Chapter 12 THE BATTLE OF MERTHYR.

"Well, sir, it is, as you say, a long time ago, but it was one of those

things, look you, that a man meets with only once in his lifetime; and

that being so, I might call it all to mind if I began slowly, and went

on so as to keep my pipe alight to the end."

The speaker was a little, white-haired miner, who had been employed for

fift