“The congregation, zer, expects—­”

“Well-well, I’ve had a glimpse of the better land and with a clear conscience I could go there, only the Great Father has more for me to do here.  A miracle happened to me.  In the thick of my sickness a meetority dropped outside the bedroom.  The mistress fainted slap bang.  ’If this is my summons,’ I said, ‘I am ready.’  A narrow squeak that was.  I will now sit and pray for you one and all.”

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

“I’ve come to start, zer,” he said.

“Why wassn’t you in the chapel yezterday?”

“I wass there, zer.”

“Ho-ho.  For me there are two people in the chapel—­me and Him.”

“Yez, indeed.  Shall I gommence now?”

“Gommence what?”

“My crib what I leave to join up.”

“Things have changed.  There has been a war on, mister.  They are all smart young ladies here now.  And it is not right to sack them and shove them on the streets.”

“But—­”

“Don’t answer back, or I’ll have you chucked from the premizes and locked up.  Much gratitude you show for all I did for the soders.”

“Beg pardon, zer.”

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

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

“You left on your own accord, didn’t you?  I never take back a hand that leave on their own.  Why don’t you be patriotic and rejoin and finish up the Huns?”

Bowed down, the soldier made himself drunk, and the drink enlivened his dismettled heart; and in the evening he stole into the loft which is above the Big Seat of Capel Kingsend, purposing to disturb the praying men with loud curses.

But Llew slept, and while he slept the words of the praying men came through the ceiling like the pieces of a child’s jigsaw puzzle; some floated sluggishly and fell upon the wall and the roof, and some because of their little strength did not reach above the floor; and none went through the roof.  Saint David closed his hands on many, and there was no soundness in them, and they became as though they were nothing.  He formed a bag of the soldier’s handkerchief, and he filled it with the words, but as he drew to the edges they crumbled into less than dust.

He pondered; and he made a sack out of cobwebs, and when the sack could not contain any more words, he wove a lid of cobwebs over the mouth of it.  Jealous that no mishap should befall his treasure, he mounted a low, slow-moving cloud, and folding his wings rode up to the Gate of the Highway.

VIII

JOSEPH’S HOUSE

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