They had no teachers, and
they met at the gas-works, sitting opposite the retorts on a
bench supported at each end with bricks. They did not penetrate
far into the mysteries of Welsh shorthand; they soon abandoned
the attempt, and induced the village schoolmaster to open a night
school.
This, however, did not last long. The young Crispin was
returning late one night from Llanrwst in company with a lad of
the same age, and both having heard much of the blessings of
education from a Scotch lady who took a kindly interest in them,
their ambition was inflamed, and they entered into a solemn
compact that they would thenceforward devote themselves body and
soul to the attainment of an academical degree. Yet they were
both poor. One was but a shoemaker's apprentice, while the other
was a pupil teacher earning but a miserable weekly pittance. One
could do the parts of speech; the other could not. One had
struggled with the pans asinorum; the other had never seen it. I
may mention that the young pupil teacher is now a curate in the
Church of England. He is a graduate of Cambridge University and
a prizeman of Clare College. But to return to the little
shoemaker.
"After returning home from Llanrwst, he disburthened his heart to
his mother, and told her that shoemaking, which until now he had
pursued with extraordinary zest, could no longer interest him.
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