CORNISH HUMOUR 173 



said, " I have been sitting to Mr. Charles, and have 

 had a good deal of conversation with him." Then 

 after a long interval of silence he added, " Yes, 1 

 have been sitting to him. Mr. Charles has religion, 

 but it is very, very, very, very, very deep down." 



This appeared to be a clue worth following up, 

 and I at once sought out this man and was delighted 

 to know him ; he was, physically and mentally, a 

 type of all that is best in the Cornishman, but after 

 a long talk on many subjects with him I was convinced 

 that he was without the sense of humour. At the 

 same time I felt that this was scarcely a defect in one 

 of his nature. I felt, too, that something like this 

 might be said of the people generally the sense 

 which they lack seems less important in their case 

 than in that of others ; it is not so much missed 

 because of their perennial vitality, their fresh im- 

 pressible mind and sense of eternal youth and curious 

 interest in little things which never fades and fails. 

 Here I made the acquaintance of four men whose 

 respective ages were eighty-one, eighty-five, eighty-six, 

 and eighty-eight. There was no sign of weariness in 

 any of them ; they were as much alive and in love 

 with life as their middle-aged neighbours and as the 

 young, down even to the children. 



These general reflections bring back to mind yet 

 one more incident bearing on the point an example 

 of the buoyant child surviving in a man well advanced 

 in years. 



I had wasted a day indoors at Penzance reading 

 books when, hearing the hour of four strike, I flew out 



