"Oh, dear, dear! its 'n'wncwl Jos! Oh, dyr anwl, I have laughed till my sides ache."
"Yes, there's a girl she is to laugh," said 'n'wncwl Jos, putting in the stops with his wooden leg, "in spite of those serious brown eyes of hers. Hegh, hegh, hegh! I'll back her for a good laugh against any other girl in Mwntseison." (Stump, stump.) "I was only telling her how I lost my eye long ago, and that's how she takes it! Hegh, hegh! true as I am here. I was in the Bay of Loango, out there in Africa, me sitting on the edge of the ship, The Queen of the South, Captain Lucas, and whew! back I went among the sharks. In a moment an old ghost of a fellow darted after me. 'Here I'm going,' says I to myself, 'safe to Davey Jones' locker, and in a nasty conveyance, too!' (There she is laughing again, look!) The shark stopped a minute just to take a good look at me, when what should I feel but a sharp hook in my eye. I knew at once 'twas the rope and the hook from the ship, and Diwedd anwl![[9]] I'd rather have forty hooks in my eye than be swallowed by that old white ghost. I was reaching the sandy bottom just as the hook caught me, and partly with the pain, and partly with joy, I danced and floundered about ('twas before I lost my leg) and kicked up such a shindy, that I made a thick cloud of sand about me, and the old shark backed a bit, and I tugged the rope, and they pulled me up."
"By the hook in thine eye?" asked Gwen sarcastically, for 'n'wncwl Jos's stories were always taken cum grano salis.
"Diwedd anwl! No! I took that out pretty sharp—hegh! hegh! hegh!—and fastened it in the band of my trousses. 'Fforwel, old boy!' sez I, with my thumb to my nose, though I was nearly losing my breath; and as true as I'm here, the old fellow was offended"—(stump, stump)—"hegh! hegh! hegh!—for he made a spring at me, and snapped at my leg, just as they were pulling me out of the water. If it wasn't for my trousses he'd have had her off! I have thanked the Lord hundred thousand times for those good, strong trousses, so glad I am that the old fellow didn't have the pleasure of his dinner from me! not so much for the worth of the leg (for she often gave me trouble with rheumatics—hegh! hegh!—and she does now, though she's buried safe in Glasgow! True as I'm here she does!), but to spite the old shark! 'Not for the worth of the loaf,' as the woman said, 'but for the roguery of the baker!'—hegh! hegh! hegh!" (Stump, stump, stump.)
"Keep the rest till to-night, 'n'wncwl Jos," said Hugh Morgan, joining in the laugh which followed the story; "I'm coming in to have a pipe with you. How is Mari?"
"Mari!" said the old man, with a strangely softened look on his sunburnt, shining face. "Mari! oh, she's very well, calon fâchl[[10]] she is well, indeed; though, now I remember, she had a headache—there's a brute I am to forget!" and off he stumped in great haste to make up for his forgetfulness.
Gwladys dried her tears of laughter, and applied herself with renewed attention to the huge sail, of which she held one corner, while Gwen sewed at the other.
"'Tis heavy for thee, lass," said Hugh Morgan, drawing near, and rolling a log under the corner which Gwladys was working at.
The girl smiled, but looked a little embarrassed by the Mishteer's kindness.
"Oh, no! no heavier than Gwen's corner, Mishteer, and I am quite as strong."