her hands over her waste- 
 ful breasts, and moaned : 
 
 " Make you not that speech, little Owen. 
 Have you not Samuel ? Did not the Great 
 Husband send him in answer to your 
 prayer ? ' 
 
 " Right true, Shan. Now indeed, pious 
 the boy bach is." 
 
 " Iss-iss. Does he not tongue prayers 
 like a preacher ? And his learning is more 
 than the old Schoolin's." 
 
 " Why you speak stupid for, woman ? 
 268
 
 THE BLAST OF GOD 
 
 That old blockhead of a Schoolin' knows 
 nothing." 
 
 " Grand will be if we send him to the 
 School of Grammar in Castellybryn." 
 
 " Iss, dear me." 
 
 " Holy joy will be to listen to him preach 
 the Word." 
 
 " Sam bach will make every one weep 
 with his eloquence." 
 
 Owen called his son to him. 
 
 " Stand you on an old chair," he said 
 to him, " and say out a small hymn and 
 make a bit of prayer." 
 
 When the lad finished, Owen said : 
 
 " Well done, little boy bach clever. 
 Did I not think I was in Capel Sion ? " 
 
 " Pretty his speech," exclaimed Shan. 
 " Heard you how he sang, ' Be with Thy 
 nice servant bach in the Temple of Sion, 
 prosper his work among the sinful con- 
 gregation' ? ): 
 
 Samuel passed the seventh standard 
 in the School of Lloyd, whereat Owen, 
 269
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 asked in the Seiet to bear testimony, spoke 
 these words : 
 
 " Do you be glad with me that the Big 
 Man has inspired my son Samuel to noise 
 abroad His Word. Has not the Lord 
 been good to me then ? You all know 
 that Shan is a miscarrying woman. Yet, 
 lo, He blesses her iniquity. Mouth you 
 this miracle throughout all the land." 
 
 In due season he went to Castellybryn 
 and said to the Chief Teacher of the 
 School of Grammar : 
 
 " Mishtir bach, make you room for my 
 son Samuel, the child the Big Husband 
 sent in answer to my groanings." 
 
 The day of the Harvest Fair he jour- 
 neyed there again, and he drove before 
 him a cow in calf, and one part of the 
 money he got for the animal he gave to 
 the Chief Teacher, and with the other 
 part he caused to be made for Samuel a 
 preacher's coat, which is of shiny black 
 material. 
 
 270
 
 THE BLAST OF GOD 
 
 Owen and Shan bent their backs and 
 tilled and turned the soil, but they reaped 
 less than they sowed. Lissi Mari became 
 a servant-maid on Abel's farm (which is 
 on the sea side of the moor). Before the 
 term of her hire was over she returned 
 to her father's house. 
 
 " Lissi Mari is carrying her cross," 
 Shan mourned. 
 
 " We will keep this a secret from my 
 son," said Owen. " Very holy must his 
 thoughts be stored." 
 
 Samuel entered College Carmarthen, 
 and Owen sold two sheep so that his son 
 might have clothes that would be for 
 glory and holiness. 
 
 " That's fair, little man," said Shan. 
 " He must be kept presentable," and every 
 Friday she killed a fattened hen and had 
 it sent to the house where he lodged. 
 
 For all that Owen and Shan did, Samuel 
 was grateful, and he said : "In me they 
 will find their stronghold ; " and in the 
 271
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 call of Capel Bethel, in Morfa, he distin- 
 guished the voice of God. 
 
 And Owen said to his wife Shan : 
 
 " The Great Father is repenting of His 
 doings against you, Shan fach." 
 
 " Little man, iss. Iss, little man," she 
 answered gladly. " Joyful am I to see 
 the boy in the pulpit." 
 
 As their souls rejoiced, the weariness 
 which follows heavy toil made their bones 
 stiff. Shan was flat and unlovely, and 
 of the colour of earth. Except on the 
 Sabbath she covered her bosom with many 
 shawls and a discarded waistcoat, and in 
 the wrinkles of her face there was much 
 dirt. 
 
 There was a day when Samuel came to 
 Tygwyn and looked upon the burdens of 
 his father and mother, and he said to them : 
 
 " People bach, leave Tygwyn and go 
 you and abide in the cottage against the 
 back of Shop Rhys. Take you Lissi 
 Mari's baby." 
 
 272
 
 THE BLAST OF GOD 
 
 '* Foolish is your speech," said Shan. 
 " How shall we fend without a little cow 
 and a little pig ? " 
 
 " Am I not of your flesh ? " asked 
 Samuel. 
 
 " Gift of the Big Father, good are you," 
 and the woman shivered in her happiness, 
 and Owen and Shan lifted their feet and 
 took all that was in the house and went to 
 abide in the place appointed by Samuel. 
 
 Three years passed. Lissi Mari was 
 out in the world. Owen was a power in 
 Capel Sion, for the brand was lifted from 
 the face of Shan. 
 
 Then a horrible thing happened : 
 Samuel wrought folly in Capel Bethel, 
 in Morfa, and the sound of it reached 
 the high places of all the Capels. 
 
 Hugh Morgan, a deacon in Bethel, 
 stopped his pony in front of Shop Rhys. 
 
 " Show him me the abode of Owen the 
 Father of Samuel the minister of Bethel," 
 he said to Rhys. 
 
 T 273
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 Rhys asked : " Explain him to me his 
 little errand now, dear stranger." 
 
 " Little man who sells things in a shop, 
 why for will he plead ? Take him me now 
 hasty to the place." 
 
 " Tell him me then at once quickly," 
 sad Rhys. 
 
 " Has he not heard of this infamy ? 
 Man, man, Samuel the son of Satan has 
 hanged his clay." 
 
 " Solemn ! Solemn ! " 
 
 " Was not the nanny-goat the father of 
 Esther's child ? Esther the daughter of 
 Shon of the Boats ? " 
 
 " Speak he like that now ? " 
 
 " Was there not a meeting of First 
 Men the last night, and did I not accuse 
 him ? * You put her big,' I speeched." 
 
 " Talk in that manner then ? " said 
 Rhys of the Shop. " What glory has ever 
 come from a miscarrying woman ? ' 
 
 Rhys Shop and Hugh Morgan went into 
 the house of Owen and Shan. 
 274
 
 THE BLAST OF GOD 
 
 " For shame, man of the bad," said 
 Rhys. " And you too, Shan, the serpent 
 in the Great One's Temple. An old 
 abomination you are then ! There was 
 Dai, and the dead, though not born. 
 And now Samuel." 
 
 " Dear little Rhys, harsh are your 
 words," said Owen. 
 
 Hugh Morgan stood on the threshold. 
 " Dear me, man," he said to Rhys, 
 " there's a talker he is for sure ! Am 
 I not the messenger ? ' Then he turned 
 to Owen and Shan and spoke to them 
 wrathfully : "Is not Samuel the father 
 of Esther's child ? And has he not hanged 
 himself ? " 
 
 " Shame on you, sinners," said Rhys. 
 
 " Fetch you Satan's carcase away this 
 day," said Hugh Morgan. " The smelly 
 clay is lying in my barn. Fetch you the 
 unholy object." 
 
 Owen hired a cart and horse and he 
 placed three sacks and a little straw on 
 275
 
 MY PEOPLE 
 
 the floor of the cart ; and Shan said to 
 him : " Hide you this little patchwork 
 quilt under the sacks and straw, for fear 
 men's eyes will see it and they jeer at 
 you." 
 
 Before departing, Owen said : 
 " Go you and dig a grave and have it 
 ready that we can bury your son this 
 night. Leave space between Dai's and 
 his for my coffin. When the Big Trumpet 
 tones I will rise early and make excuses 
 to the Angel not to be too hard on your 
 sons as they were born of a miscarrying 
 woman." 
 
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