Welsh Journals

THE SCHOOLMISTRESS OF CERDYN. 487 " Dee-arr no ! I wass down lodging by old Rhys Jones the carpenter. After John married it wass that we came here." " Are those little ones John's children ?" " Yes; only the two he has. Buried his wife two years next Christmas." The schoolmistress expected to see the apron again brought into use at this intelligence, but instead, the old woman began busying herself with her tea things, and seemed for the moment absorbed in her occupation. " Poor little things," said the school¬ mistress, kindly. " So you live with your son and care for them." " Yes, sure," said Mrs. Thomas, engaged at the moment in extracting a cake from the oven. " Yes, sure; and," she added half-defiantly, raising her heated face, " and they're no worse off than they were." Then her eyes falling on the children, and being struck perhaps with the impropriety of discussing their mother's character openly before them, she added,— " Run you out now, Liza Jane, run you out and play." Liza Jane, reluctant to obey, stood hesitating in the corner, and it needed a volley of threats and exhortations in Welsh from the grandmother before she and David John could be persuaded to leave the room. The schoolmistress had some delicacy about inquiring into the reason of Mrs. Thomas' vindication of her motherly care of her grandchildren, but no such feeling restrained the old woman from enlarging upon the character of her daughter-in-law. The children, out of ear-shot, it was plainly a relief to pour her " fore bemoaned moan " into the ears of so sympathetic a listener. It appeared that John, his steady habits and quiet manners notwithstanding, had fallen a victim to the charms of Gwen Davies, a collier's daughter, a handsome wild girl, whose flashing dark eyes and bright curling hair had fascinated the young collier's heart. During the season of courtship, when John and Gwen had taken many a Sunday afternoon stroll together, " keeping company" after the orthodox fashion, Mrs. Thomas had been ignorant of the intimacy. She seldom left the house except to attend chapel, or to execute the necessary household shopping, and being a stranger in the place, with habits differing somewhat from those of her neighbours, gossip did not reach her ears with the rapidity that might be anticipated, judging from the ordinary usages of Cerdyn society. She was there¬ fore somewhat startled when John returned one Sunday evening from his customary walk and abruptly remarked,—" Mother, I'm going to be married." Her feelings were not assuaged on learning who the young woman was whom her son proposed to make his wife. She had some slight acquaintance with Gwen Davies, and held her in no high esteem; on the contrary, had more than once taken upon her to reprove the girl for her giddy ways. For Gwen, who had grown up with the in¬ dependence of parental authority character¬ istic of her mind, resented any form of steady employment, but " took great delight," as her mother expressed it, in tea parties and other social entertainments which abounded in Cerdyn at all seasons of the year. She had, too, a predilection for parading the streets with other com¬ panions, gay and giddy as herself, and was by no means displeased if her appearance attracted the attention of the groups of young colliers who occupied every con¬ venient lounging place, ready, failing other occupation, to take note of a passer-by. To Mrs. Thomas, who had spent most of her life in a Breconshire farm, remote from the temptations of the over populated towns of the mining districts, such conduct was in the highest degree reprehensible. She had had no daughter of her own, but her dealings in former days, when she ruled the farm girls, proved that her " mind framed strictest forms of discipline." On the other hand she was little move 1 by good looks. She would have chosen for her son, if he had trusted her, some steady young woman, with decent habits, good health, and a quiet temper. Instead was suddenly thrust upon her this careless, idle girl, whose rough locks and laughing eyes aroused only disapprobation, whilst the saucy tongue, which answered the old woman's remonstrances with many a smart retort, filled her mind with ominous fore¬ bodings. The girl, too, though bright- coloured and active, had not the look of