e, "he was born at Bolton, about eighteen months ago--we
have been here only a year."

"Do many English," said I, "marry Welsh wives?"

"A great many," said she. "Plenty of Welsh girls are married to
Englishmen at Bolton."

"Do the Englishmen make good husbands?" said I.

The woman smiled and presently sighed.

"Her husband," said Jones, "is fond of a glass of ale and is often at the
public-house."

"I make no complaint," said the woman, looking somewhat angrily at John
Jones.

"Is your husband a tall bulky man?" said I.

"Just so," said the woman.

"The largest of the two men we saw the other night at the public-house at
Llansanfraid," said I to John Jones.

"I don't know him," said Jones, "though I have heard of him, but I have
no doubt that was he."

I asked the woman how her husband could carry on the trade of a
clog-maker in such a remote place--and also whether he hawked his clogs
about the country.

"We call him a clog-maker," said the woman, "but the truth is that he
merely cuts down the wood and fashions it into squares, these are taken
by an under-master who sends them to the manufacturer at Bolton, who
employs hands, who make them into clogs."

"Some of the English," said Jones, "are so poor that they cannot afford
to buy shoes; a pair of shoes cost ten or twelve shillings, whereas a
pair of clogs only cost two."

"I suppose," said I, "that what you call clogs are wooden shoes."

"Just so," said Jones--"they are principally used in the neighbourhood of
Manchester."

"I have seen them at Huddersfield," said I, "when I was a boy at school
there; of what wood are they made?"

"Of the gwern, or alder tree," said the woman, "of which there is plenty
on both sides of the brook."

John Jones now asked her if she could give him a tamaid of bread; she
said she could, "and some butter with it."

She then went out and presently returned with a loaf and some butter.

"Had you not better wait," said I, "till we get to the inn at
Llansanfraid?"

The woman, however, begged him to eat some bread and butter where he was,
and cutting a plateful, placed it before him, having first offered me
some which I declined.

"But you have nothing to drink with it," said I to him.

"If you please," said the woman, "I will go for a pint of ale to the
public-house at the Pandy, there is better ale there than at the inn at
Llansanfraid. When my husband goes to Llansanfraid he goes less for the
ale than for t