If there were English books on the subject, he was ignorant, and could not have read them had such been laid before him.
He was not given to waste his time in unprofitable regrets.
Before any one else was astir he was on the road northward to Merthyr Tydvil, bent on examining the process of iron-smelting as there carried on. The name of John Morris procured him ready admission to the works. But, although they had been in existence for a couple of centuries, and the ancient forests had been denuded of their giant oaks to supply their furnaces, they had as yet no furnace that would fuse the ore with coal alone, and the oak trees were growing scarce.
William came away shaking his head, and muttering as he strode along: 'Sure, if those be their smelting furnaces, there do be one as good at the Castle. They do be wanting a stronger blast if they employ coal. It will be a job to construct furnaces that will burn the stone-coal Mr. Morris be saying gives such great heat with neither flame nor smoke. But I'm bound to have a try what I can be doing. Sure, I'm not willing to give in without a try, look you!'
And in this frame of mind he returned home to make calculations and sketches, and to think out the matter, walking to and fro in front of the house, with his head bent down and his hands behind him.
'Idling,' his mother called it. Rhys had grown wiser.
''Deed, mother, Willem do be having his "thinks." Best be leaving him alone.'
'But he do not even be knitting, look you!'
'Never mind, mother fach; he do be "studdying," as he do call it. We work with our hands; Willem do work with his head—yes, yes.'
The following day he was away again, much to his mother's discomfort, as his silent and wandering mood had always been.