Mr. Morgan chuckled. “He won’t have anything to say to me for a month or two, now. Last week after the equinoctial gale--you remember?--the roof of my church had suffered a little, and I was going down to the builder to see about it, when I met Richard Ty’n-y-felin. ‘Good morning, Mr. Morgan,’ he said, ‘wass blow fery hard last night: got slates off your church roof, they tell me?’ “‘Yes,’ I said, ‘I’m on my way to Moses Jenkins to get it mended.’ “He leered at me with horrible malice and cunning: ‘Wass no-a sle-ates off our chapel roof, Mr. Morgan.’ “I leered back at him: ‘D’ye think, Risiard, the Prince of the power of the air would unroof his own chapel?’ And he fled.” “Too bad, too bad,” protested the Rector feebly; for he had laughed with the rest, though all unwillingly. “Too bad for Richard Jones,” murmured David to me. “Well, I am not so bad as Dr. Johnson, whatever,” retorted the Druid. “I was reading last week how Boswell found him throwing snails over his garden wall.” “‘Sir,’ remonstrated Bozzy, ‘that is rather hard on your neighbour.’ “‘Sir,’ replied the Doctor, ‘I believe the dog is a Dissenter.’” The Rector rose from his chair with marked disapproval. “Shall we go into the study?” he said. And we adjourned. FOOTNOTES: [6] Llangastanau: Castanau is the Welsh for chestnuts: I cannot imagine how the parish got its name. I saw no chestnuts, and I ought to know one. CHAPTER V LLANGASTANAU: THE LIBRARY Dissolve frigus ligna super foco Large reponens, atque benignius Deprome quadrimum Sabina, O Thaliarche, merum diota. Horace, _Od._ I. 9. Heap high the logs, and melt the cold, Good Thaliarch; draw the wine we ask, That mellower vintage, four-year old, From out the cellar’d Sabine cask. Conington. I found that the Rector had a quaint custom, a survival of his Common-room days at St. Peter’s. Dinner was in the dining-room; Wine with the eponymous chestnuts was served in the library, and it was an older bin than Horace offered to his guests. We sat in a half-circle before the fire, and each man had a small table in front of him. There was even a mimic railway, copied from the St. Peter’s Common-room, to carry the decanters across the fireplace, under the mantel-shelf. But at the dining-room door my host stopped me, and at the same time signalled to the Druid to stop. With many apologies he explained that the schoolmaster, Mr. Evans, whom I was to inspect next morning, was very anxious to see me just for a moment, if I would oblige the worthy man. Mr. Morgan, who was one of the managers, would accompany me.