Page:My people stories of the peasantry of West Wales.djvu/214

 and though many asked him this and thus, he saw none mocking him to his face.

When he got home Mali was moaning her grief to Bertha Daviss, and Rhys Shop, and Sali the wife of Old Shemmi. “For why does poor Dan bach want to bring home a bad woman from the English?” she said. “Alice Wite. There’s a nasty wench! The cunning serpent to lure away my boy bach. And I dare wager she is as poor as Old Nanni’s rats.”

Rhys Shop opened his lips and made utterance: “Vain are the English women who work in these shops. Did not Tom Hughes, the traveller, say they are all wasteful?”

“And, little Rhys,” Bertha Daviss said, “did he not say they are barren? Sober! Sober!” “Recollect you the female maid who stayed with Wynne the vicar?“ said Sali