266 THE SOUTH COUNTRY 



Early in the morning the beggars begin to arrive, the 

 lame and the bh'nd, with or without a musical instrument. 

 King of them all certainly is he with no legs at all and 

 seeming not to need them, so active is he on a four- 

 wheeled plank which suspends him only a foot above the 

 ground. Many a strong man earns less money. The 

 children envy him as he moves along, a wheeled animal, 

 weather-beaten, white-haired, white-bearded, with neat 

 black hat and white slop, a living toy, but with a deep 

 voice, a concertina and a tin full of pence and halfpence. 



These unashamed curiosities line the chief approaches 

 down which every one is going to the fair except a few 

 shabby fellows who offer blue sheets full of music-hall 

 ballads to the multitude and, with a whisper, indecent 

 songs to the select. Another not less energetic, but stout 

 and condescending, yellow-bearded, in a high hard felt 

 hat, gives away tracts. The sound of a hymn from one 

 organ mingles with the sound of " Put me among the 

 girls " from another and the rattle of the legless man's 

 offertory-tin. 



The main part of the fair consists of a double row, a 

 grove, of tents and booths, roundabouts, caravans, traps 

 and tethered ponies. A crowd of dark-clad women goes 

 up and down between the rows : there is a sound of 

 machine-made music, of firing at targets, of shouts and 

 neighs and brays and the hoot of engines. Here at the 

 entrance to the grove is a group of yellow vans; some 

 children playing among the shafts and wheels and musing 

 horses; and a gypsy woman on a stool, her head on one 

 side, combing her black hair and talking to the children, 

 while a puppy catches at the end of her tresses when 

 they come swishing down. Beyond are cocoanut-shies. 



