254 THE SOUTH COUNTRY 



nothing; my people never did, that I know. I admire 

 those that do, for I have been in many a country when 

 I was a sailor, but never a one to beat England, let alone 

 the West Country when it's haymaking time." 



He continued to beg with a free conscience, and was 

 always willing to give away all that he had to one in 

 more need. And now chance found him out and gave 

 him ten shillings a week. He rented a cottage in this 

 village, weeded his flower-borders, but let his vegetable- 

 plots turn into poppy-beds. Sometimes he wearied of 

 his monotonous meals ; he would then fast for a day or 

 two, giving his food to the birds and mice, until his hearty 

 appetite returned. . . . 



He did not stay long in the village. He was shy and 

 suspicious of men, and except by the younger children he 

 was not liked. He set out on his travels again, and is still 

 on the road or — unlike most tramps — on the paths and 

 green lanes, the simplest, kindest, and perhaps the wisest 

 of men, indifferent to mobs, to laws, to all of us who 

 are led aside, scattered and confused by hollow goods, 

 one whom the last day of his full life will not find in a 

 whirlpool of affairs, but ready to go— an outcast. 



