which enters the ocean at the place which the Saxons corruptly
call Barmouth and the Cumry with great propriety Aber Maw, or the
disemboguement of the Maw.

Just as I was about to pursue my journey two boys came up, bound in the
same direction as myself. One was a large boy dressed in a waggoner's
frock, the other was a little fellow in a brown coat and yellowish
trowsers. As we walked along together I entered into conversation with
them. They came from Dinas Mawddwy. The large boy told me that he was
the son of a man who carted mwyn or lead ore, and the little fellow that
he was the son of a shoemaker. The latter was by far the cleverest, and
no wonder, for the son of shoemakers are always clever, which assertion
should anybody doubt I beg him to attend the examinations at Cambridge,
at which he will find that in three cases out of four the senior
wranglers are the sons of shoemakers. From this little chap I got a
great deal of information about Pen Dyn, every part of which he appeared
to have traversed. He told me amongst other things that there was a
castle upon it. Like a true son of a shoemaker, however, he was an arch
rogue. Coming to a small house with a garden attached to it in which
there were apple-trees, he stopped, whilst I went on with the other boy,
and after a minute or two came up running with a couple of apples in his
hand.

"Where did you get those apples?" said I; "I hope you did not steal
them."

He made no reply, but bit one, then making a wry face he flung it away,
and so he served the other. Presently afterwards, coming to a side lane,
the future senior wrangler, for a senior wrangler he is destined to be,
always provided he finds his way to Cambridge, darted down it like an
arrow, and disappeared.

I continued my way with the other lad, occasionally asking him questions
about the mines of Mawddwy. The information, however, which I obtained
from him was next to nothing, for he appeared to be as heavy as the stuff
which his father carted. At length we reached a village forming a kind
of semicircle on a green which looked something like a small English
common. To the east were beautiful green hills; to the west the valley
with the river running through it, beyond which rose other green hills
yet more beautiful than the eastern ones. I asked the lad the name of
the place, but I could not catch what he said, for his answer was merely
an indistinct mumble, and before I could question