Cities and towns -- Growth -- Fiction; Wales -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
So when the snail, his journey finished, rested and made the siding at
Sarn and then returned to Porth Neigr again, and Railhead was
dismantled, and grasses began to seed themselves about the upturned
soil, Edward Garden and Raymond Briggs and Tudor Williams, M.P., had
their heads frequently together; and no longer were the short days and
long nights a season of hibernation for Llanyglo. Three years out of
four the Llanyglo winters are mild; this particular winter was not so
inclement that it stopped building-operations for more than a day or two
at a time; and, with a sort of miniature Railhead strung out along the
Porth Neigr road for his labour, Raymond's second house rose steadily
course by course, and already they were draining and digging for the
first hotel. If they were mainly Porth Neigr men Raymond employed, that
did not mean that Dafydd Dafis or any other Llanyglo man who was so
minded would not be taken on; indeed they were taken on; but it did mean
that the centre of gravity of the labour-supply had shifted, and would
never shift back again. Those temporary dwellings along the Porth Neigr
road were a constant reminder that if the Llanyglo men did not like it
they might lump it; and as they did neither, but while disliking it
intensely, bore a hand and took their wages just the same, they appeared
to be sufficiently quelled.
Edward Garden, while making Llanyglo his headquarters, was again much
away. A whisper was started that he was once more treating for land,
but, as no further land appeared to be available, the rumour was derided
as idle. Howell Gruffydd was already converting the two original
matchboarded cottages to his own use. Something Departmental happened
somewhere beyond Llanyglo's ken (probably Mr. Tudor Williams knew all
about it), and the word came that the Post Office was to be transferred
from John Pritchard's to Howell's new shop; and though the Post Office
was on the whole more trouble than it was worth, for a little while
Howell seemed likely to have a quarrel on his hands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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