Blair Collection > Rhys Lewis, minister of Bethel

I^ffYS LEWIS. 179
mother noticed tlie ungodliness taking place in her house.
"When she did, she soon put an end to his pranks.
To my comfort I could not see that his imprisonment had
■wrought any change in Bob's appearance. His face Tvore the
same calm though tfuln ess and determination it always wore,
and there was nothing in his gait to indicate that he had lost a
particle of his independent spirit. Hard labour was no new
thing to him, and this, possibly may account for the fact.
"When mother came to herself, she viewed him over from crown
to sole, and vowed that, like the youths of the captivity, he
looked all the better for his hard fare. She then began an
examination and enquiry. Upon her asking him how it was
he did not come home by the mid-day train, John Powell made
answer : —
"I am to blame for that. I got to learn that the workmen
had determined to make a fuss and an exhibition of Bob, and
knowing he would not like it, I went to meet him. I kept
him back until everybody had gone away to bed. I am sure I
shall catch it for what I've done."
When Bob came to ask the news, I expected one of the first
things mother would tell him was that I had been apprenticed
to Abel Hughes. But I was disappointed, and I am not sorry
for it. The recollection of her words is a great comfort to me
at the present moment, for they show clearly where her
thoughts were domiciled, and what those things were which
brought her heart its greatest joy.
"The best news on earth I have to give you, Bob," she said,
*' is that Thomas and Barbara Bartley have joined our church,
and that there is every reasop to believe them both to have
been really converted."
"And fine fun there was with them," remarked Will.
" Don't you talk of fun in Communion, is best for you," said
mother. " The two were a trifle comical, as you might expect,
Bob ; but, to my mind, the ring of a call was there, plain
enough. And I have been thinking a good deal, my dear boys,"
she added, glancing around at us four, ' ' of those words, * the last
ehall be first.' It would be a hard thing, wouldn't it, if
Thomas and Barbara, for all their ignorance and drollery, were