22 LLANDDWYN 



right and left around that bay, waiting for sound or 

 movement of some sort to break the stillness of the 

 scene. But there was no movement save the world- 

 old movement of the sea ; and no sound but the call 

 of sea-birds and the soft seething of the long 

 " combers" on the sand. 



We had set out with the intention to push on 

 straight to Llanddwyn whatever obstacles might 

 present themselves ; we had gone aside to find, as we 

 thought, a speedier way; and now, with all obstacles 

 passed and the goal in view, we said : "The day is 

 hot, but the bay is cool, and the sun has far to go. 

 We have pushed and pulled, and swinked and sweat ; 

 why shall we hurry when no one waits, and the sea 

 and the sun wait here ? " 



No man is bound to enjoy himself from a sense of 

 duty, least of all such as have whiled in the land of the 

 lotus. The land where it is "always afternoon" may 

 be a figment of the fancy, but not a few have been 

 there. For it is a mood rather than a place the mood 

 that impels one to enter fair ways that lead nowhither ; 

 to follow the sunset ; to push on out into the open 

 when one is far from home, and moon and stars hold 

 the midnight sky ; to be the fool of a fancy that has 

 its own folly for reward. 



Looking back upon that time, I see as in a picture 

 mountain and shore and sea, and creatures that 

 should be human where no other human creatures 

 are. Maybe they are of the sea ; for where one 

 rocks outstretched upon the water gurgling about 

 his ears, a flickering Tern hangs for a moment in the 

 empty blue above him, then screams and passes on ; 

 or maybe of the land, if the strange biped peddling 



