Farewell."
I went back the way I had come, till I reached the little hamlet.
Seeing a small public-house, I entered it. A good-looking woman,
who met me in the passage, ushered me into a neat sanded kitchen,
handed me a chair and inquired my commands; I sat down, and told
her to bring me some ale; she brought it, and then seated herself
by a bench close by the door.
"Rather a quiet place this," said I, "I have seen but two faces
since I came over the hill, and yours is one."
"Rather too quiet, sir," said the good woman, "one would wish to
have more visitors."
"I suppose," said I, "people from Llangollen occasionally come to
visit you."
"Sometimes, sir, for curiosity's sake; but very rarely - the way is
very steep."
"Do the Tylwyth Teg ever pay you visits?"
"The Tylwyth Teg, sir?"
"Yes; the fairies. Do they never come to have a dance on the green
sward in this neighbourhood?"
"Very rarely, sir; indeed, I do not know how long it is since they
have been seen."
"You have never seen them?"
"I have not, sir; but I believe there are people living who have."
"Are corpse candles ever seen on the bank of that river?"
"I have never heard of more than one being seen, sir, and that was
at a place where a tinker was drowned a few nights after - there
came down a flood; and the tinker in trying to cross by the usual
ford was drowned."
"And did the candle prognosticate, I mean foreshow his death?"
"It did, sir.
