Meanwhile much talk went on in the hamlet and in the neighbouring villages as to the young Cambridge student, and the fresh crusade against the sin of drunkenness and intemperance which some said he was waging anew during the Christmas season in the parts about Caer Caradoc. It seemed that during a temporary stay in the Lady Rosamond's household, he was wont to go forth as a prophet throughout the country-side, calling people together, with the consent of their clergy, in barns and outhouses, as in the previous spring-time, and testifying with wondrous eloquence against the sin so rife amongst them, and showing forth the virtue of self-control and moderation in the use of all the good gifts of God, as well as pointing out that high path of self-denial for the good of others, which must needs be humbly trodden by many if they would ever see this shameful and terrible evil uprooted from their midst. And some said that he drew, in such beautiful language, pictures of the day when men should return home wise and sober from fair and market--at which noisy gatherings he had likewise often openly addressed the people--and should be greeted by happy, smiling wives and children, finding a happy, holy home to be their lot rather than a brawling hovel of misery, that he had drawn tears from the most hardened eyes, and that some few of the most notorious drinkers had even been known to ride home from the Christmas market without having to be once rescued from the ditch by their companions, which surely pointed to a better state of things, since it was no uncommon sight, late on a busy market-day, to find the men stretched prone in the ditch by the roadside, while their nags cheerfully nibbled the grass which grew around their foolish-looking prostrate forms, not to speak of those who, too intoxicated with strong liquor to ride home in safety, must needs often place themselves, two on the same poor beast, holding one another tightly, and lurching dangerously from side to side, while the second sorry-looking nag came on alone behind, with drooping tail, as though ashamed of its owner. But Primrose, who, although she would have blushed to confess it, would fain have seen this young preacher of novel doctrine face to face, looked for him in vain in the hamlet of Bryn Afon, for neither there nor to the village of Cwmfelin or any other in its immediate neighbourhood did he come at this season, though his fame was noised abroad, and himself the topic of converse at every fireside; by some held up for admiration, by others to ridicule; yet his mission always held to be a high and holy, if withal a fanatical one, and his character to be without reproach.