Blair Collection > Rhys Lewis, minister of Bethel

4o6 I?IfYS LEWIS.
asked the gaflfer for a job as a cabby. He laugbed until he
nearly made himself ill, thinking it was only a hobby of mine.
But I stuck to him. In a couple of days one of the men was
laid up with inflammation of the lungs, after being out over
night. I applied for his place until he got well and, in fun,
was given it. As I was crossing the court-yard on the dickey
there were roars of laughter, the master laughing loudest.
But Will was also laughing— in his sleeve— and hoping, I fear,
that the poor man would be long ill, because I was really hard
up. They soon saw that the young swell, as they called me,
could handle a horse with the best of them. I was wonder-
fnlly lucky that day, and the next, and during the week. So I
settled for a wage, master laughing at the way in which he fed
my hobby, he thought.
" Mixing with the cabbies, I am sorry to tell you, I got to
live as they did, and to indulge in the ' everlasting two
penn'orth.' I was not seasoned, as they were, you know ; so,
one day, having taken too much, I pitched on my head off the
dickey. They carried me to bed here, and there I lay for four
days, when the town missionary came to see me and give me a
word of advice. He understood by my speech that I had not
been brought up in China, and took a wonderful interest in me.
He reasoned with me and reckoned on that slate how much a
cabby paid every year for painting his nose red and blue, and
damning his soul into the bargain. It was a goodish sum. I
resolved, before getting out of bed, that no more two penn'orths
should go down Will's red lane again ; and none ever went.
When you remember the kind of fellow I once was you'll
wonder at what I am now going to say. After becoming ' teetot,'
I got to be a regular miser. Once I began to save and ac-
quired a liking for it, I was afraid to spend a penny. The last
thing I used to do every night before going to bed was to
reckon up my money. In a few weeks' time I was the owner
of some pounds, which I kept under my head at night and
carried inside my vest by day, for fear they would be prigged.
I wouldn't put them in the bank for a reason you shall present-
ly know. I lived on bread and butter and tea ; and preferred