But Llew slept, and while he slept the words of the praying men came
through the ceiling like the pieces of a child's jigsaw puzzle; some
floated sluggishly and fell upon the wall and the roof, and some because
of their little strength did not reach above the floor; and none went
through the roof. Saint David closed his hands on many, and there was no
soundness in them, and they became as though they were nothing. He
formed a bag of the soldier's handkerchief, and he filled it with the
words, but as he drew to the edges they crumbled into less than dust.
He pondered; and he made a sack out of cobwebs, and when the sack could
not contain any more words, he wove a lid of cobwebs over the mouth of
it. Jealous that no mishap should befall his treasure, he mounted a low,
slow-moving cloud, and folding his wings rode up to the Gate of the
Highway.
VIII
JOSEPH'S HOUSE
A woman named Madlen, who lived in Penlan--the crumbling mud walls of
which are in a nook of the narrow lane that rises from the valley of
Bern--was concerned about the future state of her son Joseph. Men who
judged themselves worthy to counsel her gave her such counsels as these:
"Blower bellows for the smith," "Cobblar clox," "Booboo for crows.
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