8 THE LAND'S END 



people, which is but one manifestation of the spirit I 

 have been speaking about, is their love for little 

 children. Nowhere in the kingdom, town or country, 

 do you see a brighter, happier, better-dressed company 

 of small children than here in the narrow stony ways 

 of the old fishing town. The rudest men exhibit a 

 strange tenderness towards their little ones ; and not 

 only their own, since they regard all children with a 

 kind of parental feeling. An incident which occurred 

 in the early part of December, and its effects on the 

 people, may be given here as an illustration. One 

 morning when the boats came in it was reported that 

 one of the men had been lost. " Poor fellow ! " was 

 all that was said about it. And that is how it is all 

 the world over among men who have dangerous occu- 

 pations : the loss of a comrade is a not uncommon 

 experience, and the shock is very slight and quickly 

 vanishes. But there was no such indifference when, 

 two or three days later, one of the herring-boats 

 brought in the corpse of a small child which had been 

 fished up in the Bay a pretty little well-nourished 

 boy, decently dressed, aged about two years and a half. 

 Where the child belonged and how it came to be in 

 the sea was not discovered until long afterwards, but 

 the intensity of the feeling displayed was a surprise 

 to me. For several days little else was talked of 

 both in St. Ives and the villages and farms in the 

 neighbourhood, and they talked of it, both men and 

 women, with tears in their voices as though the death 

 of this unknown child had been a personal loss. 



This incident served to recall others, of St. Ives 



