Cities and towns -- Growth -- Fiction; Wales -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
Again John Pritchard's deep voice came in.--"They're very deep ones."
Little Hugh Morgan spoke excitedly.
"Indeed you are right again, John Pritchard! John Williams Porth Neigr,
he say to me it would not surprise him if that Ned Kerr speak Welss so
well as nobody if he wiss!"
A shocked "_Aw-w-w!_" broke out. "And he say in the Court, 'No Welss!'"
"Tut-tut-tut--de-ar me!"
They were silent for a moment, contemplating this duplicity.
"And there iss four of them now," one resumed. "They send into England
for two more."
"We soon have large population," said Howell Gruffydd again....
John Pritchard had sat down on one of the yellow chairs with his knees a
yard apart. His brows seemed knitted.
"But there is noth-thing for them to do here," he said. "No work, no
wages--only building fences."
"Perhaps they have lot of money. Their bacon smell very good, whatever."
"They finiss their breakfast--I heard them wipe the frying-pan out as
plain as if I see it with my eyes!"
Again John Pritchard's heavy voice: "Finiss their breakfast indeed! They
finiss a whole barrel of beer!"
"And it is right what Hugh Morgan says," another struck in. "That Ned
Kerr, he know Wales as well as I know my two hands! I have let-ter from
my cousin Thomas Thomas in Towyn, and he say they buy lot-t of alders up
the Dysynni two years ago of Mr. Llewelyn Jones of Abergynolwyn, and set
up a hut in the 'ood, and make their clog soles, and pay six-pence a
foot for the trees."
"He set up more than a hut at Llanyglo, whatever!"
"Indeed they do no such thing! The Hafod Unos belong to the old days.
There iss no new Hafod Unos I don't know this how many years!"
"All the old things was new things once, Hugh Morgan."
Then, as if all at once they saw anew that house so magically sprung up
out of the sand, there fell a silence. Howell Gruffydd might make his
jests about taking a larger shop and forming a Limited Company, but the
hard fact remained, that aliens had squatted down at Llanyglo while they
had slept, and, by force or process of law, might be difficult to turn
out again. Howell's jocosity subsided; among the children's forms and
benches they took counsel together; and when, at half-past ten, John
Pritchard's eldest lad came in with the news that one of the Kerrs had
departed along the Porth Neigr road, while the other three kept guard
over what they had won, they drew closer together still, and spoke in
low tones of boycott.
Then suddenly somebody asked what Mr. Tudor Williams of Ponteglwys would
say, and the quick little outburst of "Yes, indeed," "Well said," "Mr.
Tudor Williams have some-thing to say," showed how pertinent the
observation was considered. For Mr. Tudor Williams, the Member, would be
able to tell them, if anybody could, whether the Hafod Unos was
countenanced by the Law, and whether the intruders could be served with
notice to quit. His promised visit now took on an added urgency.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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