Men in debt and many widow-women sought him to free them,
and in freeing them he made compacts to his advantage. Thus he came to
have more cattle than Rhydwen could hold, and he bought Penlan, the farm
of eighty acres which goes up from Rhydwen to the edge of the moor, and
beyond.
In quiet seasons he and Aben and Dan dug ditches on the land of Rhydwen;
"so that," he said, "my creatures shall not perish of thirst."
Of a sudden a sickness struck him, and in the hush which is sometimes
before death, he summoned to him his sons. "Off away am I to the
Palace," he said.
"Large will be the shout of joy among the angels," Aben told him.
"And much weeping there will be in Sion," said Dan. "Speak you a little
verse for a funeral preach."
"Cease you your babblings, now, indeed," Sheremiah demanded. "Born first
you were, Aben, and you get Rhydwen. And you, Dan, Penlan."
"Father bach," Aben cried, "not right that you leave more to me than
Dan."
"Crow you do like a cuckoo," Dan admonished his brother. "Wise you are,
father. Big already is your giving to me."
Aben looked at the window and he beheld a corpse candle moving outward
through the way of the gate.
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