The man smiled. His own information did not go very far, but he did his best to reach infantile understanding; told him that the clay was a kind of earth dug from the river-side, and that coal grew underground, and was brought up in baskets out of a deep hole by a horse that was always walking round and round to wind them up to the top by a rope that wound round a thick wooden post.[10]
This was a puzzler for William. He wanted to be taken there and then to see the horse go round and round.
Ales, coming at that moment to pay the man, hoping to put a check on the child's new notion, exclaimed—
'Name o' goodness, do you want the black man to carry you away down the dark pit-hole, where you would never see us any more whatever?'
'Me don't fink they 'ood. They don't take man down,' replied the child sturdily; and at length the 'man,' ready to go about his business, promised to take him to see the horse go round 'some day.'
''Oo said 'oo 'ood take me to see church, an' 'oo didn't,' then said William in high dudgeon, and lapsed into sullen silence. In all his long illness he had not forgotten the church he had seen but once.
'Never mind, Willem fach; if you are a good boy, perhaps mother will let you ride with her to church on Breint next Sunday,' said Rhys in a consolatory tone.
'Sure?' asked William, his face brightening.
'Not sure, but I will ask her.' And with that the little fellow seemed satisfied.
The three youngsters were in bed when Rhys made his suggestion over the frugal supper-table. It brought on a sharp controversy, in which Ales joined very freely.