A Sovereign Remedy

mething lengthy in Welsh, whereupon the eager, alert little crowd, which had gathered round on

aid Ted i

y with pardonable pride, informed them effusively and charmingly of his past life, his present opinions, told them of his widowed mother with tears in his eyes, of his

, Owen Jones is an excellent workman, indeed." Here he raised hi

om his merchant's shop over the way to help on the general interest,

y shale among the oak woods, and the boys off school this Saturday afternoon, smiled and saluted quasi-military fashion as the two Cruttendens moved off to seek tea i

s needful everywhere--even in the peaceful hamlet of Dinas--prayer for some outpouring of the Spirit this Whitsuntide week. There had been no special manifestation at present, but one might come any moment--the Lord's mercy being nigh to all them that feared Him; let them remember that. So, having said his word in season, he changed his manner, wished them good luck heartily, and thus left them to their own company

, and the problem as to why it had been built so far away from the

l standard--caveat emptor! And in this case, the purchaser being the public--well, we don't think of the public as our neighbour. No! the public i

foreign languages and Wales being a conquered country. I had to drop reason and the Norman inva

orrow in an Intermediate School. I've been in India, and it reminds me awfully of the National Congress. But I like it, though it is fatiguing to any one with a hankering after fact.

, anyhow. Two, four, six, eight, eight belfries to h

bet--'the Macleods must have a boat o' their ain.' Then there

verted. "I say," he remark

g him in a lively conversation, despite his hurry. She was tall, dressed in black that glinted,

o see, "reminds me of last Monday-

himself to be a lower bred man, and the other Edward Cruttenden had a trick of reminding him

devices till tea was over, when h

emarked, "this would be a jolly headquarters spot. That big hill--

gnity of those receding curves of sunshine shown by shadow, w

mithy more--Now, don't!--It isn't the least good fussing--i

ustre jugs. It was a very small, but highly decorated cottage, this of the smith, showing uneducated artistic cravings in many things, in a harmonium, endless

ious of breach of contract, grew abusive in English, till suddenly from above, came a full, high voice

the smith, which resulted in a cheerfu

sat waiting, the feminine voice continued upstairs a conversation which apparently had been

the other girls at choir holiday, and Mervyn will not look at you twice. No, indeed! And it is but one-and-twenty

oice. "Ah! I only want him to look at me.

ent on the first voice, regardless of sentiment. "Put it on, child, and don't be so foolish. What is a pound, a

adder stairs which led up from a corner

k stockings, finally, in a tourbillon of laced silk flouncings, over which it let down a trailing black satin dress, a vision, in

less of wrinkles. The heavy lace yoke with which it was made showed the whiteness of her skin beneath it; a whiteness which held its own against

almost diagnosed as a hat, though it had neither crown nor bri

assed on to a little mirror on the wall, placed the irresponsible creation on her tumultuous yet disciplined waves of hair in the v

e of angry consternation, she flashed r

eople, not like London or Blackborough. This is not Wil

firm in Blackborough gave Ted

how you come to be--you are in

osition. So her dark eyes had full play as she retorted that she was. Second, in fact, in the mantle department--because o

nimal was distinctly fetching. He said some

ith her father, the latter stuck to two hours as his shortest limit for repair. "I sing in chapel when I am on holiday still; my mus

ad spent her eloquence. The girl was fair and pretty, but there was about her that marked lack of personal grip on her surroundings, which is so noticeably a result of eleven years and more of strict Board School life; for Alicia's

ster's brother. He is a very good looking

d the giggle to a titter; after which he left them, feelin

down the village, watching, so he said, for even a shadow of a trout in the deep pool below it, a p

gh shoulders in the sunshine, and away from Miss Myfanwy Jones, who was standing with Alicia Edwards at the gate of her father's neglected cabbage-patc

But the forehead fringe which, after the fashion of young Wales, he wore, was too much for Ted. It looked exactly as if it, also, had been in a curling pin, and feeling

t spurt upwards done, the village lay behind them, look

s clanging, and across the grassy mounds dotted with stones, a tall fig

even Miss Myfanwy Jones will come back to the old churchyard in the end, as her fathers have done, for a pe

?" he

as scathing. 'There was no a drop o' whisky, an' they

a routed army, a stonechat starting from the gorse giving them a momentary thought of game--a thought, no more. And the sunshine mounted with them, chased by the shadow, so that it came upon them b

aid Ned, stretching himself flat on his

ed like a Turk as he knocked out

hundred yards further along the plateau, "from the Llangolley side; seven A.M. till seven P.M. during tourist time, the innkeep

another picket of light stood, broke, fled from the foe to some higher refuge, until the last steadfast post of the "World's Eye" remained alone above a world of shadow. Remained alone, a vantage-ground of clear vision, above the wide cup of amethyst hills in which the flood-tide of the s

of it," said he upon the grass

and across a shaly slope, so holding its own for an instant against a scarp, driven over the ledge! Ned's hand went out to touch it

r beer

t all!" he cried, "fancy findin

nking of the hundred pounds you left over yonder. It really is d----d rot

ish it," assented Ned, "a

o come from below the threshold of the visible world, like the sudden gleams from

d better get down as sharp as we can," he cried hastily, taking his bearings. "I think if we

re hopeless, until after scrambling down an almost precipitous corrie they found th

d Ted, as he satisfied h

hadow and grey water; the grey hills watching the grey water recede from the shores, leaving be

w like these billowy sand-banks were to a drowned woman's clothes. Some god

e his companion's shout. "We ha

at were coming up swiftly with the rising wind; and, more quickly than one woul

there was a lightness, a certain stress of action about his every movemen

ast growing dusk, the sheep sought shelte

ownward path co

"It will be longer, but it will take us down eventually,

e, bringing a perfect deluge with it. They could scarcely see the stones at their feet, except when, with the sudden summer lightning, the whole w

and tumble, and many a laugh, they made way somehow, pausing at length

t!" He spoke joyously, for his pulses were bounding w

ever"--here a brilliant flash gave them the world

ar beneath them, was certainly the bottom, but it was nearer twelve o'clock tha

red it to the next flash of lightning; a long wait in the

nt was settled, however, the next moment by the sudden twinkle of a wandering light quite close on the other side. It stopped dead at their view hal

ngs as boggles! I've told 'ee so a dozen tim

was boggles, fur sure, it might 'a bin a sc

d held aloft. Then it came forward a s

she's gone, and right glad was I to get quit o' her. An impident lass

the flow of wrath, "but we have lost our way

n at once. "Here, Adam, man, take the light an' show the gentle

ottage where the fire had evidently been newly brushed up, a kettle put on, and a few hurri

em a truly pr

and me was just after the hi'fer, sir, she's down calvin', an' they lays like lead on me till it's over, th

ridge locked. Better a hayloft to yourself than some of them cottages. As for supper, they wouldn't get nothin' fit for gentle folk to eat. She could see what she'd got, an' meanwhile Adam'd show them the loft, and bring 'em over pillo

red, was "better to keep a chill off than beer," they duly put out the lantern, with which they had been bidden "to be

passed midnight, and it wunt come now till dawn; but I a

eted bed in the hay, "ought to have be

lute convictio