Ben came out, and his ardor warmed up on beholding Lissi's broad hips,
scarlet cheeks, white teeth, and full bosoms.

"Not blaming you, girl fach, am I," he said. "My father, journey with
Gwen. Walk will I with Lissi Workhouse."

That afternoon Abel brought a cow in calf into his close; and that night
Ben crossed the mown hayfields to the Vicarage, and he threw a little
gravel at Lissi's window.

* * * * *

The hay was gathered and stacked and thatched, and the corn was cut
down, and to the women who were gleaning his father's oats, Ben said how
that Lissi was in the family way.

"Silence your tone, indeed," cried one, laughing. "No sign have I seen."

"If I died," observed a large woman, "boy bach pretty innocent you are,
Benshamin. Four months have I yet. And not showing much do I."

"No," said another, "the bulk might be only the coil of your apron,
ho-ho."

"Whisper to us," asked the large woman, "who the foxer is. Keep the
news will we."

"Who but the scamp of the Parson?" replied Ben. "What a sow of a hen."

By such means Ben shifted his offense. On being charged by the Parson he
rushed through the roads crying that the enemy of the Big Man had put
unbecoming words on a harlot's tongue. Capel Dissenters believed him.
"He could not act wrongly with a sheep," some said.

So Ben tasted the sapidness and relish of power, and his desires
increased.

"Mortgage Deinol, my father bach," he said to Abel. "Going am I to
London. Heavy shall I be there. None of the dirty English are like me."

"Already have I borrowed for your college. No more do I want to have.
How if I sell a horse?"

"Sell you the horse too, my father bach."

"Done much have I for you," Abel said. "Fairish I must be with your
sisters."

"Why for you cavil like that, father? The money of mam came to Deinol.
Am I not her son?"

Though his daughters, murmured--"We wake at the caw of the crows," they
said, "and weary in the young of the day"--Abel obeyed his son, who
thereupon departed and came to Thornton East to the house of Catherine
Jenkins, a widow woman, with whom he took the appearance of a burning
lover.

Though he preached with a view at many English chapels in London, none
called him. He caused Abel to sell cattle and mortgage Deinol for what
it was worth and to give him all the money he received therefrom; he
swore such hot love for Catherine that the woman pawned her furniture
for his sake.