SARA'S VISION
"Morva, lass," said Ann, "what's the matter to-day? No breakfast;
after thy work at the churn, too?"
"Well, indeed," said Morva, "I drank so much butter milk that I don't
want much breakfast."
"Come, lass," said Ebben Owens, "hard work wants good feeding."
"Well," said Ann, "you are not eating much yourself. Did you sleep
well, father?"
"Yes, of course," said the old man; "I always sleep like a top. Here's
Will; he'll satisfy thee in the eating line, whatever."
"Yes; especially when there's fresh butter and new bread," said Will,
sitting down and cutting a thick slice for himself. "What was the
matter with Tudor last night? He was howling all night. Did you hear
him, father?"
"Not I. 'Twas the moonlight, I suppose. Dogs often howl on a
moonlight night."
"Tudor doesn't," said Ann. "I'm glad I didn't hear him, ach y fi! I
don't like it at all. But where's Gwilym and Gethin? There's late
they are."
At this moment the former entered and took his seat silently at the
table, looking pale and flurried.
"Where can Gethin be?" said Ann again; "not back from the mountain?"
and Magw was sent to the top of the garden to call him, which she did
with such stentorian tones that his name flew backwards and forwards
across the valley, but no Gethin came.
Breakfast over, the big Bible was placed before Ebben Owens as usual,
and all the farm servants assembled for prayers. When they rose from
their knees and the wooden shoes had clattered out of the kitchen,
Gwilym said, as he drew his chair to the table:
"Ann, we must wait a little longer for our furniture. My bag of
sovereigns is gone!"
"Gone?" echoed everyone, and Morva, who was putting away the Bible,
turned white with a deadly fear, which seemed to freeze the blood in
her veins. In the excitement of the moment her change of countenance
escaped the notice of the other members of the family.
"Gone," said Will, "gone where? What do you mean, man? Stolen?"
"Yes, no doubt, for the window and the drawer were open."
"The window?" said Ebben Owens. "Then the thief must have come in that
way."
"And gone out, too, I suppose," said Gwilym.
"Tis that devil, Gryffy Lewis," said Will. "He could easily creep up
from his cottage. You ought not to have told him."
"No, I ought not," said the preacher; "but, indeed, I was so glad of
the money and to find that Tim 'Penlau' was honest after all our
doubts, and Gryffy Lewis seemed as glad as I was."
"The deceitful blackguard!" said Ebben Owens.
"Well, we don't know it was he after all," suggested Gwilym. "Poor
man, we must not blame him till we are certain. I hoped and believed
that he had taken a turn for the better, and this would be a dreadful
blow to me."
"Blow to you!" said Will excitedly. "I'll go to Castell On for a
policeman, and it'll be a blow to Gryffy when he feels the handcuffs on
his wrists."
"No--no," said Gwilym Morris, "that I will never allow." For in his
daily life the preacher carried out his Master's teaching in its
spirit, and forgave unto seventy times seven, and with curious
inconsistency abhorred the relentless anger which on Sundays in the
pulpit he unconsciously ascribed to the God whom he worshipped. "No,
let him have the money, it will bring its own punishment, poor fellow!
I have lived long enough without it, and can do without it still, only
poor Ann won't have mahogany chairs and a shining black sofa in her
parlour--deal must do instead."
"Deal will do very well," said Ann soothingly,
"Well," said Ebben Owens, "you take your trouble like a Christian,
Gwilym."
"Like a Christian!" said Will. "Like a madman I call it! I think you
owe it to everyone in the house, Gwilym, to send for a policeman and
have the matter cleared up."
"It wouldn't do," said Ebben, "to charge Gryffy without any proofs, so
we had better hush it up and say nothing about it before the servants."
"Yes, that is the best plan," said the preacher, "and perhaps in time
and by kindness I can turn Gryffy's mind to repentance and to returning
the money."
"But where's Gethin this morning?" inquired Will. "I hope nothing has
happened to Bowler."
The morning hours slipped by, and yet Gethin did not appear. At dinner
in the farm kitchen there were inquiries and comments, but nobody knew
anything of the absent one.
In the best kitchen the meal was partaken of in silence, a heavy cloud
hung over the household, and terrible doubts clutched at their hearts,
but no one spoke his fears. When, however, the shades of evening were
closing in, and neither on moor nor meadow, in stable nor yard, was
Gethin to be seen, a dreadful certainty fell upon them. It was too
evident that he had disappeared from the haunts of Garthowen. Will
swore under his breath, Gwilym Morris was even more tender than usual
to every member of the family, and Ebben Owens went about the farm with
a hard look on his face, and a red spot on each cheek, but nobody said
anything more about sending for a policeman. Ann cried herself to
sleep that night. Morva went home to her mother, white and dry-eyed,
her mind full of anxious questioning, her heart sinking with sorrow.
Sara held out her wrinkled hand towards her.
"Come, 'merch fâch i, 'tis trouble, I know; but what is it, lass?"
"Oh, mother, 'tis too dreadful to think of! How can such things be?
You say the spirits come and talk to you, they never come to me; ask
them to be kind to me, too, and to take me to themselves, for this
world is too full of cruel thorns!"
Sara's kind eyes filled with tears.
"Oh! that I could bear thy sorrow for thee, my little girl; but it is
one of the thorns of life that we cannot raise the burden of sorrows
from our dear ones and bind it on our own shoulders. God alone can
help thee, my child."
"Mother, do you know what has happened?"
"Yes," said the old woman. "I was quite failing to sleep last night,
so I got up and lighted the fire, and I read a chapter sitting here on
the settle. After I had read, looking I was at the flames and the
sparks that flew upwards, and a vision came before me. I was at
Garthowen in the dark, I saw a figure creeping quietly into a room; it
was a man, but I could not recognise him. He opened a drawer, and took
something out of it, and I did not see anything more. When I awoke the
fire had gone out, and I was very cold, so I went back to bed, and
slept heavily all night, and when I awoke this morning I knew thou
wouldst come to me in sorrow and fright."
"Well, mother, can you gather some comfort from your vision? Oh! tell
me the meaning of it all. What did Gethin want in Gwilym's room?"
"Gethin?" said Sara, in astonishment, "in Gwilym Morris's room!"
"Yes, I saw him; and from there a bag of sovereigns has been stolen.
He has gone away without a word to anyone, and I know they all think
that he has done this dreadful thing? but I will _not_ believe it,
never! never! never!"
"No, it is all dark, but one thing is plain to me and thee, Gethin did
not do this shameful thing. Let me be, child, and perhaps it will all
come before me again, or perhaps Gethin will come back. I know,
whatever, that my message to thee is Gethin is not guilty of this
wickedness."
"Mother, I believe you," said the girl; "and though all the world
should swear it was Gethin, I should know better, for you know, mother.
We only see with our bodily eyes, but your spirit sees. Mother, I know
it--but he is gone! What is the meaning of that; he is gone like the
mist of the morning--like a dream of the night, and he will never
return, and if he did return it could never be anything to me!"
And leaning on the table as she had done once before, her face buried
on her arms, she sobbed unrestrainedly, Sara sitting by her and crying
in sympathy.
All day they discussed the unhappy event.
"Who did it, mother? and why did Gethin go away?"
"I don't know," said the old woman. "I shall never know perhaps who
did it, but I know it was not Gethin."
"Why did I see him, mother? I awoke suddenly and went into the
passage, and there he was. I wish I had slept sounder, for that sight
will always be on my mind. When we came down to breakfast he was gone,
and every one will think he stole the money. Forty sovereigns, mother!
Will he ever come back and clear it up?"
"Some day it will be plain, but now we must be satisfied to know it was
not Gethin."
"No one else will believe us, mother."
"Oh! I am used to that," said the old woman, with a patient smile;
"that makes no difference in God's plans. Thou must pluck up thy
heart, and have courage, child, for there is a long life before thee.
A dark cloud is shading thy path now, but 'twill pass away, and thou
wilt be happy again."
"Never! unless Gethin comes back to clear his name. Oh! 'tis a cold
grey world. Only here with you, mother, is the comfort of love. When
I draw near the cottage I look out for your red mantle, and if I see
it, it sends a warm glow through me."
And so they talked until, as the twilight gathered round them, Morva
said:
"I must go; the cows must be milked. Poor Garthowen is a sad house
to-day! I wish I could comfort them a little, but 'tis all dark."
And as she crossed the moor to the Cribserth, she looked round her, but
found no shred of comfort. The sea, all rough and torn by the high
wind, looked cold and cruel; the brow of the hill, which Gethin's
whistle had so often enlivened, looked bare and uninteresting; the moor
had lost its gorgeous tints; a rock pigeon, endeavouring to reach its
nest, was driven by the wind against a thorn bush.
"Tis pricked and beaten like me," thought the girl, and struggling with
the high wind, she helped the bird with tender fingers to extricate
himself.
When she entered the farmyard Daisy stood waiting, and Morva, knowing
that without her song there would be no milk, began the old refrain,
but her voice broke, and while she sang with trembling lips the tears
ran down her cheeks.
The news of Gethin's absence was soon bruited abroad, and many were the
conjectures as to its cause.
"He seemed so jolly at the cynos," said the farm servants; "who'd have
thought his heart was away with the shipping and the foreign ports?"
"Well, well," said the farmers, "Garthowen will have to do without
Gethin Owens, that's plain; the roving spirit is in him still, and
Ebben Owens will have to look alive, with only Ann and Gwilym Morris to
help him."
"Well, he needn't be so proud, then! Will a clergyman indeed! 'tis at
home at the plough I'd keep him!"
But nobody knew anything of the robbery, which added so much poignancy
to the sorrow at Garthowen. Ebben Owens seemed to take his son's
disappearance much to heart, and to feel his absence more in sorrow
than in anger.
Will grew more and more irritable, so that it was almost a relief when
one day in the following week he took his departure for Llaniago, his
father accompanying him in the car, and returning next day with glowing
accounts of his son's introduction to the world of learning and
collegiate life.
"If you were to see him in his cap and gown!" he said, "oh, there's a
gentleman he looks; in my deed there wasn't one in the whole college so
handsome as our Will! so straight and so tall, and everybody noticing
him."
And so Will was launched on the voyage of clerical life with full sails
and colours flying, while Gethin was allowed to sink into oblivion; his
name was never mentioned, his place knew him no more, and the tide of
life flowed on at Garthowen with the outward monotonous peace and
regularity common to all farm life. Ebben Owens leant more on Gwilym
and Ann, and Twm took his own way more, but further than this there was
no difference in the daily routine of work.
The grey house at Brynseion was nearing completion, but Ann put off her
marriage again and again, and even hinted at the desirability of
breaking off her engagement entirely, unless it could be arranged for
her and her husband to live on at Garthowen, and let the grey house to
somebody else.
"Well!" said Gwilym, "'tis for you and your father to settle that. I
will be happy with you anywhere, Ann, and I see it is impossible for
you to leave the old man while both his sons are away; so do as you
wish, 'merch i, only don't keep me waiting any longer."
And so it was settled, and Ann sat down to indite a letter to Will in
the fine pointed handwriting which she had learnt during her year of
boarding-school at Caer-Madoc, fine and pointed and square, like a row
of gates, with many capitals and no stops. The letter informed her
brother with much formality, "that having known Gwilym Morris for many
years, he and she had now decided to enter upon the matrimonal state.
Our father and mother," she continued, "having been married in Capel
Mair at Castell On, I have a strong wish to be married in the same
place, and Gwilym consents to my wish. We will fix our wedding for
some day after your return from Llaniago at Christmas, as we would like
you to be present as well as my father. Elinor Jones of Betheyron will
be my bridesmaid, and Morva and Gryffy Jones will be the only others at
the wedding."
By return of post Will's answer came, requesting them not to count upon
him, as he might accept the invitation of a friend to spend part of his
vacation with him. "In any case," he added, "it would scarcely look
well for a candidate for Holy Orders in the Church of England to attend
a service in a dissenting chapel."
Gwilym Morris folded the letter slowly, and returned it to Ann without
a word.
"Well, well!" said Ebben Owens, "'tis disappointing, but Will knows
best; no doubt he's right, and thee must find someone else, Ann. I
wish Gethin was here," the old man said, with a sigh.
It was strange, Ann thought, how tenderly and wistfully he longed for
Gethin, once so little cared for; and as the memory of the sinister
event which she believed caused his absence crossed her mind she
coloured with shame.
"Oh, father," she said, clasping her hands. "Poor Gethin! how could I
have him at my wedding? I never thought one of our family could be
dishonest."
"Nor I--nor I, indeed!" said Ebben Owens, shaking his head sorrowfully.
"It is too plain, isn't it?" said Ann, "going away like that--oh! to
think our Gethin was a thief!" and throwing her apron over her face she
burst into a fit of sobbing, a thing so unusual with the placid Ann
that her father and Gwilym both watched her in surprise.
Gwilym took her hand in silence, and the old man, leaning his elbow on
the table and shading his eyes with his hand dropped some bitter tears.
He had looked forward to Will's return with intense longing, had
counted the days that must elapse before that happy hour should arrive
when, great-coated and gloved, he should drive his son over the frosty
roads, and usher him like a conquering hero into the old home. Through
her own tears Ann observed the old man's sorrowful attitude, and
instantly she dried her eyes and ran towards him.
"Father, anwl," she said, in an abandon of love, kneeling down beside
him, and throwing her strong white arm around him, "is it tears I see
dropping down on the table? Well, indeed, there's a foolish daughter
you've got, to cry and mourn, and make her old father cry. Stop those
tears at once, then, naughty boy," she said cheerily, patting the old
man's back; "or I'll cry again, and Gwilym will be afraid to enter such
a showery family."
Her father tried to laugh through his tears, and Ann, casting her
sorrow to the winds, laid herself out with "merry quips and cranks" to
restore him to cheerfulness.
"Now see," she cried, with assumed childish glee, "what a dinner I have
for you! what you've often called 'a dinner for a king' and so it is,
and that king is Ebben Owens of Garthowen!" and she placed before him a
plate of boiled rabbit, adding a slice of the pink, home-cured bacon,
which Gwilym was cutting with a smile of amusement at her playful ruse.
"Now, potatoes and onion sauce, salt, cabbages, knife and fork, and now
the dear old king is going to eat a good dinner."
Ebben Owens laughingly took his knife and fork, and in spite of the
previous tears, the meal was a cheerful one, even Tudor stood up with
his paws on the table with a joyous bark.
Will's letters were the grand excitement of the farm, coming at first
pretty regularly once a week--read aloud by Ann in the best kitchen,
examined carefully by her father lest a word should have escaped the
reader, carried out to farm kitchen or stable or field, and read to the
servants, who listened with gaping admiration.
"There's a scholar he is! Caton pawb! Indeed, Mishteer, there's proud
you must be of him!" And all this was incense to Ebben Owens's heart.