A BOY'S WILL.
As my story concerns not the dead man, but the family he left behind, I
might pass over his burial in silence, had it not been marked by
peculiar customs, few traces of which remain. Mountainous and
inaccessible regions retain their characteristic traits of life and
language long after intercourse has fused together the differing speech
and habits of dwellers on the plains, whether city or suburban.
It was the last watch-night, and neither Ales nor her mistress had been
in bed for a couple of nights, the girl electing to share the widow's
watch beside the closed coffin of her good master, as Rhys would still
have done had his careful mother not forbidden.
But long before the grey mists of morning had risen above the tree-tops,
or lifted off the mountain-side, Rhys was up and astir with them. There
was no leisure for indulgence in grief. There was so much to be done and
cleared away before the mournful business of the day began. There were
flowers to gather to strew upon the coffin-lid, and carry to the grave.
And, if the sheep and cattle out on the hill-side could find pasture for
themselves, the cows and ewes must be milked, the pigs and poultry fed,
or released to feed themselves.
So Rhys and Ales were off betimes, laden with empty pails; bare-legged
Ales brushing the dew from the gorse and heather as she trudged along
with a pitcher balanced on her head, a stool tucked under one arm, a
pail on the other, her knitting, for a wonder, left behind; Rhys, by her
side, swinging a large milking-pail to balance a second stool.
When they returned with laden pails to be emptied into the tall churn,
the fire was aglow, the porridge ready, the younger children up and
dressed in sombre suits, Davy in his first breeches, and all three stiff
and uncomfortable in shoes and stockings, neighbourly Mrs. Griffith and
her young daughter Cate having come upon the scene to set the afflicted
and harassed widow free for the rest of the day.
Owen Griffith was also there, and by the time breakfast was over and a
clearance effected, Mrs. Edwards and Rhys had changed their garments and
assumed the sable hooded-cloaks prescribed for mourners. Then the table
was covered with a clean homespun linen cloth, and re-set with cold
beef, cake, and cheese, for all comers, along with mugs to hold the
customary draught of hot ale and _abelion_, the latter a spiced
decoction of elderberries and herbs, chiefly rosemary, huge pitchers of
which were kept piping hot on the hearth.
Meanwhile, Owen Griffith and a companion had improvised a table of
planks, and a long bench in front of the house, piling up turf and
stones as supports, a proceeding William watched with wondering
interest. He may have puzzled where the mugs and platters came from, and
who would sit at the long boards and consume all the beef, the piles of
cake, and the great cheeses set out in halves, and what the two empty
bowls were for in the middle of each table.
At all events, Jonet wondered, and communicated her perplexity to David,
who in turn referred to Rhys, to be answered curtly, 'Wait and see! I'm
more puzzled to know what do bring Owen Griffith here, ordering about
and as busy as if he was master.'
The mother could have told that a distant cousinship between Griffith
and the deceased sufficed for authority to make all needful arrangements
in the absence of nearer kin, and that she was extremely grateful to him
for his kindness all through the trying time.
Very soon the other children had their questions answered, for guests,
bidden or unsought, came trooping in from valley and mountain near and
far, not by twos and threes only, but by dozens; relatives, friends, and
mere acquaintances, for Edwards was a man held in high esteem. All were
in their Sunday best, yet very few had so much as a bit of crape, a
black kerchief, or a black pair of stockings. Their presence was
supposed a sufficient token of respect.
In succession as they came began, not merely a clatter of subdued voices
discussing the sad accident--which might have overtaken any of them--but
a general distribution and consumption of cheese, cake, and ale
flavoured with the _abelion_, which custom may have rendered palatable,
the simple provisions rapidly disappearing and being replaced as fresh
arrivals brought fresh appetites, sharpened by journeying through the
keen morning air, and eaten in primitive fashion, each man bringing his
own pocket-knife, and converting his bread into a plate to be cut up and
eaten with the meat upon it.
And as the widow could not be reasonably expected to provide for so
numerous and impromptu a party--_cwrw_ being rather an expensive
item--each partaker cast a sixpence or other coin into the bowl
provided, a proceeding at which the younger children expanded their
astonished eyes--all was so strange to them.
Then the crowd, both within and without the house, made way for the
bearers with their heavy burden, and for the black-cloaked widow and her
two eldest orphans to follow.
On account of their tender years, the roughness and distance of the road
to be traversed, it had been decided to leave Jonet and William behind,
in care of Ales.
But silent William had had his wondering eyes and ears open the whole of
the morning; and no sooner did it dawn on his infantile comprehension
that his father was being carried away in the big box, and that his
mother and brothers were going away with it, than he insisted on going
likewise; clung to his mother's skirts, and held fast, neither amenable
to persuasion nor command to release her and remain at home with
obedient Jonet.
No! He saw his mother and brothers in tears, and the bearers slowly
moving away with the coffin in which his father was shut up, and in his
baby-ignorance he concluded some great wrong was being done. He had been
told by Ales that he would never see his father any more, and must have
concluded the others were being taken away also; for when he was carried
into the house by main force, he fought and struggled in Owen Griffith's
strong arms, and cried with dogged persistence, 'Me will go! me shall
go!'
Even when shut up close in the bedroom, he kicked at the door and
screamed, 'Let me out, let me out; I will go!' until, after a while, the
noise ended in a sob and a scuffle, and busy Ales concluded he had
wearied himself out and fallen asleep.
When Ales, some quarter of an hour later, opened the door in compliance
with Jonet's piteous entreaties, the room was deserted, and William
nowhere to be found.
Kicking at the hard door had hurt his toes, in spite of his new shoes,
so he turned round to try his heels. On so doing he discovered that the
small window-hole was wide open. In another minute he was across the
room, scrambling up on to a box lying beneath the narrow aperture in the
thick wall, a look of sudden triumph on his determined round face.
He thrust out his head and beheld a long procession winding in and out
of the rocky and uneven road, a multitude of high-crowned hats, some
atop of women's linen caps, these rising above a medley of red and grey
cloaks, striped petticoats and dark jackets crossed with small shawls,
mingling with men's grey coats and blue ones; but it did not occur to
the child, as it might strike us, that there was any incongruity in
these vari-coloured garments on so solemn an occasion. All to him was
new. He had never seen such a concourse of people before; his sole idea
was that his mother and his brothers were being borne away after his
father, and that he was bound to overtake and bring them back.
The window was not much more than a yard from the ground outside, but it
seemed far to so young a child. However, he managed to clamber up in
some way, and to drop outside on his feet, and, after a sly glance round
to see that the coast was clear, he trotted off as fast as his sturdy
little legs would carry him, and out at a narrow gap in the stone wall,
which did duty for a gateway; and as the descending procession moved but
slowly, and there were occasional stoppages for change of bearers, he
contrived to keep the rear of it in sight.
Ere long his wood-soled shoes and stockings chafed and cramped his feet,
and he sat down on a wayside stone to remove them. When he looked up,
the last hat had disappeared, but, nothing daunted, he set off again at
a run, carrying his shoes and stockings in his hands, and ere long
caught sight of the nodding hats at a turn of the tortuous road.
He had run nearly a mile, and was getting breathless and footsore, but
he went panting forward, with no thought of giving in; but soon he began
to call out for some one to stop, and tears ran coursing down his chubby
cheeks. Still he trotted on for another half mile or so; but the pace
became slower, the tears ran faster, and when the tail of the procession
again disappeared he sobbed aloud, beset with fears.
At this juncture a man leaning over a wall, who had followed the long
train with his eyes, caught sight of the woe-begone child, in its black
frock, limping painfully along, and asked what he was doing there, and
what he was crying for.
The answer was not very coherent or articulate, but the man was sharp as
he was good-natured. In a very short time he was out in the road, with
William Edwards mounted on a sleek ass, following in the wake of the
mourners, who after a short distance on the level began to ascend the
lofty hill on the brow of which, like an eagle on its eyrie, stood
Eglwysilan's[6] ancient church, with the modest vicarage beside it,
isolated from the widely scattered parishioners, and almost inaccessible
in foul or wintry weather.
Local tradition assigned to this time-worn edifice a date coeval with
the apostles. But suppose we allow the apostles to have slept for nearly
three hundred years, and assign to our British St. Helena (or Elian),
the church-founding mother of Constantine, the credit of selecting the
breezy site for a structure to which she stands sponsor, we still
accredit the long-bodied, square-towered, and small-windowed church with
a most venerable antiquity, and solid masonry which might make modern
architects blush for shame.
No sooner were adventurous William's fears of being left behind set at
rest by overtaking the slow pedestrians of the long train, than his
spirits revived. He began to look about him, and to question the kind
cottager, 'What's this?' or, 'What's that?'
Of course he spoke in Welsh, as did all the people. I but render their
language into English for my readers.
From his elevated seat he could overlook low walls, and glancing down
through the autumnal woods on his left, where the red ash-berries shone
temptingly bright against the russet--leaved oak and yellowing beech,
caught glimpses here and there of the shining river that had proved so
treacherously cruel to his poor father. But neither red berries nor
glancing river had such powerful attractions for him as the stupendous
pile whence boomed the tolling bell--the 'church' of which he had heard
so oft, but never seen.
He had gone with his sister and brothers to the wooded glen which
bounded their own farm on the north, there to help, or hinder, the
gathering of ash-berries and acorns; but of human habitations he had
seen nothing hitherto so large as his own home.
He seemed absolutely fascinated by the grey lichen-covered church, and
its low massive square tower, which he took for a huge chimney, and the
nearer they drew to it the greater became his absorption.
Being told, in answer to a query, 'People do go there to say prayers,'
he asked again, 'Why for? We say prayers at home.' But though the man
scratched his tangled red locks, no adequate reply was forthcoming.
At that moment there was a halt at the arched lych-gate. All the men
took off their hats, for the white-robed vicar had come to lead the way
into the church.
The boy, who had no hat to remove, could only look on and listen in
blank astonishment, understanding nothing of the solemn ceremony, but
awed by the mysterious proceedings, and the unfamiliar aspect of the, to
him, vast interior.
It was not until he beheld the coffin lowered into the 'big hole' that
he screamed out, and was not to be pacified, though Owen Griffith stole
gently away from the grave-side and took him in his arms for the second
time that day.
The ceremony was soon over, and nothing heard but the sobbing of the
mourners and the dropping of small coin into the shovel the sexton held
forth for their reception; for thus were the fees of the vicar and
himself paid by general contribution, and not merely by the bereaved
relatives. It was an old custom, seldom better observed than on this
occasion; for of the motley multitude drawn thither to show their esteem
for the dead and their sympathy with his family, two-thirds were wofully
poor, had travelled far, and lost a day's earnings to be there; but few
so poor as to pass the sexton's spade without a tributary coin, however
small. Set it, therefore, to their credit, and also that all were
decently clad, and flaunted no rags, if they had no crape to mourn in.
Custom is its own law, and respect is not shown by the colour of a coat.
But what of the little fellow who had found his way thither, and created
so much consternation by his unseemly interruption?
FOOTNOTE:
[6] Or, Eglwys-elian.