164 THE LAND'S END 



audience even when alone with his wife or nursing 

 the baby when his wife is asleep. 



I travelled with my Cornish funny man from 

 Truro to Exeter, and as we talked the whole time 

 I got to know him pretty well. He was a middle- 

 aged, strong, good-looking fellow, and a good type of 

 the shrewd, hard-headed Cornishman of the small- 

 farmer class ; he was a farmer and cattle-dealer, and 

 had been head gamekeeper on a large landowner's 

 estate. The trouble was that he prided himself on 

 his wit and humour, or for what passes as wit among 

 the people of his class, and, above all, on his good 

 stories. He would now tell us a story, he would 

 say, which would make us cc die with laughing," and 

 when it was received without a smile he was puzzled, 

 and assured us that he had always considered it one 

 of his best stories. However, he had others, plenty 

 of them, which we would perhaps think better ; but 

 these were better only because they were coarser and 

 more plentifully garnished with swear words, and in 

 the end the other passengers two or three grave 

 elderly gentlemen, who had an armful of books and 

 papers to occupy their minds refused to listen any 

 longer. He then gave it up, but being of a social 

 disposition he continued to converse with me in 

 a quiet sober way, but there was now a little cloud on 

 his countenance which had been so sunny before, as if 

 our want of appreciation had hurt him in a tender 

 part. The hurt had, perhaps, made him quarrelsome ; 

 at all events we presently fell out over a very trivial 

 matter. We were discussing the scenery through 



