Garthowen: A Story of a Welsh Homestead — John Shaqi
Garthowen: A Story of a Welsh HomesteadRaine, Allen
General
Garthowen: A Story of a Welsh Homestead
Raine, Allen
Wales -- Fiction
"Well, I rose and answered her, and drew my old cloak from the peg
there. 'I am coming,' I said, and she glided before me out through the
door and down the path over the moor. I saw her, a faint, white
figure, gliding before me till I reached the Cribserth, and there she
disappeared, but I knew what she wished me to do; and I followed the
path down to the shore, and there was tumult and storm indeed, the air
full of spray, and even in the black night the foaming waves showing
white against the darkness. Out at sea there was a ship in distress,
there was a light on the mast, and we knew by its motion that the poor
ship was sorely tossed and driven. Many people had gathered on the
shore in the darkness. No one had thought of calling me, for here we
are out of the world, Morva; but the spirits come more easily to the
lonely moor than to the busy town. Ebben Owens was there, and little
Ann, and all the servants and the people from the farms beyond the
moor, but no one could help the poor ship in her distress. At last the
light went out, and we knew the waves had swallowed her up, and all
night on the incoming tide came spars and logs and shattered timber,
and many of the drowned sailors. Stiven 'Storrom' was there as usual,
and in the early dawn, when there was just a streak of light in the
angry sky, he shouted out that he had found something, and we all ran
towards him, and there, tied safely to a hencoop, lay a tiny baby, wet
and sodden, but still alive. It was thee, child, so wasn't I right to
call thee Morforwyn?[1] though indeed we soon shortened it to Morva.
When I saw thee I knew at once 'twas thy mother who had come to me
here, and had led me down to the shore, and I begged them to give me
the baby. 'There is a reason,' I said, but I did not tell them what it
was. What was the good, Morva? They would not understand. They would
only jeer at me as they do, and call me Sara ''spridion.'[2] Well, let
them, I am richer than they, oh! ten thousand times, and I would not
change my life here on the lonely moor, and the visions I have here,
for any riches they could offer me."
"No, indeed, and it is a happy home for me, too, though I don't see
your visions; but then you tell me about them, and it teaches me a
great deal. Mother, I think my life is more full of happy thoughts
than most of the girls about here because of your teaching. No, I
don't want to leave here, except, of course, I must live at Garthowen
when Will wants me."
The old woman made no answer, but continued to gaze at the crackling
furze.
"You wish that too, mother?" asked the girl.
"I did, 'merch i, but now I don't know indeed, Morva. Thou must not
marry without love."
"Without love, mother! I have told you many times I love Will with all
my heart."
Sara shook her head with a smile of incredulity.
"It is a dream, child, and thou wilt wake some day. Please God it may
not be too late."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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