Blair Collection > Rhys Lewis, minister of Bethel

^^KS- LEWIS. Ill
with the best intentions of course— while others gave me
pennies. I preferred the last. Will Bryan looked almost
enviously upon my store, but did not ask me for any of
it, as he did on the previous occasion, when I thought he
meant to fee a lawyer to defend Bob. This time he seemed
puzzling himself to know what he should tell me to do with the
money.
" If s a great pity Bob doesn't smoke," he observed. " That
brass of yours would have done nicely to buy him a tobacco-
box."
With his failure to suggest anything else, I had half a mind
to condole. One remark he made I remember well.
"A collier who is taken to jail," he said, "has this advantage,
that they can't give him the county crop. I'll defy 'em to cut
his hair any shorter than it is already."
A great many other observations did WiU let drop, which I
considered at the time to be the essence of wisdom. The crowd
of colliers who had come to meet Bob grew very large. I was
surprised at the absence from their midst of Bob's greatest
friend, John Powell. Yfhile I was thinking what a disappoint-
ment it would be to Bob not to find his old companion there to
welcome him, I heard the train approach. My heart began
beating rapidly ; WiU Bryan made his mouth into a circle and
went imitating the engine. The bell rang, and the train came
in sight at a speed which I thought would make it impossible
to pull up. Pull up, however, it did. With the noise of the
steam which the engine let off, the throwing of coal on the fire,
the banging of boxes upon the platform, the opening and
slamming of doors, the rushing hither and thither of passengers
and other people, and the talk and chatter they made, the place
became one wild scene of noise and confusion. I looked in
every direction for Bob.
"All right," shouted someone, and away went the train
once more.
The coUiers stared at each other with disappointment in their
looks. Will Bryan, running up to me, said, " A mare's nest.
Bob has not come."
My spirit sank within me, and hardly could I control my
feelings. The colliers tried to console me with the assurance