"What bird is that?" said I.
"Ceiliog y grug, the cock of the heath," replied my guide. "It is
said to be very good eating, but I have never tasted it. The
ceiliog y grug is not food for the like of me. It goes to feed the
rich Saxons in Caer Ludd."
We reached the top of the elevation.
"Yonder," said my guide, pointing to a white bare place a great way
off to the west, "is Bala road."
"Then I will not trouble you to go any further," said I; "I can
find my way thither."
"No, you could not," said my guide; "if you were to make straight
for that place you would perhaps fall down a steep, or sink into a
peat hole up to your middle, or lose your way and never find the
road, for you would soon lose sight of that place. Follow me, and
I will lead you into a part of the road more to the left, and then
you can find your way easily enough to that bare place, and from
thence to Bala." Thereupon he moved in a southerly direction down
the steep and I followed him. In about twenty minutes we came to
the road.
"Now," said my guide, "you are on the road; bear to the right and
you cannot miss the way to Bala."
"How far is it to Bala?" said I.
"About twelve miles," he replied.
I gave him a trifle, asking at the same time if it was sufficient.
"Too much by one-half," he replied; "many, many thanks." He then
shook me by the hand, and accompanied by his dogs departed, not
back over the moor, but in a southerly direction down the road.
Wending my course to the north, I came to the white bare spot which
I had seen from the moor, and which was in fact the top of a
considerable elevation over which the road passed. Here I turned
and looked at the hills I had come across. There they stood,
darkly blue, a rain cloud, like ink, hanging over their summits.
Oh, the wild hills of Wales, the land of old renown and of wonder,
the land of Arthur and Merlin!
The road now lay nearly due west. Rain came on, but it was at my
back, so I expanded my umbrella, flung it over my shoulder and
laughed. Oh, how a man laughs who has a good umbrella when he has
the rain at his back, aye and over his head too, and at all times
when it rains except when the rain is in his face, when the
umbrella is not of much service. Oh, what a good friend to a man
is an umbrella in rain time, and likewise at many other times.
