Madlen made a record of Essec’s scheme for Joseph; and she said also:  “Proud I’ll be to shout that my son bach bought Penlan.”

“Setting aside money am I,” Joseph speedily answered.

Again ambition aroused him.  “Footling is he that is content with Zwanssee.  Next half-holiday skurshon I’ll crib in Cardiff.”

Joseph gained his desire, and the chronicle of his doings he sent to his mother.  “Twenty-five, living-in, and spiffs on remnants are the wages,” he said.  “In the flannelette department I am and I have not been fined once.  Lot of English I hear, and we call ladies madam that the wedded nor the unwedded are insulted.  Boys harmless are the eight that sleep by me.  Examine Nuncle of the price of Penlan.”

“I will wag my tongue craftily and slowly,” Madlen vowed as she crossed her brother-in-law’s threshold.

“I Shire Pembroke land is cheap,” she said darkly.

“Look you for a farm there,” said Essec.  “Pelted with offers am I for Penlan.  Ninety I shall have.  Poverty makes me sell very soon.”

“As he says.”

“Pretty tight is Joseph not to buy her.  No care has he for his mam.”

“Stiffish are affairs with him, poor dab.”

Madlen reported to Joseph that which Essec had said, and she added:  “Awful to leave the land of your father.  And auction the cows.  Even the red cow that is a champion for milk.  Where shall I go?  The House of the Poor.  Horrid that your mam must go to the House of the Poor.”

Joseph sat on his bed, writing:  “Taken ten pounds from the post I have which leaves three shillings.  Give Nuncle the ten as earnest of my intention.”

Nine years after that day on which he had gone to Carmarthen Joseph said in his heart:  “London shops for experience”; and he caused a frock coat to be sewn together, and he bought a silk hat and an umbrella, and at the spring cribbing he walked into a shop in the West End of London, asking:  “Can I see the engager, pleaze?” The engager came to him and Joseph spoke out:  “I have all-round experience.  Flannelettes three years in Niclass, Cardiff, and left on my own accord.  Kept the colored dresses in Tomos, Zwanssee.  And served through.  Apprentized in Reez Jones Carmarthen for three years.  Refs egzellent.  Good ztok-keeper and appearance.”

“Start at nine o’clock Monday morning,” the engager replied.  “Thirty pounds a year and spiffs; to live in.  You’ll be in the laces.”

“Fashionable this shop is,” Joseph wrote to Madlen, “and I have to be smart and wear a coat like the preachers, and mustn’t take more than three zwap lines per day or you have the sack.  Two white shirts per week; and the dresses of the showroom young ladies are a treat.  Five pounds enclosed for Nuncle.”

“Believe your mam,” Madlen answered:  “don’t throw gravel at the windows of the old English unless they have the fortunes.”

In his zeal for his mother’s welfare Joseph was heedless of himself, eating little of the poor food that was served him, clothing his body niggardly, and seldom frequenting public bath-houses; his mind spanned his purpose, choosing the fields he would join to Penlan, counting the number of cattle that would graze on the land, planning the slate-tiled house which he would set up.