CORNISH HUMOUR 159 



way he had raised a vast heap of stones, which would 

 be carted away by and by. 



It came into my head to try my old story as an 

 experiment on this man, and I went down the hill to 

 him and after saluting him stood some time admiring 

 his tremendous energy. He was a slim wiry man of 

 about thirty or thirty-five, good-looking, with a Celtic 

 face and that lively shrewd expression which one 

 associates with the Irishman's humorous spirit. After 

 watching him for a few minutes at his frantic task I 

 said, " By the by, I wish you would tell me where 

 they get the stone in this part of the country to 

 build their houses with ? " 



He turned and stared me in the face with the 

 greatest astonishment, then throwing out his hand in 

 an angry way towards the vast heap of black wet 

 chunks of granite he had dragged out of the earth, 

 he cried , " This is stone ! This is what they build 

 houses with in this part of the country ! Stone ! 

 granite ! there's enough of it in the ground to build 

 all the houses we want, and on the ground too ! " 



Then he stared again and finally waved his arm 

 towards the hill I had descended from, strewn all over 

 with huge boulders and masses of granite, and added, 

 " All you've got to do is to use your own eyes and 

 they'll show you where we get stone to build houses 

 with ! " 



I was obliged to explain that I had only asked that 

 preposterous question in fun : then he calmed down 

 and stood silent for some time, with eyes resting on 

 a chunk of granite at his feet, revolving the matter 



