Page:My people stories of the peasantry of West Wales.djvu/245

 XIII GREATER THAN LOVE knew the sun had risen because she could number the ripening cheeses arrayed on the floor against the wall. She threw back the shawl and sacks that covered her, and descending by the ladder into the kitchen, withdrew the bolt and opened the door.

“Goodness all! Late terrible am I,” she said to the young man who entered. “Bring you the cows in a hurry, boy bach.” “Talk you like that, Esther, when the old animals are in the close.”

Esther knelt on the hearth and lit the dried furze thereon.