AN OLD MORRIS DANCER 



man had never before been to the Metropolis, 

 special arrangements were made to ensure his 

 safe arrival at his destination, and he had a 

 bodyguard of half a dozen to this end. Somehow 

 or other, however, they managed to get cut off 

 from him, or he from them, on the Underground 

 Railway. When the bodyguard arrived at their 

 destination and reported their loss, there were 

 dire forebodings as to whether the dancer would 

 ever be recovered, in view of the difficulties 

 country-side folk experience when travelling under, 

 what is to them, somewhat unusual conditions. 

 The hon. secretary of the Guild remarked that 

 once she mislaid a deputation of forty-two miners 

 on the same railway, and that many hours elapsed 

 before their whereabouts could be ascertained. 



A search party was, therefore, despatched for 

 Mr. Trafford, and by great good fortune they 

 lighted upon him shortly before 10 p.m., and 

 brought him in triumph to the hall, to the great 

 relief of everybody. Mr. Trafford, whose advent 

 was loudly cheered, did not appear to be any the 

 worse for his experience, which he seemed to 

 regard as the natural consequence of leaving his 

 native village for foreign parts. He was unable 

 to furnish exact information as to the number of 

 times he had completed the circle, but he had, on 

 the whole, enjoyed the journey, though he did 

 not consider the scenery of the Underground equal 

 to that of his native county, being somewhat too 

 monotonous for genuine lovers of the picturesque. 

 Happily, his adventures had not in any way 

 diminished either his ardour or his activity, as 

 was very evident from the way in which he threw 



75 



