DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 121 



porters met with a deal of chaff from the would-be 

 funny men. 



'The particularly funny indi\idual of our com- 

 partment dropped his hand of cards at times, face 

 upwards, to be at the carriage \\dndow whence he 

 addressed whoever chanced to be standing near. 



'At Exeter he whistled and beckoned to a porter 

 who, on dra\\ing near, was greeted with : — 



' "Moy eye, you're a good-looking chap by candle- 

 loight. Ow's yer mother?" 



' "Her be all right, I hope, zur." 



' " 'Ope be blowed. Go 'ome and ask 'er." 



'He brought himself back to his cards with a smirk 

 of triumph, and his satisfaction evidently increased 

 when one of the players said to his neighbour, — 



* "Ain't Jaimes all roight? 'E'll knock 'em a bit, 

 I'll lay, afore 'e's done." 



'At Plymouth he ventured at what proved to be 

 higher game in asking a sailor, who held a pillow- 

 like bundle : "Say, Jack, what dy d'ye maike it in 

 these 'ere parts?" and the reply he got put him out 

 a bit, — 



' "Well, it's to-morrow, if that's any help to set 

 your compass by. But you'd better luff a bit; you're 

 too far west already. \\ ith a cargo like yours I should 

 make for Stepney." 



'Our funny man was vulgar then, so vulgar that 

 the sailor made a swing of his kit-bag at our now 

 red-faced man as we left the station. "Jaimes," as 

 his mates called him, seemed even more ruffled by 

 his reception on his hasty retreat from the window 

 than by his encounter with the tar, but it did not 

 prevent his visiting it again at every, stopping-place. 



'We were a little sorry for your Devonians, dad, 

 and their neighbours, that no man, as yet, of either 

 county, unless the sailor v/as a native, had put the 

 noisy man out of countenance, and it was not until 

 we reached St Austell that we found an official 



