Welsh Cattle 
He always got along comfortably with them; 
only sometimes it annoyed him when “ four or 
five, or aS many as six at a time,”’ would come to 
bargain with him, talking in English as good as 
his own, and then suddenly turning to one another 
to gabble in a tongue he couldn’t understand. 
He felt at a disadvantage then. 
With every herd there were four or five men 
on horseback—often two on one horse. And all 
up the main roads were the known inns—their 
customary places of entertainment—where a 
clever landlady was needed to satisfy these wel- 
come guests, and a clever cook to keep the 
frying-pan going, for their food. Fried liver and 
bacon was a frequent dish with them. 
Of these men one, William Thomas by name, 
had a reputation for shrewdness, even amongst 
his own fellows. He was an owner rather than 
a drover. He would ride three or four days in 
advance of his herd, buying up the feed; or 
sometimes he fell behind, to sell again for some 
other herd a piece of feed his own after all had 
not needed. He made considerable profit, John 
Smith thought. 
Although the commons were turfy, and the 
roads—where touched at all—nowise so hard as 
now, Still the cattle needed to be shod, and kept 
shod, for their long journeys. « ‘‘ Rare fun” this 
furnished, fora boy. One of the drovers carried 
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