Page:My people stories of the peasantry of West Wales.djvu/63

 THE WAY OF THE EARTH “Indeed to goodness,” answered Sara Jane, “what is old Bertha doing out so late for? Say she to you that Rhys Shop was with her?”

“Speak you with sense, wench fach,” Beca said to her daughter.

“Is not William Shinkins going to wed me then?” said Sara Jane. “Glad am I to hear that,” said Simon. “Say you to the boy bach: ‘Come you to Penrhos on the Sabbath, little Shinkins.’”

“Large gentleman is he,” said Sara Jane.

“Of course, dear me,” said Simon. “But voice you like that to him.”

The Sabbath came, and people on their way to Capel Sion saw William Jenkins go up the narrow Roman road to Penrhos, and they said one to another: “Close will be the bargaining.” Simon was glad that Sara Jane had found favour in William's eyes: here was a godly man and one of substance; he owned a Shop General,