Cities and towns -- Growth -- Fiction; Wales -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
Now in whatever other respects Llanyglo may have changed, its air then
was the same air that the Guide Book so justly praises to-day. Minetta
felt the benefit of it at once. During her illness she had had her dark
hair close-cropped; for fear of taking cold, she still wore a red
"pirate" cap, that is, a cone of knitted wool with a bob at the peak
that fell on one side of her head: and for the same reason she wore
black stockings pulled well up over the bamboo-like joints of her bony
knees. She was a slight, dark pixy of a child, on whom so much care had
been expended that she had begun to care for herself and to talk wisely
about draughts and wet feet; and sometimes she consoled herself for the
loss of her hair by repeating her mother's assurance, that it would grow
the more strongly afterwards.
But within a fortnight of the Gardens' settling at Llanyglo there was no
further thought of taking her back home until the cold weather should
come. Her doll's-house and paint-box were sent for. Her health
continued to improve. By and by she was to be found squatted down by the
sand-blown palings, surrounded by the Llanyglo children, keeping a shop,
of which the commodities were shells, pebbles, starfish and the like.
Her dolls and their house were neglected. But the other little girls,
who had seen these wonders once, sometimes lingered wistfully about Mrs.
Garden's door, looking within, and whispering, "There it is,
Gwladys--see, by the cloch----"
Long before the match-boarding of a single room was completed, John
Willie Garden, whom at first his mother had not been able to drive out
of doors, had lost interest in Dafydd Dafis, his sawing, his hammering,
and his songs. He disappeared by the half-day together. It was a holiday
time at the school by the Baptist Chapel, and, with Eesaac Oliver
Gruffydd and other youngsters as his companions, he scrambled among the
rocks at the base of the Trwyn, or climbed the headland itself, or
digged for bait, or went out in the boats, or fished for crabs with
split mussels off the jetty end (he stuffed his catch up underneath his
blue jersey, where the animals crawled about on his friendly and naked
skin). The rainbow curves of the children ceased when he or Minetta
appeared, but they continued as a salute to Mrs. Garden. The weather
continued superb: it rained scarcely at all. The mountains were never
for two hours the same; the sea in the evenings was mother-of-pearl; and
the rising moon seemed to stand up on it, like the lateen of a felucca
of gold.
Mrs. Garden sent to Manchester for her tricycle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account