e knows how much I grieved after thee at
first, but latterly I was beginning to get used to thy absence."

"Well, 'twas quite the contrary with me, now," said Gethin. "At first
I was full of the new scenes and people around me, and I didn't think
much about old Wales or any of you; but as the time went on my heart
seemed to ache more and more for the old home--more and more, more and
more!--till at last I made up my mind I would give up the sea and go
back to Garthowen and stay, if they wanted me there, and help the old
man on the farm. Dost think he will have me?"

"Yes, of course," said Will. "Thou hast come in the nick of time, and
'twill be easier for me to leave home, as I am going to do next month."

"Leave home?" said Gethin, in astonishment.

"Yes," and Will began to expatiate with pride on his new plans, and his
intention of entering Llaniago College at once.

"Diwss anwl!" said Gethin; "have I got to live continually with a
parson? I'm afraid I had better pack up my bundle at once; thee wilt
never have patience with me and my foolish ways."

Will looked sober. "Thy foolish ways! I hope thou hast left them
behind thee."

"Well, truth," said Gethin, "as we grow older our faults and follies
get buried deeper under the surface; but it takes very little to dig
them up with me. I am only a foolish boy in spite of my strong limbs
and tall stature. But so it will always be. You can't make a silk
purse out of a sow's ear, and Gethin Owens will be Gethin Owens always.
There's the dear old place!" he cried suddenly; "there's the elder tree
over the kitchen door! Well, indeed! I have thought of it many times
in distant lands and stormy seas, and here it is now in reality! God
bless the old home!" and he took off his cap and waved it round his
head as he shouted, "Hoi! hoi!" to Ann, who, already apprised of his
coming, was running through the farmyard to meet him.

"Oh, Gethin anwl!" she sobbed, as she clasped her arms round his neck.

Gethin gently loosed her clinging fingers, and kissed the tears from
her eyes, and in her heart welled up again the tender love which had
been smothered and buried for so long.

Gwilym Morris came hurrying down from his "study," a tiny room
partitioned off from the hayloft. And if the fatted calf was not
killed for Gethin's return, a fine goose was, and no happier family sat
down to their midday meal that day in all Wales than the household of
Garthowen.

In the aft