Page:My people stories of the peasantry of West Wales.djvu/138



“What do I count what Priscila thinks! Clap your lips, Josh bach.”

“Don’t you say wicked sayings now, Betti fach,” Joshua advised her. “Speech you not that. Be you reasonable, my girl.”

“So that is why you’ve come here?”

Joshua leaned his body against the dresser, and drew his clog from his right foot and removed the dirt that had gathered on the sole between the iron rims; and he closed his mouth so that the projecting birth-tooth in the middle of it clawed his lower lip.

“The Big Man brought my feet here, Betti fach,” he remarked at last. “Listen you to me now. How would you say if I mouthed this to you: ‘Betti the daughter of Essec, this bit of land is very vexatious to you. You don’t get the best from it. Let me, your religious brother Joshua, trim it for you, and come you and live with us in Llanwen.’”