WILLIAM ROBERT HICKS, OF BODMIN. 73 
brought disgrace on the family.' I sent for the doctor, and he 
sewed up the throat of un before the vital spark was extinct. So 
you see, Mr. Hicks, I Ve a had a rather indifferent night." 
Hicks told a story of a man who was very much exercised 
in his mind by the proceedings of one Stoke, who it appears was 
a magistrate. 
" Curious man, Stoke. He unhanged all the gates 'twixt 
Liskeard and Callington one night. Curious thing for a justice of 
the pace and a magistrate of the county for to do. Folks says 
he 's a fule, but Stoke 's no fule ; he 's a very clever man. Stoke 
hates the Quakers ; and he dressed up his sarvent-man like a 
Quaker, made un drunk at the public-house, and wheeled un like 
that through the streets of Liskeard in a wheelbarrow. Curious 
thing for a justice of the pace and a magistrate of the county for 
to do. Folks says he ? s a fule, but Stoke 's no fule ; he 's a 
very clever man. He sot a pair of coach wheels a running down 
the street (a very steep street), and nobody could stop um, till 
they ran into a cloam shop and scat all the crockery. Curious 
thing for a justice of the pace and magistrate of the county for to 
do. Folks says he 's a fule, but Stoke 's no fule ; he 's a very 
clever man." 
Hicks was driving along a dark road one evening, when he 
came upon an empty spring-cart, and two men close to the hedge 
on the roadside. One man was drunk and the other was sober, 
and the drunken man was reproaching himself for his bad conduct. 
Hicks knew them — he knew everybody — and stopped to hear 
what w T as the matter. The drunken man was saying, "Ah, too 
bad, too bad, too bad ! What shall I do what shall I do 1 If I 
was called to my last account, what should I zay what should I 
zay 1 ?" The sober man replied, "Zay! What could ee zay 1 ? Zay 
you've a been to Liskeard a auditing of accounts, and took a 
extra glass. 'T will be overlooked for once. 'T is no good telling 
lies up there." So it went on, the drunken man in lamentation, 
crying, "Too bad, too bad!" and the sober man trying to 
administer comfort. Hicks met the sober man a day or two 
afterwards, and asked how his friend got on that night. The 
answer was, " He 's a very affectionate man to his family, and 
when he got home he took the babby out of the cradle for 
