Blair Collection > Rhys Lewis, minister of Bethel

50 RHYS LEWIS.
to it, this latter was a very unpleasant business, because old
Mrs. Tibbet, the ale wife, chid us at a frightful rate, and made
it a point of showing the messenger, each, time, the amount of
the old Soldier's indebtedness, scored up, in cbalk hieroglyphics,
on tbe back of the cellar door. She was a fat old woman, tbe
same size all the way up, was Mrs. Tibbet, with a perpetually
purple face, arising, some people said, from constant protesta-
tion that sbe never as much as touched a drop of intoxicating
drink. The boys cherished a very high regard for her for taking
the same view of the old Soldier's life and character that they did.
I remember well the gusto .with which she used to deliver her
opinion of his failings, whilst pointing to the reckoning on the
cellar door, which he would never, she declared, be able to pay.
I heard Will Bryan once make the remark to her that the old
Soldier had another and much larger reckoning than that,
which, also, he would never be able to pay.
""What!" exclaimed the old woman in great a^arm, "has
he an account anywhere else, then ? "
When Will explained that it was to the great reckoning of the
Day of Judgment he was referring, she cooled down at once,
and said, " ! well, between him and his business as to that.
Every one of us must go to his Answering, and all will have
justice done them. If he pays what he owes me he may take
his chance afterwards."
The servants' most unpleasant duty was that of lighting of the
school-house fire, because they were obliged to hunt for brush-
wood for the purpose, as the hedges round about bore witness.
I remember very well one morning when we were without a
scr.ap of wood to start the fire, Will Bryan asking me, in all
seriousness, if I knew whether the master was in the habit of
taking his wooden leg to bed with him, and could we possibly
manage to steal it ?
" Ah ! " said Will, " what a beautiful blaze it would make."
In fancy, I still see his face brightening with satisfaction at
the bare idea of the thing. Poor old Will ! He never had the
chance of putting his wish into execution.
But as to the advantages of which I spoke. Whilst acting
the servant, one was never asked to as much as look at a book,
and was wholly exempt from punishment, no matter what the