'I met in a glade a lone little maid,
At the foot of y Wyddfa the white;
Oh, lissom her feet as the mountain hind,
And darker her hair than the night;
Her cheek was like the mountain rose,
But fairer far to see,
As driving along her sheep with a song,
Down from the hills came she.'
[Welsh translation]
'Mi gwrddais gynt a morwynig,
Wrth odreu y Wyddfa wen,
Un ysgafn ei throed fel yr ewig
A gwallt fel y nos ar ei phen;
Ei grudd oedd fel y rhosyn,
Un hardd a gwen ei gwawr;
Yn canu cân, a'i defaid mân,
O'r Wyddfa'n d'od i lawr.'
'What a beautiful world it is!' said she, in a half-whisper, as we
were about to part at the cottage door, for I had refused to leave
her on the sands or even at the garden-gate. 'I should like to live
for ever,' she whispered; 'shouldn't you, Henry?'
'Well, that all depends upon the person I lived with. For instance, I
shouldn't care to live for ever with Widow Shales, the pale-faced
tailoress, nor yet with her humpbacked son, whose hump was such a
constant source of wistful wonder and solicitude to you as a child.'
She gave a merry little laugh of reminiscence. Then she said, 'But you
could live with _me_ for ever, couldn't you, Henry?' plucking a leaf
from the grape-vine on the wall and putting it between her teeth.
'For ever and ever, Winifred.'
'It fills me with wonder,' said she, after a while, 'the thought of
being Henry's wife. It is so delightful and yet so fearful.'
By this I knew she had not forgotten that look of hate on my mother's
face.
She put her hand on the latch and found that the door was now
unlocked.
'But where is the fearful part of it, Winifred?' I said. 'I am not a
cannibal.'
'You ought to marry a great English lady, dear, and I'm only a poor
girl; you seem to forget all about that, you silly fond boy. You
forget I'm only a poor girl--just Winifred,' she continued.
'Just Winifred,' I said, taking her hand and preventing her from
lifting the latch.
'I've lived,' said she, 'in a little cottage like this with my aunt
and Miss Dalrymple and done everything.'
'Everything's a big word, Winifred. What may everything include in
your case?'
'Include!' said Winifred; 'oh, everything, housekeeping and--'
'Housekeeping!' said I. 'Racing the winds with Rhona Boswell and
other Gypsy children up and down Snowdon--that's been _your_
housekeeping.'
'Cooking,' said Winifred, maintaining her point.
'Oh, what a fib, Winifred! These sunburnt fingers may have picked
wild fruits, but they never made a pie in their lives.'
'Never made a pie! I make beautiful pies and things; and when we're
married I'll make your pies--may I, instead of a conceited man-cook?'
'No, Winifred. Never make a pie or do a bit of cooking in _my_ house,
I charge you.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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