“Well, we are going to have a change anyhow, for Mr. Knight will bring his people down to the top of the hill next Thursday.”
“Thursday, is it? They have soon got the place ready. Shall you take his offer?”
“And move up there to work? Yes, I think I shall.”
“I shall stay here. Three of us are going shares in a boat or two. It is certain that the folk on Saturday half-holidays and so on will come down here and want some rows on the sea, and we shall make a very good thing of it.”
The distance from the “large house” to the shore was four miles. The hamlet by the sea had only about a dozen houses, and at first Mr. Knight was half inclined to buy them all up, but even a millionaire has to be careful in regard to his expenditure when he attempts such things as Arthur Knight had done, so he left the place alone. The few inhabitants were prepared to give the strangers on the hill top a kind welcome, though, with true Welsh prudence, they would not commit themselves to anything until time had been given to judge the Londoners and see of what stuff they were made.
Mr. Knight chartered a special train for the use of his people, and there was a great crowd at Euston Station to see them off. The poor have many friends, and there were some pathetic leave-takings among them. Wales was “them furren parts” to those who, most of them, had never been five miles away from London. The journey was a great event in their lives, but a pleasant one, too; and this new emigration had much of the novelty and excitement of expectation, with very little of the pain of an emigration of the ordinary kind.
When they had travelled rather more than half way the train stopped at a small station, and the people were told to alight.
“The master has thought of everything. At this place is a substantial meal of sandwiches, bread and butter, and tea and coffee, all at his expense,” they were told.
The born leader of men knew how wearisome the journey might appear to some of the women and children to whom the experience was the most novel, and that when their heads and backs ached, and they got hungry, their courage would begin to ooze away, and they would be half afraid of the new life and regretful of the old; but this break in the journey would cheer and refresh them all, and help them to complete the remaining miles in better condition and spirits. It was but a little thing, perhaps, but it was worth thinking of, and it was like Arthur Knight to have arranged it.
He himself met them at the station, with two or three friends who were already domiciled, and who had each his special part to perform in the new village. First, there was the Rev. James Davies, the minister of the church, who was entering upon his work with as much enthusiasm as Arthur Knight himself; who would be the friend and brother as well as the preacher, and who deeply felt the solemnity of his position, for to him the care of the souls of these people had been given. Next, there was Dr. Armitt, whose duty it would be to keep the community in health, as far as in him lay, who was to administer advice and medicine without charge, and who was to perform the duties of a sanitary inspector, with the right to prevent everything likely to affect the health of the community. There was another important person, Mr. Freeman, the manager of the trade department, at whose handsome store-rooms the people could purchase all necessities of food and clothing, and whose business was to be regulated on co-operative principles. Besides these there were a few men and women helpers who had prepared the homes. By the help of Mr. and Mrs. Hancourt, the Basket Woman, and Fanny Burton, the head of each family had a card with the name or number of his house, for they had been located beforehand so as to prevent confusion on their arrival. It was evening when they arrived, and Mr. Knight had a fire burning and a table spread in every house to give it a home-like appearance; and, full of happy expectations, he awaited the result.