Blair Collection > Rhys Lewis, minister of Bethel

372 RHYS LEWIS.
attended. The gathering that evening was a fairly numerous
one. We •were greeted on our entrance with deafening cheers,
and I sa-w at once that Thomas Hartley's fellow-travellers, be-
tween Corwen and Bala, had been " up to their games again,"
as Williams would say. I had an unpleasant consciousness
that it was not for Thomas personally the cheers were intend-
ed, but for his mighty collar.
Thomas gracefully bowed his acknowledgments, thereby
eliciting another cheer, and then sat down, between Williams
and myself. Williams almost immediately got to his feet, and
said, " Mr. Thomas Bartley, gentlemen, a friend of Mr. Rhys
Lewis's ," but before he could say another word, the
Teacher came in ; and lo, a great silence fell over all.
" D'ye know ? " murmured Thomas in my ear. " There's a
wonderful lot of you, and you are so much alike ; all 'cept that
man with the crooked nose. What is he ? A pupil teacher ? "
Thomas nodded to the Teacher as if he were an old chum.
The nod was courteously responded to, and the Teacher turned
his face away. I noticed the back of his neck flushed crimson,
as if suddenly sunburnt. The work of the class was proceeded
with for about twenty minutes. For the first five, Thomas
looked on curiously and critically, like a man who adjudicates
in a musical competition ; for the next five, he seemed a bit
patronising; during the third, he gave signs of considerable
uneasiness, and said to me, softly : " Will you be much long-
er ?" After that he subsided into his great collar, whence I
feared every moment he would snore. The boys all the time
kept throwing furtive glances at Thomas, Williams and my-
self, and making faces which spoke volumes. I much feared,
I repeat, that Thomas would begin to snore, and possibly it
was the like fear that made the Teacher, at the expiration of
twenty minutes, address us in English to the effect follow-
ing:—
" Perhaps we had better leave ofi" there. Tou see that Mr.
Lewis, with my permission, has brought a friend with him to
the class this evening. This is an unusual thing, and must not
be looked upon as establishing a precedent. But I thought
that Mr. Lewis's friend might give you, as preachers, a word
of advice. Words of wisdom are not to be despised, from what-