A woman named Madlen, who lived in Penlan--the crumbling mud walls of
which are in a nook of the narrow lane that rises from the valley of
Bern--was concerned about the future state of her son Joseph. Men who
judged themselves worthy to counsel her gave her such counsels as these:
"Blower bellows for the smith," "Cobblar clox," "Booboo for crows."
Madlen flattered her counselors, though none spoke that which was
pleasing unto her.
"Cobblar clox, ach y fy," she cried to herself. "Wan is the lad bach
with decline. And unbecoming to his Nuncle Essec that he follows low
tasks."
Moreover, people, look you at John Lewis. Study his marble gravestone in
the burial ground of Capel Sion: "His name is John Newton-Lewis; Paris
House, London, his address. From his big shop in Putney, Home they
brought him by railway." Genteel are shops for boys who are consumptive.
Always dry are their coats and feet, and they have white cuffs on their
wrists and chains on their waistcoats. Not blight nor disease nor frost
can ruin their sellings. And every minute their fingers grabble in the
purses of nobles.
So Madlen thought, and having acted in accordance with her design, she
took her son to the other side of Avon Bern, that is to Capel Mount
Moriah, over which Essec her husband's brother lorded; and him she
addressed decorously, as one does address a ruler of the capel.
"Your help I seek," she said.
"Poor is the reward of the Big Preacher's son in this part," Essec
announced. "A lot of atheists they are."
"Not pleading I have not the rent am I," said Madlen. "How if I
prentice Joseph to a shop draper. Has he any odds?"
"Proper that you seek," replied Essec. "Seekers we all are. Sit you. No
room there is for Joseph now I am selling Penlan."
"Like that is the plan of your head?" Madlen murmured, concealing her
dread.
"Seven of pounds of rent is small. Sell at eighty I must."
"Wait for Joseph to prosper. Buy then he will. Buy for your mam you
will, Joseph?"
"Sorry I cannot change my think," Essec declared.
"Hard is my lot; no male have I to ease my burden."
"A weighty responsibility my brother put on me," said Essec. "'Dying
with old decline I am,' the brother mouthed. 'Fruitful is the soil.
Watch Madlen keeps her fruitful.' But I am generous. Eight shall be the
rent. Are you not the wife of my flesh?"
After she had wiped away her tears, "Be kind," said Madlen, "and wisdom
it to Joseph."
"The last evening in the seiet I commanded the congregation to give the
Big Man's photograph a larger hire," said Essec. "A few of my proverbs I
will now spout." He spat his spittle and bundling his beard blew the
residue of his nose therein; and he chanted: "Remember Essec Pugh, whose
right foot is tied into a club knot. Here's the club to kick sinners as
my perished brother tried to kick the Bad Satan from the inside of his
female Madlen with his club of his baston. Some preachers search over
the Word. Some preachers search in the Word. But search under the Word
does preacher Capel Moriah. What's the light I find? A stutterer was
Moses. As the middle of a butter cask were the knees of Paul. A splotch
like a red cabbage leaf was on the cheek of Solomon. By the signs shall
the saints be known. 'Preacher Club Foot, come forward to tell about
Moriah,' the Big Man will say. Mean scamps, remember Essec Pugh, for I
shall remember you the Day of Rising."
It came to be that on a morning in the last month of his thirteenth year
Joseph was bidden to stand at the side of the cow which Madlen was
milking and to give an ear to these commandments: "The serpent is in the
bottom of the glass. The hand on the tavern window is the hand of Satan.
On the Sabbath eve get one penny for two ha'pennies for the plate
collection. Put money in the handkerchief corner. Say to persons you are
a nephew of Respected Essec Pugh and you will have credit. Pick the
white sixpence from the floor and give her to the mishtir; she will have
fallen from his pocket trowis."
Then Joseph turned, and carrying his yellow tin box, he climbed into the
craggy moorland path which takes you to the tramping road. By the pump
of Tavarn Ffos he rested until Shim Carrier came thereby; and while
Shim's horse drank of barley water, Joseph stepped into the wagon; and
at the end of the passage Shim showed him the business of getting a
ticket and that of going into and coming down from a railway carriage.
In that manner did Joseph go to the drapery shop of Rees Jones in
Carmarthen; and at the beginning he was instructed in the keeping and
the selling of such wares as reels of cotton, needles, pins, bootlaces,
mending wool, buttons, and such like--all those things which together
are known as haberdashery. He marked how this and that were done, and in
what sort to fashion his visage and frame his phrases to this or that
woman. His oncoming was rapid. He could measure, cut, and wrap in a
parcel twelve yards of brown or white calico quicker than any one in the
shop, and he understood by rote the folds of linen tablecloths and
bedsheets; and in the town this was said of him: "Shopmen quite
ordinary can sell what a customer wants; Pugh Rees Jones can sell what
nobody wants."
The first year passed happily, and the second year; and in the third
Joseph was stirred to go forward.
"What use to stop here all the life?" he asked himself. "Better to go
off."
He put his belongings in his box and went to Swansea.
"Very busy emporium I am in," were the words he sent to Madlen. "And the
wage is twenty pounds."
Madlen rejoiced at her labor and sang: "Ten acres of land, and a
cow-house with three stalls and a stall for the new calf, and a pigsty,
and a house for my bones and a barn for my hay and straw, and a loft for
my hens: why should men pray for more?" She ambled to Moriah, diverting
passers-by with boastful tales of Joseph, and loosened her imaginings to
the Respected.
"Pounds without number he is earning," she cried. "Rich he'll be.
Swells are youths shop."
"Gifts from the tip of my tongue fell on him," said Essec. "Religious
were my gifts."
"Iss, indeed, the brother of the male husband."
"Now you can afford nine of pounds for the place. Rich he is and richer
he will be. Pounds without number he has."
Madlen made a record of Essec's scheme for Joseph; and she said also:
"Proud I'll be to shout that my son bach bought Penlan."
"Setting aside money am I," Joseph speedily answered.
Again ambition aroused him. "Footling is he that is content with
Zwanssee. Next half-holiday skurshon I'll crib in Cardiff."
Joseph gained his desire, and the chronicle of his doings he sent to his
mother. "Twenty-five, living-in, and spiffs on remnants are the wages,"
he said. "In the flannelette department I am and I have not been fined
once. Lot of English I hear, and we call ladies madam that the wedded
nor the unwedded are insulted. Boys harmless are the eight that sleep by
me. Examine Nuncle of the price of Penlan."
"I will wag my tongue craftily and slowly," Madlen vowed as she crossed
her brother-in-law's threshold.
"I Shire Pembroke land is cheap," she said darkly.
"Look you for a farm there," said Essec. "Pelted with offers am I for
Penlan. Ninety I shall have. Poverty makes me sell very soon."
"As he says."
"Pretty tight is Joseph not to buy her. No care has he for his mam."
"Stiffish are affairs with him, poor dab."
Madlen reported to Joseph that which Essec had said, and she added:
"Awful to leave the land of your father. And auction the cows. Even the
red cow that is a champion for milk. Where shall I go? The House of the
Poor. Horrid that your mam must go to the House of the Poor."
Joseph sat on his bed, writing: "Taken ten pounds from the post I have
which leaves three shillings. Give Nuncle the ten as earnest of my
intention."
Nine years after that day on which he had gone to Carmarthen Joseph said
in his heart: "London shops for experience"; and he caused a frock coat
to be sewn together, and he bought a silk hat and an umbrella, and at
the spring cribbing he walked into a shop in the West End of London,
asking: "Can I see the engager, pleaze?" The engager came to him and
Joseph spoke out: "I have all-round experience. Flannelettes three years
in Niclass, Cardiff, and left on my own accord. Kept the colored dresses
in Tomos, Zwanssee. And served through. Apprentized in Reez Jones
Carmarthen for three years. Refs egzellent. Good ztok-keeper and
appearance."
"Start at nine o'clock Monday morning," the engager replied. "Thirty
pounds a year and spiffs; to live in. You'll be in the laces."
"Fashionable this shop is," Joseph wrote to Madlen, "and I have to be
smart and wear a coat like the preachers, and mustn't take more than
three zwap lines per day or you have the sack. Two white shirts per
week; and the dresses of the showroom young ladies are a treat. Five
pounds enclosed for Nuncle."
"Believe your mam," Madlen answered: "don't throw gravel at the windows
of the old English unless they have the fortunes."
In his zeal for his mother's welfare Joseph was heedless of himself,
eating little of the poor food that was served him, clothing his body
niggardly, and seldom frequenting public bath-houses; his mind spanned
his purpose, choosing the fields he would join to Penlan, counting the
number of cattle that would graze on the land, planning the slate-tiled
house which he would set up.
"Twenty pounds more must I have," he moaned, "for the blaguard Nuncle."
Every day thereafter he stole a little money from his employers and
every night he made peace with God: "Only twenty-five is the wage, and
spiffs don't count because of the fines. Don't you let me be found out,
Big Man bach. Will you strike mam into her grave? And disgrace Respected
Essec Pugh Capel Moriah?"
He did not abate his energies howsoever hard his disease was wasting and
destroying him. The men who lodged in his bedroom grew angry with him.
"How can we sleep with your dam coughing?" they cried. "Why don't you
invest in a second-hand coffin?"
Feared that the women whom he served would complain that the poison of
his sickness was tainting them and that he would be sent away, Joseph
increased his pilferings; where he had stolen a shilling he now stole
two shillings; and when he got five pounds above the sum he needed, he
heaved a deep sigh and said: "Thank you for your favor, God bach. I will
now go home to heal myself."
Madlen took the money to Essec, coming back heavy with grief.
"Hoo-hoo," she whined, "the ninety has bought only the land. Selling the
houses is Essec."
"Wrong there is," said Joseph. "Probe deeply we must."