story?"

"Go on, 'machgen i," said Sara, "tell it me all today, and there will
be no need for us ever to have any more talk about it."

"No; that is what I wish," said Gethin. "Well, with my pay in my
pocket, and 500 pounds at my back, I thought I would enjoy myself as
much as I could, and smother the hiraeth[2] that was so strong upon me,
the longing to go home to see Morva, and you, and the moor, Sara; my
father, Ann, and Will, and all of them were dragging sore at my heart,
so I threw myself in with a lot of roystering fellows, who were bent
upon having as many sprees as they could while their money lasted. I
was keeping away from the Welsh sailors entirely, and my friend, Ben
Barlow, and I were having what they call in English a jolly time. We
went together to a low place near the docks, where there was singing
and dancing every night for sailors. I saw many of my old companions
there and amongst them was a girl called Bella Lewis, who used to come
often to see Kitty Jones in Bryn Street. She wasn't a bad sort
altogether, very kind-hearted and merry. She was altered a good deal
since I saw her last, she looked older and thinner, but she was
laughing and dancing as lively as ever. As soon as she caught sight of
me, she came to me, and I think she was real glad to see me, because
she thought I had been kind to her once when she was ill and very poor.

"'Gethin Owens, I do believe,' she says, 'where have you been all this
long time? Kitty Jones will be glad to see you, whatever.'

"I saw the foreign sailor she had been dancing with looking very black
at me, and I began to laugh, and talk, and joke with Bella, just to
plague him, and we danced and drank together, and I soon saw that the