Ex Libris 
 C. K. OGDEN 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 J 
 
 J i.- */
 
 - /
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS
 
 MY CORNISH 
 NEIGHBOURS 
 
 BY 
 
 MRS HAVELOCK ELLIS 
 
 LONDON 
 ALSTON RIVERS, LTD. 
 
 ARUNDEL STREET, STRAND, W.C. 
 1906
 
 PR 
 
 <f 00 
 
 E 4 
 
 HAVELOCK
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 TRENWIN ...... 7 
 
 SALLY'S FOOT . . . . 17 
 
 DOGS ...... 25 
 
 DRINK ...... 31 
 
 A MEEK HUSBAND .... 40 
 
 THE HUNGRY BOY .... 46 
 
 OLD CHINA ..... 52 
 
 JUSTICE ...... 56 
 
 BILL OLIVER'S BOOTS .... 63 
 THE SUBJECTION OF KEZIA 73 
 A HARD DAY ..... 90 
 COURTSHIP ..... 97 
 
 UNDER CONVICTION . . . .113 
 MRS PENGILLY IN LONDON . . .121 
 AN ARTIST ...... 142 
 
 GOATS . . . . . . 148 
 
 5
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 PAGE 
 LIGHTNING . . ^' . .154 
 
 IDOLATRY . . . . . .l6o 
 
 USELESS TOOLS . . . . .165 
 
 DOUBTS . . . . . .I7O 
 
 MAKING AMENDS . . . .174 
 
 MAGNETISM . . . .179 
 
 MRS PENGILLY AT HOME . . .184 
 
 RESOLUTIONS . . . . .189 
 
 ONE AND ALL . . . . .194
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 TRENWIN 
 
 " A DAY lent, sure enough," said Mrs Pengilly. 
 " To see the sky blue like this 'ere and the sea 
 bluer still, and to hear the birds singing, it do 
 almost seem like a welcome to you now you've 
 come to dwell amongst we." 
 
 Mrs Pengilly and I were sitting in her old- 
 fashioned farm garden, and as I clasped my hands 
 behind my head and drew the soft air into my 
 lungs, I could say nothing. Mrs Pengilly heard 
 my sigh of relief, and went on : 
 " We've paid for this weather, my dear, by dampin' 
 and wind for months together, and we shall pay 
 again in season and out for a spell of sunshine like 
 this ; but let us make the best of it before it goes. 
 The hay won't be cut just yet, and I'm ready and 
 willing to help you to get your new house in order. 
 A gran' little place you've chose, sure enough, but 
 it'll need brains and money to make it snug and 
 homely. Lor ! " she continued, as her eyes rested 
 
 7
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 on a bee settling upon a spray of honeysuckle over 
 her dairy window, " the very birds and insects do 
 knaw a heavenly from a teasy day. Even the slugs 
 do seem to have a bit of heart in them by now, and 
 the late primroses be shabby and shamed, in a 
 manner of speaking, afore the g'eat red roses as be 
 bloomin' just to their time. June month do put 
 even my newly-limed dairy into shade and greyness." 
 " How glad I am that I am going to live amongst 
 you all ! " I said. " From what I have seen in my 
 short visits, the whole place is ideal and the people 
 kind and charming in every way." 
 Mrs Pengilly's face grew thoughtful. 
 " There's good and bad and medium here as else- 
 where," she said. " A crow don't never turn into 
 a hen, even after it 'ave lived for weeks near our 
 fowl-houses, and we folkses be much the same as 
 our fathers and grandfathers before us. We 'ates 
 new notions, and " she hesitated, " most strangers 
 too, for our motto be 'one and all,' and we don't 
 lean to no new-fangled ways, even in butter-making 
 and hay-cutting. Butter made wi' a churn isn't 
 nowhere for flavour like that made by the cool 
 hand, and uplong notions don't take hereabouts. 
 A revival at times changes, seemly, the outer ways 
 of some of we, but by lookin' upon my neighbours 
 I've proved that no steadfast good comes of it except 
 by chance now and then." 
 
 "Good mornin', missis," said a gentle voice by 
 our sides, and Mrs Pengilly and I turned towards 
 the wall from where the sound came. " Good 
 speed to you, mam," said a man, turning towards 
 8
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 me, " I heard tell as you may be wantin' of a 
 hireling to do your work for you." 
 " Time enough, Tobias," answered Mrs Pengilly 
 sharply. "The woman ain't had time to take 
 the curl papers out of her hair yet, that is, if she 
 ever makes use of such things. I'll put her on the 
 right people to do her work for her, never fear." 
 The man smiled as he said : 
 
 " No harm done, missis. It's allus better to be a 
 bit forthy than too late." 
 
 When he had gone down the lane, Mrs Pengilly 
 turned to me and said in a low voice : 
 " A poor tool, that ! Don't you never take him on 
 at all. He shuffles his time away, and ponders too 
 much ever to do a good day's work, and besides, his 
 speerit be clean broke, and a man can't rightly build 
 even a rick without a little fervour about him. 
 My son Jacob says many a time that it 'ave hindered 
 him from going courtin' only to think of Tobias." 
 " How is that ? " I asked. 
 Mrs Pengilly shook her head as she answered : 
 " Lor ! I remember he as a bright, high-speerited 
 boy who was that fond o' whistlin' and dancin' that 
 he was known in those days as 4 Hornpipe Bill,' 
 his real name being Tobias Penberthy. Neigh- 
 bours would ask him in and play on a comb or a 
 concertina for him to dance to, 'cause he did it with 
 such a fling, and it would seemly put some of his 
 speerit in they as watched him in those days ; but 
 there," ended Mrs Pengilly with a sigh, "he've 
 never been no man for years." 
 Why ? " I asked. What changed him ? " 
 9
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 Mrs Pengilly stood up and looked over the wall 
 before answering, and then she drew her chair 
 nearer to mine as she spoke. 
 
 " Nobody rightly knaws the whole truth of that 
 story, or if there's any truth in it at all ; but all of 
 a sudden Tobias hung his head as he walked, gave 
 up drinkin' and dancin' and even smokin', and 
 seemed to have changed places with his down- 
 trodden wife. It don't never do for to listen to 
 hearsay, but it got out as how his missis were most 
 killed wi' strivin' and strugglin' with he night and 
 day. What with his dreamy ways and then his 
 dancin' and drinkin', which seemed not to belong 
 to his laziness in working, she were most beside 
 herself half her time, and his dancin' bouts and 
 drinkin' fits nearly always ended in a good beating 
 for she. He oftentimes bruised her black and 
 blue. Neighbours do say, but I don't see how 
 they can know, that he never really took to she, 
 being daft on Grace Carbines, as is now Grace 
 Olds. Someway he missed Grace, they both being 
 slow in words, and afore he knew where he were, 
 he were caught by his present wife and persuaded 
 into wedlock. She, poor soul, have paid for securing 
 of him, for she were driven crazy wid 'en time 
 enough, and one night she made up her mind to 
 cure 'en once and for all. You see," continued 
 Mrs Pengilly, "there's a lot of women of speerit 
 in this parish, and they holds by one another. 
 Matthew Trevaskis, who has one o' they sort as 
 his wife, says the women here ought to be forced 
 to wear muzzles like dogs and be beaten reg'lar 
 10
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 to keep 'em low. He be allus giving advice to 
 my son Joe about his wife Kezia. But then Jane 
 Ann, Matthew's wife, 'ave allus been a teasy, 
 high-minded woman, the boss of the whole house, 
 though Matthew stanks on she at times. He, 
 poor fellow, lives out o' doors mostly in fine 
 weather, against posts or under gorse bushes smok- 
 ing, or anywhere to get away from her tonguing. 
 Then there's Martha Hicks. Now she, in a 
 manner of speaking, rules all of we by her sharp, 
 cutting tongue, though she've never been married 
 and is well up in years. Her house be alongside 
 o' yours, and it'll be more comfortable for you if 
 you makes peace wi' she right away at the start, 
 for her tongue be like a pepper dredge when once 
 it's set going. She'm a female of tremenjous 
 speerit, but she've never had no comfortable outlet 
 for it, and that's allus, as you do knaw, a danger 
 wi' our sex. When men and childer can take 
 some of the tonguing it don't 'ave half the malice 
 in it after a while, but Martha have only her 
 nephew Bill Oliver to molest of her near kinsfolk ; 
 of course there's her companion, Nancy Curnow, 
 who do mostly get in for the worst of her tantrums, 
 because she does washing wi' Martha. There's 
 enough warlike constitootion in that woman to 
 infect a village." 
 
 " Dear me ! " I murmured. " What an interesting 
 place to live in ! But you forgot to tell me how 
 Tobias Penberthy got his spirit broken, and it 
 interests me." 
 
 " Sakes ! " cried Mrs Pengilly. " Think of me 
 ii
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 never finishing my story. I wander a bit i' 
 speech lately, and I'm sure it is with having so 
 many things to think on. Well, my dear, the 
 story goes but you can't allus reckon as much on 
 the truth of gossip here as on its flavour, for 
 sometimes it's too black, and now and then there's 
 no truth in it at all ; but I'll tell you what is said 
 over this change in Tobias. He had come in 
 one night from the Cat and Whistle (that's our 
 little public here, as you may have noticed) drunk 
 wi' rum, and he were in one of his wild tantrums, 
 and had beat his wife something cruel. The poor 
 woman, so they say, sobbed herself sick, and the 
 g'eat brute fell asleep in his clothes just as he was, 
 and all rolled up in the blankets. His wife be a 
 clean, tidy woman, and the sight of that coward asleep, 
 and unconscious of all she'd endured, froze her 
 blood, and she rose and looked upon Tobias as he 
 lay there snoring like a bull. She told her com- 
 panion, Jane Ann Trevaskis, who told Martha 
 Hicks, and Martha couldn't keep it from Nancy 
 Curnow, knowing Nancy keeps everything to 
 herself. Even Nancy for once were forced to 
 tell someone, so she confided in my girl Charlotte, 
 and Charlotte was afraid to keep it from me, and 
 that is how I know. Of course I shouldn't tell 
 you except on principle, for it's just to warn you 
 against taking Tobias on for work, for fear his old 
 speerit should ever overpower him again. If it did, 
 he'd never be no use to no-one no-more. 5 ' 
 " I quite understand," I said. " But his cure ? 
 You have not told me yet. What did his wife do ? " 
 12
 
 " Lor ! I thought I'd finished," replied Mrs 
 Pengilly. " Well, they do say as Blanche Sally, 
 his wife, looked upon that man as he lay there 
 asleep, and it entered her head like a dream to 
 sew him up in the blankets he'd got into so 
 comfortable, and then beat 'en and beat 'en, my 
 dear life ! till he cried for mercy. Some might 
 say it was the devil put such a thought in her head, 
 but I hold that guardian angels can push some 
 folkses on to savin' theirselves. She happened to 
 have some packing thread in the house that Tobias 
 had bought for mending a rick-cloth, and she tip- 
 toed downstairs for it and began to sew him up to 
 oncs't. The lazy lout never stirred, and at last 
 she had him tight as a corpse in grave clothes. She 
 got the long-handled cart whip and began to lay on, 
 feeling as safe as safe, for, when he began to move, 
 he grunted, and spit, and cursed awful, but seemly 
 he could not make things out and thought he was 
 in a nightmare, I fancy. She told Jane Ann that 
 at last he roared for mercy, and she stood over him, 
 cowed as he was, and made him swear never to 
 dance nor drink no more, or the same thing would 
 befall him again and again. She also used the 
 biggest threat anyone of we can use to one another; 
 she said, if ever he did any of they things again, 
 she'd tell all the neighbours what a gosling she'd 
 made of him. You see, my dear, being found out 
 is allus more shameful than the actual doin' of 
 anything, and she knew she'd got a hold of him 
 for life. To this day, as far as I do knaw, 
 he've never danced nor drunk once, and his nature 
 
 '3
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 have changed from that of a lion to that of a 
 
 lamb." 
 
 " Poor man ! " I said. " I should like to know 
 
 him." 
 
 " Oh ! Iss ! so you will, sure enough ! you'll get 
 
 to know us all by and by," said Mrs Pengilly. 
 
 " If I was in the scribblin' line I could write a 
 
 book on my neighbours, and I needn't be troubled 
 
 to make up nothin' at all, for it's better nor play- 
 
 actin' what goes on in this village at times." 
 
 " Mother ! " shouted Jacob Pengilly from the yard 
 
 beyond the garden. " Open the off gate for 
 
 the litter to pass. Matthew Trevaskis do want 
 
 two more pigs ; they've more scald milk than they 
 
 can make away with." 
 
 Mrs Pengilly went to do her son's bidding, and 
 
 Matthew Trevaskis leaned over the wall and caught 
 
 sight of me. 
 
 " Gran' day," said Matthew. 
 
 " Yes," I answered ; " it's like heaven." 
 
 Matthew grunted as he answered : 
 
 " Iss ! but a bit overpowering when you're used to 
 
 dampin', saft weather. It puts my missis abroad 
 
 more nor anythin', a day like this 'ere, when it 
 
 comes sudden. It shows up cobwebs and dirt i' the 
 
 house and fidgets she, because she don't know what 
 
 to be at first." 
 
 " Come and choose," shouted Jacob, and Matthew 
 
 nodded his head and disappeared from view. 
 
 Mrs Pengilly soon joined me, and said with a 
 
 smile : 
 
 " There's nothin' men folkses do love like hagglin*
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 over the sale of anything. I've known a butcher 
 come here to buy a bullock, and what wi' struttin' 
 and swaggerin', he've kept Jacob most of an after- 
 noon, and then only, as he rounded the corner, 
 managed to say, * Fine bullock, sure enough ! ' 
 Now they men," pointing to the yard, "will talk 
 like they say women does, over most everythin' in 
 this village, afore they'll weigh the little porkers 
 and finish. It's pastime to they like coseying over 
 tea be to we." 
 
 41 Mother, the colt 'ave broke loose and is amongst 
 the new grass, and I can't find Jacob," cried 
 Charlotte from the window above us. 
 u In the pig's crow, my dear j run to 'en," said 
 Mrs Pengilly. " Lor ! " she went on quietly, 
 " I do never bustle over they things now. It's 
 like eatin' a peck o' dirt afore you die : it's got to 
 be. Worry and loss be a sure part in our trade. 
 What wi' milk boilin' over and ruinin' the cream, 
 and sows dyin' and leavin' litters to be brought up 
 by the bottle, and sheep bein' worried by dogs, 
 to say nothin' of rats eatin' most of the profit in 
 tub meat why ! it would never do to let such 
 things prey on your mind, or you'd soon be fit for 
 a 'sylum. The thing to say to yourself is that it'll 
 be all the same in a hundred years." 
 " I thought farming was the healthiest and pleasantest 
 pastime in the world," I said. 
 
 " Pastime ! " cried Mrs Pengilly, looking at me 
 out of the corner of her eye. "It's just as much 
 pastime, my dear, as a treadmill. You'll be able to 
 make your observations while you dwell in this 
 15
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 village, and you'll find out that to earn a livelihood 
 by farming ain't done by sucking our thumbs, nor 
 yet by looking on at another's good luck. The 
 world's a rare chancey place, and there's no 
 dependence on nothing," sighed Mrs Pengilly as 
 we entered the little farmhouse. 
 
 16
 
 SALLY'S FOOT 
 
 " GOOD mornin', my dear ! Here are your flowers, 
 and I'm tired, sure enough ! " 
 
 So spoke Nancy Christopher to me one Friday 
 morning when she came, according to custom, to 
 bring me my weekly supply of violets. She had 
 not come the week before, and I asked her how it 
 was, for no weather could stop her if there were 
 any flowers to be got. She shook her old head 
 wearily, leaned against the door heavily, and looked 
 at me as she sighed. I told her to come in and 
 sit down. As she did so she looked up at me 
 fixedly, and then her eyes rested on my feet, to 
 which she pointed with her thin finger. 
 " What is it ? " I asked. 
 
 " Lor ! my poor Sally ! " she said, as she wiped 
 her eyes with the corner of her apron. 
 " Is she worse ? " I asked. 
 
 " She's some whisht, sure enough ! " she said. 
 " The poor crittur is sorely afflicted, for she's failing, 
 and I'm most beside myself to aid her. Last week 
 she says to me : ' Sister,' says she, ' sister, I'm that 
 droopey I don't knaw how to live.' I looked 
 17 2
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 upon she and it cut me to the heart to see her. 
 1 Sister,' she said, c I've such sudden qualms nowa- 
 days that I'm thinking I shall soon be a-leavin' of 
 'e, and whatever will 'e do when 'e Ve no one 
 to tend?'" 
 
 Here Nancy sighed again and straightened out her 
 apron over both her knees, as her eyebrows were 
 uplifted with anxious thought. 
 "Is she so bad as that ? " I asked. 
 " No, my dear, but she's like a thing whose nerves 
 is all gone. I reckon as the influenza have left 
 the poor dear weak-like in the nerves, for though 
 my old mother was ill for twenty year, her never 
 suffered like my poor chiel." 
 
 " What was the matter with your mother ? " I 
 asked. 
 
 Nancy made the bottom of her apron into a little 
 pucker, and looked at it sorrowfully as she twisted 
 it about in her long fingers. 
 
 " Oh ! my blessed ! her suffered cruel at times. 
 The doctors said as how she had scurvy on her 
 lung, and somethin' wrong wi' her kittneys which 
 formed a sort of bladder round the heart. She was 
 a dear mother, sure enough, and she've said many a 
 time : c Oh ! if God would only let me live just a 
 few years more to take care of my two dear children, 
 how beautiful the world would be ! ' ! 
 The old woman's eyes had tears in them as she 
 went on. 
 
 " But it was not to be, and her died and left we 
 
 poor old souls to tend one another ; and last night 
 
 we buried up our little bird as we've prized so much, 
 
 18
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 and we've no one now but ourselves. I said to 
 Sally last night, when I put the poor dear in his 
 bit o' flannel to bury 'en up, I said to she : * Sister, 
 let us never put our love on nothin' no more. 
 We've suffered over the old cat as we had to drown 
 as if it was a chiel, and now the dear little bird 
 have gone too, and they things is only made for to 
 pass, and we mustn't place our affections on them.' " 
 Then, looking at me with the weary, patient 
 sorrow of the old and tired wayfarer, she added in 
 a low voice : 
 
 " I'm some whisht over the little bird, for to no 
 creature before have I ever failed in my duty, but 
 to he I did. We've been sick and whisht lately, 
 and I've scarce been able to get bread for to eat, 
 and I begrudged the money for the man to come 
 and physic 'en, and he'd a bladder on his poor tail, 
 and they say as the animal's doctor could have 
 cured 'en. Is it foolishness to be so remorseful 
 over a poor dumb thing ? " 
 
 " No ! " I said, " I wish more people felt like you 
 do about the dumb beasts." 
 
 She looked relieved, and turned round to see if the 
 door was shut. 
 
 "Some folkses," she went on, "do laugh at we, 
 'cause we've always tended animals as if they was 
 Christians, but seems to me the beasts would often- 
 times put the elect to shame, for they do belong to 
 love 'e if you tend 'em and care for 'em." 
 " But what is the new complaint Sally is suffering 
 from now ? " I asked with a smile, for a little 
 peppermint given with minute directions and great 
 19
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 caution had hitherto subdued the dire disease to 
 which she had been a victim for so long a time. 
 " It's a new complaint, sure enough," she said ; 
 " and we was both of a tremble when we found it 
 out. Yes ! she's like a thing scared more nor 
 ever over it. * Nancy,' says she to me, c sister, 
 my dear, my foot is some swole, and I can't scarcely 
 get my boot on at all ; what shall us do ? ' 4 Do,' 
 says I to poor Sally, 4 do ! why, my chiel, we 
 must see the doctor and tell 'en of it. ' ' 
 Nancy put up her hands and shook her head 
 very solemnly. 
 
 " Sally's some modest woman, I can tell 'e, 
 and the thought of going to the doctor frightened 
 she more than I can say. Her'd never been in 
 her life, you understand. * Nancy,' says she, * I 
 can't for shame go to the doctor.' * Why ? ' says 
 I, innocent-like, but I knew all the time. c My 
 livin',' she said ; c he'll want to see the foot if 
 he's to proscribe for 'en, won't he ? ' ! 
 Nancy clasped her hands together, and went on 
 solemnly. 
 
 " I've never told that woman o' mine a willing 
 lie i* my life afore, but I up and told she one then. 
 1 Sally, my dear,' I said and God forgive me 
 for it 'doctors is that knowin' nowadays that 
 they can physic 'e for things as they never need 
 to clap eyes on 'e for. Ye've but to tell 'en your 
 foot is swelled, and he'll guess to onc'st what 
 belongs, and he'll give 'e a lotion to cure 'en, 
 and you can go back to your work again.' She 
 brightened at that, my handsome did, and promised 
 20
 
 to go. That night says I to she, 'Sally, my 
 dear, there won't be no harm in a-washing of that 
 foot for fear you've got to show it.' { Oh ! sister,' 
 says she, ' you've been a deceivin' of me ! ' The 
 lump rose i' my throat, for my conscience spoke 
 to me, but the second lie was easier. * Deceive 
 you ! ' I said. ' Ain't you my own flesh and 
 blood, and ain't I tended you and cared for you 
 all my life ? Deceive you, sister ! I'm surprised 
 at you ! You're wronging me cruel.' She cried 
 a little and kissed me, and said she must be ill 
 indeed to doubt me." 
 " Well ! " I asked, " and what happened ? " 
 " That night we spread out towels afore the fire, 
 and put blankets over the doors to keep out the 
 draughts, and I got the wash-tray with hot water 
 in it, and a nice soft flannel and some soap, and I 
 led sister to a chair. ' There ! my handsome ! ' 
 I said to she, 'all is ready for 'e ! ' She looked 
 at me so whisht-like and sat down. c Sister ! ' she 
 said, ' it's only February month, and I don't belong 
 to wash my feet till May month is well turned j 
 will it hurt me, do you think ? ' I was fearing for 
 her myself, but I knew her'd have to do it before 
 the doctor could pass his opinion on her poor 
 swollen foot. c No, Sally,' said I, very quick- 
 like, for lies was getting easy to me someway, 'it 
 can't hurt 'e at all, for there's some folkses up-long 
 do wash their feet every day.' That cheered her, 
 for she laughed. ' Some folkses is brave and crazy,' 
 she said. Well, we got through the washing like 
 a thing, and I put her to bed and gave she some 
 
 21
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 hot elders for fear her'd catch cold, and in the 
 morning we went to Dr Wilde. He was some 
 kind, for he saw how nervous poor Sally was. 
 4 Cheer up ! ' he says so gently to her, rubbing 
 his hands together and smiling at her, ' what's the 
 new complaint ? ' I answered for her, for her poor 
 old lips trembled so and she seemed totalish. c It's 
 her foot, sir ; it's swelled up somethin' awful.' 
 * Let me see it,' he said of a suddint-like, and we 
 was both taken on the hop. I looked at Sally, 
 and Sally looked at me. c Sister ! ' she said, 
 ready to cry, * what did 'e say to me ? What did 
 'e promise me ? ' I got all of a tremble myself, 
 and I says to the doctor : 4 Doctor,' says I, ' is it 
 needful to expose her poor foot ? She's as shy as 
 a maid through always livin' along o' me and seein' 
 scarce anyone at all, and if 'e could cure she with- 
 out this we'd be very grateful to you and pay you 
 double if needs be.' " 
 
 " What did the doctor say to that ? " I asked. 
 "Well, my dear, he seemed some bad himself, for 
 he turned away and coughed so hard I felt sorry 
 for 'en, and I said to 'en, pitying-like : c You've 
 some awful cough yourself, sir ! ' c Yes,' he said, 
 and he turned his face towards we again, and he 
 was red as red wi' straining, sure enough. Physic 
 ain't much good to he, thinks I, however much he 
 do make use of, but I'd still hopes of him a-curing 
 my poor chiel. ' Come ! ' he said, quite harsh- 
 like. ' This is all nonsense ; of course I must see 
 the foot, or how can I tell what is the matter with 
 it? Get the stocking off while I fetch what I want." 
 22
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " Oh ! my dear life ! " went on the old woman, 
 " he went out of the room, and what a job I had 
 with Sally ! She'd rather die than do such unbe- 
 known things, and yet what could us do ? We 
 was there and we couldn't run away like a thing. 
 4 Sister,' says Sally to me, c why did us come at 
 all ? We was foolish maids not to know this would 
 have to be done ! ' At last, after begging and 
 beseeching and praying, I got the stocking off the 
 poor foot, and held it in my hand. Such a big 
 foot, wi' most all the ankle buried in the swelling." 
 The old woman stopped a moment and wiped her 
 eyes again. 
 
 " Oh ! " she said, " the thoughts o' that morning 
 makes me fairly creep all over. The doctor came 
 back and took up the foot to look at it, and my 
 Sally got the palpitations somethin' cruel. I 
 can always tell when her gets they qualms, for 
 she turns so grey and shiverey, and nothin' but 
 a drop of the best brandy does her any good. 
 ' Doctor ! ' says I, bending down over him as he 
 kneeled by the poor dear, c doctor ! could 'e give 
 sister somethin', for she's very bad, sure enough, 
 and her heart's a failin' of her this very minute ? " 
 He looked upon her dear face, and he poured out 
 somethin' into a glass, and Sally drank 'en off, 
 and the life came back into her poor dear eyes. 
 4 How long,' said the doctor, turning to me, < how 
 long have she been like this ? ' c A month and 
 more, sir,' said I. He poked the foot and pressed 
 it, and tried it seemly every way, and then he 
 looked hard at Sally, who at last had got the
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 nerve to look at 'en. * This foot is very swelled, 
 said he ; c show me the other one ! ' ! 
 At this point memory was too much for Nancy j 
 she cried gently into her apron. 
 " Oh ! my dear life ! " she went on sadly ; " I 
 thought I should have died o' shame, for who 
 would have thought he'd have been so cruel ? 
 Besides, what could us do at all ? We'd never 
 thought o' washing the other foot, of course, because 
 it was brave and rislcey to wash one." 
 " And what," I asked in a rather tremulous voice, 
 " did Sally say to that ? " 
 
 " Sally looked at that doctor as I hope I may 
 never see she look at no one again. She pulled 
 on her stocking and tied her shoe, and stood up 
 with more life in her than I've seen for many a 
 month. c Shame on 'e,' she said to the doctor, 
 4 shame on 'e, I say ! I'm sorry I coomed to 'e 
 to be made a by-play of by you as s'ud know 
 better,' and she flung out of the room and the 
 house almost quicker than I could follow her. We 
 both seemed to take a fear over it, and we was 
 both slight for a bit of a while, for if any neighbour 
 should get wind of our insult, think what it would 
 mean to we lone maidens. And this is why I 
 brought 'e no flowers last week."
 
 DOGS 
 
 A RAILING on the quay over the quaint harbour of 
 Trenwin is a favourite meeting-place for old pals. 
 I saw the sober salts there one morning soon after 
 my arrival at my new home. The smell of 
 sea-weed invigorated me, and I made my way 
 towards the harbour. Six men eyed me almost 
 simultaneously as I advanced along the quay. 
 " Can you tell me where Mrs Oliver's yeast-shop 
 is ? " I asked. One old salt pointed the stem of 
 his pipe at a pale, blue-eyed man who was leaning 
 against the railing with his feet crossed and apparently 
 in deep thought. He raised his head, and without a 
 word beckoned me to follow him. We entered a 
 narrow street, and at the top of it he pointed to a 
 shop door, which I entered. The man followed 
 me. He evidently belonged to the place, for in a 
 few minutes a stout, calm-eyed woman emerged from 
 the back premises. 
 
 " Yeast ? " she queried. " How much, please ? " 
 I deposited a penny on the counter, and the woman 
 smiled. 
 
 " He," pointing into the little room beyond the 
 shop, " told 'e, did 'e, I were deaf ? " 
 
 25
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 I started. " No," I said, as I shook my head. 
 " Gran' man, that," she said, as she broke off the 
 yeast, and her heavy face lit up suddenly. "He never 
 fails me 'i nothin'. Might 'ave been a dog, mam." 
 I looked steadily at Mrs Oliver as she carefully 
 weighed out the yeast. Her low voice, and her 
 quiet, contented manner, prevented any thought of 
 insanity, but what could she mean ? 
 " A dog ? " I queried. 
 
 " Iss ! " she said quietly. " No woman could ever 
 come near a dog for qualities, but I've come across 
 a man at last as does." 
 
 The man referred to appeared at the door, glanced 
 at the woman and then at me, and said : 
 " Weather looks tender to-day, mam, as if it 'ud 
 make rain." 
 
 I nodded, and he passed into the street. I took 
 up the yeast and followed him. 
 " Is is the lady who sells the yeast quite well ? " 
 I asked him. 
 
 He turned his large blue eyes on to my face as 
 he answered : 
 
 "Why, surely. Why do you ask such a thing ?" 
 I told him what Mrs Oliver had said to me. A 
 faint smile crossed his face as he sighed. 
 "That's just the worst of it," he said. "She'll 
 never get that notion out of her head now, and 
 it's no use thinkin' it will ever change." 
 " But what does it mean ? " I asked, genuinely 
 interested. 
 
 The man put his hands into his trousers pockets, 
 and stood still as he continued : 
 26
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " It's like this 'ere. That woman once had a dog. 
 Ever known a female as were overgone on a dog, 
 mam ? " 
 
 I blushed slightly, for I was fretting after one I 
 had just given away. 
 " Yes," I answered. 
 
 " Well ! It's better for 'em to be bewitcht wi' 
 pixies or speerits. When that woman's husband 
 died," jerking his finger in the direction of the 
 little shop, " she were the handmaiden and slave 
 of the dog as he left, and I must say, from all I've 
 heard, he were a knowin' beast." 
 " You never saw him, then ? " 
 The man looked down at his boots, and took oft 
 his cap, and passed his hand through his hair as 
 he answered : 
 
 " No ; I come to the place the day he'd been 
 buried. She had a little box made for 'en, and 
 later a little stone wi' l Here lies faithful Jock ' 
 put on it, and when I first saw she, she were 
 in the pangs of terrible grief, like mothers be 
 when their first-born die. I've never seen no 
 such thing," he went on. " The woman were 
 fair mazy, crazy. She could talk of nothin' but 
 his ways, his habit of bringin' his cushion to lie his 
 head on, his mad chasing of the crows in the 
 garden, his g'eat brown eyes, and the bushy yellow 
 tail of 'en. I'd been told to go to her house for 
 lodgings, as I'd just come into my sailor's pay, and 
 the doctor said I was wrong i' my lungs, and 
 needed a quiet life and a long rest." 
 I glanced at the man, and we walked on together. 
 27
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " I've been there ever since," he went on, in a 
 slightly tired voice ; " and it's nigh on ten years 
 now." 
 
 " Why ! have you been ill all that time ? " I asked. 
 He smiled. 
 
 11 No. I'm well enough to work, but, you see, 
 it's this way. That dog of hers knew as she were 
 deaf, and he were the prop o' the shop, like a 
 thing. When the bell rang he trotted into the 
 kitchen, pulled at her apron with his mouth, and 
 wagged his tail. That meant business for her and 
 a bit o' biscuit for he. He got to know that, like 
 I knows it means a bit o' baccy for me when a 
 customer comes. That dog kept the trade goin' 
 for years, for visitors would come to buy yeast just 
 to see the dog perform like a circus thing. When 
 he died the custom fell off cruel." 
 " How dreadfully she must miss him ! " I said, " for 
 how can she know when the bell rings if she is so 
 deaf, and she has no one else living with her, has 
 she ? " 
 
 The man was looking steadily at me, and he 
 suddenly tapped my shoulder. 
 " You look kind, and as if you could understand 
 things. I wonder would you take it amiss if I 
 ask you for a piece of advice ? " 
 Not at all," I said. 
 
 "Well, ye see, it's ten years since I took that 
 dog's place. I took to it natural at first to help 
 she over her trouble, and when the month were up 
 I'd took the rooms for, we'd got used to sittin' by 
 the fire talking about Jock. It were always Jock, 
 28
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 never nothin' else. I seem to know the very wag 
 o' that dog's tail as if I'd had a tail o' my own. 
 It's made me think many a time what a poor way 
 of expressing your feelin's talking is," he continued 
 thoughtfully. 
 " Quite so," I said. 
 
 " She've a painting of Jock," said the man slowly. 
 " It hangs up afore we whenever we eats a morsel, 
 and we never miss looking up and finding some 
 gran' new thing i' that dead dog. She says he had 
 to have some pounds o' best biscuits to keep 'en 
 quiet while some lady lodger got 'en off i' paint, 
 and I allus think that's why he've got such a 
 pitiful look, for no biscuits could have contented a 
 dog of his make and made him glad to sit quiet on 
 his haunches. I sometimes feel I'd give anythin' 
 if he'd walk out of the picter and bite or growl, for 
 he fair makes me nervous sittin' up over we while 
 we're eatin' and talking." 
 
 " I should say it would be better to hang the 
 picture in another room," I said, smiling. 
 " Look 'ere, mam," the man said suddenly. a I 
 ain't half so good as that dumb beast. I begin to 
 feel the need of a change, somehow, and twice I've 
 nearly run off, but somethin' 'ave allus pulled me 
 back, for fear that deaf woman should lose her 
 custom and be scared by hersel'. Her've grown 
 to believe in me like she believes in Jock ; I'm 
 pulled in two pieces. One-half of me wants to 
 be a free man again, and the other half wants to 
 stay and help she. Whatever s'all I do at all ? " 
 Tell her," I said. 
 
 29
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " I began onc'st," answered the man, " and she 
 smiled that comfortable, I felt like a man who has 
 thought of a murder and then sudden-like met his 
 victim." 
 
 " Why, what did she say ? " I asked. 
 " She made use of words as will never somehow get 
 out o' my head, and I know I'm tied to she all her 
 natural life, in a manner o' speakin'. Not tied 
 like a husband, mind, but like a dog to a chain as 
 he both loves and 'ates. When I told she I were 
 thinkin' of goin' away, she folded her hands and 
 looked right into my eyes and said : 'Jock 'ull 
 never let 'e leave nor forsake me, Jacob Martin. 
 You come to me the day the poor worm were 
 buried up, and he'll see to it, wherever his dear 
 spirit be, by the mercy of God, that ye take his 
 place till I pass too.' "
 
 DRINK 
 
 " IT'S a grand thing to cosey over the fire, my 
 dear," said Martha Hicks to Nancy Curnow, as 
 they toasted their toes in Martha's kitchen. 
 " A bit o' gossip, so long as it's not too ugly, do 
 never hurt nobody," replied Nancy with a pleasant 
 smile. Then, as she watched the flames dancing 
 round the wood which Martha had pushed into the 
 grate to help the damper in its work of getting up 
 the fire, she continued : " And even if it do be a 
 bit ugly and a body says just what's in her mind 
 about a neighbour, surely it's better out nor in, 
 don't 'e think so ? " 
 
 She looked into her companion's face and smiled. 
 " Iss, sure enough," replied Martha. " It do allus 
 do me a power o' good, I know that, to say what 
 I think over some things. I'm just burstin' now 
 wi' wrath over a person's doin's near by. Pity 
 there's winders in some folkses housen, I'm think- 
 ing," she added sharply. 
 
 Nancy Curnow drew her chair nearer to the 
 fender, put her feet on it, and gently smoothed her 
 apron as she cast her eyes on the floor. 
 
 3 1
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " Nothin' shameful, surely, close by 'ere, my dear ? " 
 she asked wistfully. " Two chapels i' the place 
 and a third buildin' ! Why, in a manner o' speak- 
 ing, the whole village ought to be holy ground." 
 Martha Hicks smiled, and Nancy realised, as she 
 watched her friend's face, that she knew something 
 worth telling, for Martha's smile was harder than 
 most people's sneers. It was a mere contortion of 
 the mouth, a sort of gymnastic of pleasurable 
 feeling. With her lips pressed tightly together and 
 the corners of her mouth drooping, Martha at last 
 snapped out : 
 
 " Gosh ! the person as I'm thinkin' on do never 
 make no use o' chapels nor yet churches, as I've 
 ever heard tell on. Perhaps that be the reason 
 why things be just as they are." 
 " Oh ! " sighed Nancy, as she said gently : " Perhaps 
 people bean't accountable if they have no religion, 
 for heathens ain't, we're told." 
 " You've allus a sheep's way o' lookin' at some 
 things, Nancy Curnow," said Martha Hicks 
 severely, " and it's never the way, I tell 'e, to get 
 the full flavour o' sin either for mendin' of it or 
 exposin' of it." 
 
 " I didn't mean that at all," said Nancy meekly, 
 looking with admiration into her friend's face. " I 
 were only just wonderin' like." 
 Martha got up from her chair and stood over 
 Nancy. She tapped her three or four times on the 
 shoulder and said curtly : 
 
 " It's a pity as ever any foreigners or uplongs took 
 
 to come hereabouts to live. Decent folks had 
 
 32
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 better mind theirselves, for example is very catching, 
 
 as our minister only told us on Sunday, if you can 
 
 mind it." 
 
 " Iss, sure enough," said Nancy solemnly ; " but, 
 
 after all, strangers do bring we both money and 
 
 work, for I gets double for my eggs now to what I 
 
 used to from the neighbours years ago." 
 
 "Tut!" said Martha Hicks. "What's that at 
 
 all, alongside o' 'avin' their whimey ways and 
 
 upstairt fal-lals to put up wi' all over the place ? 
 
 Their very frills spells backslidin', seems to me. 
 
 Look at that image up there," jerking her finger 
 
 towards the wall. " What good 'ave she done 'ere, 
 
 I should like fur to ask ? They say she've given 
 
 work in the place, but what's that by the side of 
 
 what she be noted for doin' ? " 
 
 A sly wink at her friend, as she tapped her sharply 
 
 with her forefinger on the knee, made Nancy 
 
 Curnow say gently : 
 
 " Perhaps the woman ain't as queer as we do 
 
 think." 
 
 Martha Hicks laughed. 
 
 " Perhaps not. If I " and she drew nearer to 
 
 Nancy, " if I drank the gallons of fiery stuff" as her 
 
 do swaller year in and year out, I should be a fine 
 
 lot queerer than her be, sure enough. I tell 'e," 
 
 she continued in a lower voice, " I do knaw as no 
 
 one else in this village can knaw that that woman 
 
 livin' there," pointing in the direction of a sombre 
 
 grey house, " never goes to her bed sober." 
 
 " Oh ! husht ! woman ! " said Nancy Curnow, 
 
 gkncing towards the door, "it do never do to say 
 
 33 3
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 they things aloud, for it's liable, if it should be 
 heard." 
 
 " What a soft sawney thee art ! " said Martha, 
 smiling into the gentle face of Nancy. " I've not 
 only heard but I've seen, and seein', as you do knaw, 
 is believin'. I took upon myself to find out if what 
 I'd heard was true, and I stood under that woman's 
 open winder night after night last summer when 
 her and her likes were playin' cards. I counted 
 three pops o' their champagne muck bein' uncorked, 
 and I've heard say as one bottle alone of that do 
 fair maze a body. I tasted a sip onc'st mysel', 
 but I must own I thought ginger pop far preferable. 
 Think of it, my dear, that uplong woman and her 
 chums drinking night after night. When her'd 
 had her fill her'd draw up the blind and she and 
 her friend 'ud stagger acrost the room and close the 
 door, but not before I'd counted the three empty 
 bottles wi' the wire still on 'em, like that cham- 
 pagne stuff do belong to 'ave. No wonder her's 
 queer and touchy and sharp i' the tongue when 
 her do 'appen to be sober." 
 
 Nancy Curnow sighed. The evidence certainly 
 was strong against the woman who had more than 
 once cheered her lonely life, and she was wonder- 
 ing if nothing could be done to show the poor 
 stranger the evil of her ways, when Martha Hicks 
 continued slowly : 
 
 11 That ain't the worst neither. It ain't only o* 
 nights that her do drink so bad, but her do take 
 strong speerits in the arternoon, most every day. 
 Jim Richards told me as how one day he went 
 34
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 into she for to be paid for some timber as he'd 
 brought, and he almost fell in a 'cap at the sight o' 
 she, he bein' a decent man and only havin' 'ad 
 dealin's wi' proper females in his time." 
 " Lor ! " exclaimed Nancy Curnow suddenly, 
 almost blushing at what she might hear, "what- 
 ever did 'e see, at all ? " 
 
 " Believe me now, will 'e ? " queried Martha Hicks 
 in a shrill interrogative. " He saw she," she said 
 slowly, "a married woman, and up in years too, 
 drinkin' strong brandy and water wi' lemon and 
 sugar in it at four o'clock in the arternoon ! " 
 Nancy Curnow nearly fell off her chair. 
 " It were enough to scare him, sure enough. 
 Whatever did he do ? " 
 " Do ! what could he do ? " 
 
 "Well, I think," said Nancy Curnow slowly, 
 " that if I'd been a leader as he be, I'd have 
 reprimanded she for her soul's sake." 
 " He'd no time to speak even," almost screamed 
 Martha, as she went on breathlessly. " The 
 brazen hussey up and put forth her hand to ring the 
 bell, and said to 'en : * Have some tea wi' me, Mr 
 Richards. Do you like it strong or weak ? This 
 is the way I allus take it,' and the minx pointed to 
 the steamin' grog. These were the very words 
 from she to he, and then from he to me," emphatic- 
 ally continued Martha, as she stooped to pull up a 
 stocking which had fallen down over her boot. 
 " I'm almost certain," she went on, " that he said 
 she winked at 'en as she said it. Listen ! don't 
 interrupt me," as Nancy was going to protest, " let 
 35
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 me tell 'e all. * Tea, mam,' says Richards to she, 
 and he said he spoke very stern. c I don't belong 
 to take tea in no such fashion as that,' and he 
 pointed to the stuff as she were guzzlin' down as 
 fast as she could. c I drinks my tea wi' milk, 
 mam,' says he. What do you think her had the 
 imperence to say then, thinkin' o' course he were 
 a fool and knew nothin' ? " 
 " I cain't think," said Nancy. 
 
 " c This is Roosian tea, Richards,' she said. 
 Pisht ! " went on Martha, as she wrathfully poked 
 the fire, " I fair 'ates the very name o' that woman 
 for tryin' to gull we as she do. I only wish I'd 'ad 
 the chancs't myself of answerin' her pert sayin's." 
 " Thee'll break the slab, my handsome, if thee 
 beats it like that," said Nancy. 
 " Thee'rt a g'eat soft," said Martha Hicks more 
 quietly. " Thee's no speerit whatever. I'm almost 
 thinkin' some of that woman's champagne stuff and 
 brandy 'ud do thee good." 
 
 " I feels sadly over it all," said Nancy feebly. " It 
 seems to me that no female could really be so bad 
 as what you do say. It ain't in our constitootions, 
 somehow ; it sounds more like what men folkses 
 does at times." 
 
 Martha Hicks took down her hat from a nail close 
 by. It was a hat that seemed to have taken some 
 of the characteristics of its owner to itself. It was 
 black. It was severe, and, moreover, turned down 
 with so sharp a curve that you felt the brim would 
 never expose to a vulgar gaze the face of the 
 woman underneath. It had withstood gales and 
 36
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 rain and fashions for many years, and to Martha 
 
 Hicks's eyes it was as fresh as ever. Nancy 
 
 Curnow watched her friend tie the strings of her 
 
 hat under her chin, and as she patted the bow, she 
 
 turned to Nancy and said imperatively : 
 
 " Get up, and I'll prove to thee what nothin' but 
 
 thy own eyesight can tell thee." 
 
 " Where be you going to take me ? " said Nancy, 
 
 as she reluctantly got up. 
 
 " To prove my words to 'e, silly," she answered. 
 
 As she led her friend out of the back door she 
 
 said slowly : " Her garden," pointing to the house 
 
 close by, " bein' so nigh mine, I'm specially 
 
 priveleged, as you can understand." 
 
 Nancy Curnow nodded, and Martha continued : 
 
 " Well, her farm man do never go further than he 
 
 need, even wi' empty bottles, and if you ain't 
 
 worse nor Thomas i' the Scriptures, you'll perhaps 
 
 own as when a neighbour do tell 'e a truth it ain't 
 
 no lie." 
 
 With this dogmatic assertion she almost pulled her 
 
 friend to the wall at the end of the garden. She 
 
 dragged an old box towards Nancy Curnow and 
 
 told her to stand on it. The two women clung 
 
 together on the narrow wood. 
 
 " Look well, my dear," said Martha Hicks with a 
 
 smile, and the corners of her mouth drooped more 
 
 than ever. " I'll be forced to bring glasses for 'e 
 
 to see the show with, I'm thinkin'. There ! " 
 
 with a poke in the ribs of gentle Nancy. " What's 
 
 them, do 'e think ? " 
 
 " Bottles," answered Nancy in a whisper. 
 
 37
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " How many ? " asked Martha, grinning. " Count 
 
 'em, do." 
 
 " I cain't at all," said Nancy under her breath ; 
 
 " it's dozens and dozens, sure enough." 
 
 "So 'tis, my handsome," said Martha triumphantly. 
 
 " All champagne, I tell 'e," she went on. 
 
 " Oh ! dearey me ! " from Nancy, " I wonder the 
 
 woman ain't dead and buried." 
 
 " Pity but what she was," Martha said. 
 
 " Poor thing, poor thing ! " said Nancy. 
 
 " Hold your noise ! " said Martha. " Nobody's 
 
 poor but they as deserves it." She spoke absently. 
 
 She had pushed her hat on to the back of her head, 
 
 and she was gazing intently at the large pile of 
 
 empty bottles. They had been piled tier on tier 
 
 in order to take up as little space as possible. 
 
 " See ! " cried Martha suddenly. " Things is 
 
 worse than I thought. Gosh ! " she went on 
 
 solemnly, " the wires is there and all ; but, my 
 
 dear," drawing the terrified Nancy closer to the 
 
 wall for fear they should both fall from the narrow 
 
 box " hold on hard, and don't 'e slip. Tell me 
 
 if you do see anything." 
 
 " No, nothin' but bottles wi' red and white labels, 
 
 leastways they on the top have. Whatever do 'e 
 
 see at all ? " asked Nancy, pale and trembling. 
 
 " Whatever have 'e found, woman ? " 
 
 " Why, this," said Martha, trying to look shocked, 
 
 but pointing a triumphant finger at one of the 
 
 bottles. " See ! " she went on breathlessly. " It's 
 
 worse nor champagne : it is some foreign speerit 
 
 after all, perhaps Roosian, as her told Jim Richards."
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 The two women almost fell over the wall in their 
 excitement. The bottle Martha pointed out had 
 its terrible evidence in red and white before their 
 eyes. 
 
 " Read what's put there," said Nancy. 
 " I cain't," said Martha ; " but I'll spell 'en out, 
 and mind you remember." In a low voice she 
 spelt out the long and evil word, S-a-1-u-t-a-r-i-s. 
 " Oh ! dear, dear ! " cried Nancy, " it do almost 
 make you think o' hell fire." And the solemn face 
 of Martha, as she strode back to the house, made 
 Nancy clasp her little thin hands together, as if in 
 prayer for so great a sinner as the woman in the 
 grey house. 
 
 39
 
 A MEEK HUSBAND 
 
 JANE ANN TREVASKIS peeped into the doorway 
 of her neighbour and great friend, Blanche Sally 
 Penberthy. She heard no sound, so she tiptoed 
 into the clean kitchen and looked round. Her 
 friend's head suddenly emerged from her little 
 dairy, and the two women looked eagerly at one 
 another. 
 
 " Where is he, then ? " asked Jane Ann Trevaskis. 
 Blanche Sally merely pointed in a resigned way to 
 the ceiling. 
 
 " Lor ! " cried Jane Ann. 
 " You may well ! " answered Blanche Sally. 
 " In bed be 'e ? " asked Jane Ann. 
 " Iss ! I've locked up the clothes from 'en," said 
 Blanche Sally. 
 Jane Ann giggled. 
 
 " Serve 'en right," she murmured. " I like to know 
 a man be stanked on, for they'm miserable torments 
 most o' their time." 
 
 Blanche Sally smiled as she folded her arms and 
 leaned against the table. Then she said : 
 " He don't get no upper hand wi' me no more, my 
 40
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 dear. Men i' their place be well enough, and 
 especially as standbys i' dark nights, but when they 
 comes to lord it too much over we and play hide 
 and seek, in a manner of speaking, from their 
 lawful wives, it's time to be movin'. I've conquered 
 'en afore and I'll do it again." 
 
 Blanche Sally saw the look of admiration in her 
 friend's face as she leaned against the settle, crossed 
 her feet and folded her arms. Blanche Sally pointed 
 to a chair with a smile, and Jane Ann drew it to 
 her with a sigh of contentment, as she murmured : 
 " It fair took my breath away when Matthew told 
 me last night how Tobias were caught unawares. 
 Matthew allus holds by men bein' masters, so I 
 couldn't quite get at the rights of it all from 
 he, and besides, Joe Pengilly were in our house, 
 and Matthew allus has a notion that he's not real 
 master over Kezia, and so he wouldn't say much. 
 Nothin' torments the varmints more nor havin' to 
 face the real downfall of another man through a 
 woman, and a wife worst of all. So I'm really not 
 accquainted wi' any real facts," ended Jane Ann 
 plaintively. 
 
 Blanche Sally smiled grimly as she said : 
 " I thought you'd be took back like all the rest." 
 " Tell us, do ! " said Jane Ann wistfully. She 
 planted her elbows on the table, and held her cheeks 
 firmly in her hands as she looked at her friend. 
 Blanche Sally glanced towards the door, closed it 
 gently, peered up the stairs, and then pulled her 
 companion into the little dairy. 
 
 " He cain't hear nothin' 'ere." she said. 
 
 ' *. 
 
 41
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 The two women half sat and half leaned on the big 
 slate table, which held the bright pans of scalded 
 milk. 
 
 " I were allus against you marryin' at all, Blanche 
 Sally," said Jane Ann. 
 
 " Hold thy noise, do, woman," retorted Blanche 
 Sally. " When the pork be roastin' i' the oven it's 
 too late to say don't kill the pig." 
 " All the same, it's true," muttered Jane Ann. 
 " Thee ought to have married a ginger-bread man, 
 and when thee was tired of 'en thee could eat 'en." 
 " I've done worse to 'en than eat 'en, this bout," 
 said Blanche Sally. 
 Jane Ann laughed as she said : 
 " I commend 'e, whatever it be. They meek men 
 be allus the worst when the fit be on 'em," she 
 continued. " I've allus had grave doubts over Job's 
 piety. He seemed meek, sure enough, when he 
 were sittin' on a dung-pile scrapin' of his sores, but 
 as far as I do knaw there's not a word i' the Bible to 
 tell we what they three females as were his daughters 
 had to go through at times. The meekest is often 
 the forthiest when they let go. I should say, myself, 
 that if only we'd the record from Karenhappach 
 and the other two, we might 'ave lost the meek 
 man out of the Scriptures altogether. A dove of a 
 man on a dung-pile might well be a roarin' lion in 
 his own house." 
 
 " Matthew 'ave taught thee a sackful o' wisdom," 
 said Blanche Sally slowly. " I ain't learnt all that 
 out o' poor Tobias, sure enough." 
 " Haven't I brothers and a father ? " retorted Jane 
 42
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 Ann. " Husbands ain't every thin', I'd leave you 
 
 knaw." 
 
 "They's the most heart-rendin' anyway," said 
 
 Blanche Sally with a sigh. 
 
 " Be he sick ? " asked Jane Ann. 
 
 " Giddy ! I should say," answered Blanche Sally. 
 
 " Do tell us ! " implored Jane Ann. 
 
 " 'Tain't much to tell," said Blanche Sally modestly. 
 
 " I sent that g'eat laggard," pointing to the ceiling, 
 
 "to sell butter and eggs as I do belong Fridays, 
 
 and he were some late comin' 'ome and I got 
 
 fidgety for fear he'd dropped the eggs or somethin'. 
 
 I were lookin' out of the door when I see your Joe, 
 
 and I asked 'en if he'd seen Tobias anywhere, and 
 
 he up and grinned at me from one ear to another. 
 
 4 Lor ! ' says I to he, c what's caught thy fancy 
 
 now ? ' l Thy man,' says he. c Darn thee ! ' says 
 
 I, all of a shake, c wherever be he at all ? ' 'In 
 
 the Cat and Whistle dancin' his boots off of his 
 
 feet,' he said. 
 
 Blanche Sally wiped her brow with the corner of 
 
 her apron, and Jane Ann cried : 
 
 " Of course it were only a boy's make believe." 
 
 " I off with this 'ere," replied Blanche Sally, 
 
 touching her apron, "and on with my hat, and 
 
 away I went for my life, and sure enough there 
 
 he were. I slipped in very quiet and watched 'en 
 
 a bit afore anybody spied me. There were Tobias, 
 
 if you please, in the big parlour at the Cat and 
 
 Whistle, dancin' like mad, his g'eat red nose up i' 
 
 the air, and his feet and legs flyin' like a devil in 
 
 a gale o' wind. I were mazed to look upon him, 
 
 43
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 for I've never seen Tobias wi' the heart of a louse 
 in him since I conquered he afore. I couldn't 
 move nor speak for a bit, for I felt I could 'ave 
 killed 'en there and then. Sparks flew out of his 
 boots, his feet went so fast, and all the men cheered 
 'en fit to kill theirselves. It seemed to send the 
 varmint mad like a colt let loose i' the field. His 
 coat tails flew, my dear, as if they was alive, his 
 collar come undone and the tie after it, and what 
 else would 'ave gone heaven only knows, if I hadn't 
 hollered upon he as I've never hollered in my life 
 afore." 
 
 Blanche Sally stopped for breath. 
 " Whatever did you say at all ? " gasped Jane Ann. 
 " ' Tobias ' was the one and only word I made use of 
 to bring that crazy man to his senses," said Blanche 
 Sally fiercely. " It stopped his dancin' as if it had 
 been a bullet in the chest of 'en. I picked up his 
 collar and tie and then I looked at 'en. The jig 
 had gone clean out o' his legs, to say nothin' of his 
 eyes. He seemed daft wi' terror." 
 " Whatever did the company do ? " asked Jane 
 Ann. 
 
 "I don't knaw and I don't care," said Blanche 
 Sally. " I never took no notice o' they ; they 
 might have been worms for me. I dragged Tobias 
 into the street, and all I could bring myself to say 
 to he from there to here were 'Walk i' front o' 
 me.' I were too mad to say another word." 
 Blanche Sally sighed deeply as she continued : 
 "There be only one bit o' comfort i' all the set 
 out," she said more gently. "If it had been a 
 44
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 Saturday he'd 'ave had on his best boots, and it 
 would have worn 'em fair down, for he've had 
 those Sunday boots of his nearly nine year come 
 Michaelmas, and they've never been tapped yet, 
 for I never lets him put them on except on 
 Saturdays to go to town wi' me to do the shopping. 
 You see," she added thoughtfully, " if you've ever 
 noticed, he do lift his feet ginger, most like a rooster 
 i' wet grass. I taught him that years ago to save 
 the shoe leather." 
 
 " Grand notion, sure enough," said Jane Ann. " I 
 never thought o' that afore, and yet I've wondered 
 at the way he've picked his road to town, most like 
 a turkey pullet in a field, as you do say." 
 A call from upstairs roused both the women. 
 " Blanche Sally ! " said the voice, " I cain't stay in 
 the bed no longer." 
 
 11 Let 'en call," said Blanche Sally severely. " Let 
 'en rest the legs of 'en, I say. His clothes be 
 locked up, and so are his boots, and bed and sops 
 for two days will 'appen cool the hot blood of 'en, 
 and I'll take good care he do never have no fling 
 again so long as he's a livin' husband to me." 
 
 45
 
 THE HUNGRY BOY 
 
 JANE ANN TREVASKIS was in a bad temper. 
 News had come in the morning that her nephew 
 must go home to his mother. Jane Ann threw 
 the saffron recklessly into the buns she was making 
 and bit her lip. The boy was useful to her now. 
 She had taken him from her ne'er-do-well sister in 
 order to help her along, taught him all he knew, 
 and now, just as he was worth his keep, he was 
 sent for to work for his parents. 
 " Darn the fules ! " the woman muttered as she 
 put the dough on to the tin ready for the oven. 
 She turned sharply, for Joe, the boy she was think- 
 ing about, stood behind her. His round, good- 
 tempered face increased the bitterness of her spirit. 
 His mouth, already in shape for that perpetual 
 whistle of his, made her feel inclined to box his 
 ears, as though he were the culprit. 
 " Stop that ! " she said snappily. " Don't whistle 
 in the house. You'm worse than a cuckoo for 
 allus doin' of the same thing." 
 The boy took his hands out of his pockets and sat 
 down in his usual seat in the corner of the settle. 
 46
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 Joe watched his aunt put the cakes into the oven, 
 and he nearly whistled again for pure joy at the 
 sight of them. He was a very healthy, happy boy, 
 and had no painful thoughts but one the fear lest 
 he should ever be made to go home and be badly 
 beaten by his people again. The thought of that 
 sobered him at once, and his aunt used it as a 
 threat whenever she was in a " tantrum." Jane 
 Ann banged the oven-door and faced her nephew. 
 " Why doesn't thee speak ? " she asked. " What's 
 happened to thee ? " 
 He laughed. 
 
 " I wants my dinner," he said. 
 This opened the floodgates of her wrath. 
 " Dinner, indeed ! " she shouted at him. " Here 
 it is, and it's about the last thee'll get here, my 
 son." She put a large basin of broth on the table, 
 and gave him a spoon, shining like a silver one, for 
 Jane Ann Trevaskis was famed for being "as 
 clean as gold." Then she poured out more of the 
 savoury soup into another basin for her husband, 
 and filled a large cup for herself, and then sat 
 down. As she did so she glanced towards the 
 door, for her husband was late. " Men's devils ! " 
 she muttered. " Allus too forthy or too late. Eat 
 your broth and don't stare," she hissed at the boy, 
 who was slowly blowing into his huge spoonful of 
 broth, while his eyes were fixed on the angry face 
 of his aunt. 
 
 Matthew Trevaskis came in at this moment, and 
 wiped his hands, which he had just washed outside, 
 on the roller behind the door. He winked at the 
 
 47
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 boy as he did so ; he guessed there was a storm 
 brewing. He sat down, pulled his chair well in, for 
 fear of making crumbs, and " supped " his broth. 
 For a time nothing was heard in the kitchen but 
 the blowing and drinking of the three. At last 
 Matthew spoke. 
 
 u I wants Joey to help me ring they pigs to- 
 morrow," he said. 
 
 Jane Ann felt her moment had come. In spite of 
 her grief at having to lose the boy, she felt that 
 sort of thrill she had only known at funerals, sudden 
 deaths, and great revivals. She knew her husband 
 loved the boy even more than she did, and she 
 knew she was going to give him "a turn," as she 
 expressed it. 
 
 " Joe," she said sedately, " won't be 'ere to- 
 morrow, nor no more at all ! " 
 There was a sudden lull in the blowing and drink- 
 ing, and the very leeks in the bowls seemed to 
 stand on end to listen. The man and the boy 
 looked at one another, and then at the woman, who 
 was smiling calmly, but with indrawn lips. 
 " Darn it ! " said the man, " who says he won't 
 be here ? " 
 
 " His mother and father," said Jane Ann. 
 " Gosh ! " said the boy, who looked suddenly as if 
 all the whistle and life had gone out of him. 
 " They can't take 'en at all ! " said Matthew. 
 "He be only thirteen," said Jane Ann, "and his 
 mother ain't no more heart nor a louse, and as for 
 his father " here Jane Ann stopped for breath, 
 and then said bitterly " as for he my lor ! if 
 48
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 you was to scrape hell with a fine toothcomb you'd 
 never find his like no more." 
 
 The boy was suddenly sobbing like a girl, and the 
 woman went to the oven to look at her buns, in 
 order to hide the " soft feeling " she felt for them 
 all. 
 
 Matthew pushed his bowl of soup aside. " I 
 can't touch no more," he said, and fumbled for 
 his pipe. Then, as he smoked, with his legs 
 stretched straight out and his arms folded, he began 
 to think. A long time went by. 
 "Get the lad ready to onc'st," Matthew said at 
 last to his wife. 
 
 " Thee g'eat fule," answered Jane Ann. " What 
 fur ? " 
 
 " 'Cause I tells thee," he said stolidly. 
 " Look ! " she said, pointing to the boy, " he's 
 crying a stream, and I'm 'shamed to pester him 
 to-day." 
 
 " Do as I tell thee," he said sternly, " and leave 
 the rest to me. Send nothin' home wid 'en but 
 what he stands up in, and I'll bet he'll be back 
 here in less than a week." 
 
 The boy took his hands from his face and looked 
 at his uncle. 
 " Oh ! " he gasped. 
 
 " Get up to onc'st," he said, " and I'll take thee 
 to the next train, and gie thee a bit o' good sound 
 advice on the road." 
 
 In less than half an hour the woman saw them 
 both down the lane, and she waved a handkerchief 
 to them for luck, and shouted to them as they 
 49 4
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 turned the corner, " Mind yourselves now ! " 
 
 Jane Ann Trevaskis went back to the house and 
 
 soaked her head in vinegar, and the saffron buns 
 
 were forgotten and burnt in the oven. When the 
 
 husband and wife sat down to their lonely tea that 
 
 night the woman said to the man : " What did 
 
 'e tell Joe to say to his people ? " He smiled a 
 
 little sadly, but all he answered was, "Wait and 
 
 see." 
 
 They did see, for in five days Joe, with a very red 
 
 face from having run all the way from the station, 
 
 bounded into the kitchen while his uncle and aunt 
 
 were having their tea. He sat down in his own 
 
 corner in the settle, and beat his fists on the table, 
 
 while he stamped a jig on the floor with his feet. 
 
 His aunt laughed, his uncle smiled and scratched 
 
 his head, and the tom-cat rubbed itself against each 
 
 one in turn and purred loudly. 
 
 " However did 'e compass it, Joe ? " at last his 
 
 aunt asked. 
 
 The boy put his hand into his breast-pocket and 
 
 brought out a letter. 
 
 " It was all along o' 'e," he said, pointing to his 
 
 uncle. 
 
 The letter ran : 
 
 " Dear Sister Jane Ann I ope this finds you well as 
 it does we at preasant you can keep Joe for he is 
 like a fair stairved boolack for eatin and he ave never 
 done nothin sin he come ome but sit down on his 
 tale end and eat we out of the place we thort one 
 time he must burst but he is ere still so we send 
 50
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 him back with our best love and hopin this will 
 find you well and arty for it is real kind of you to 
 keep Joe for he must be costin of you a fair fortin 
 in butchier's mate alone to say nothin of shoe 
 lether I ope you can rede this for it ave took me 
 the best part of the day to rite it but the boy is 
 waitin to go to the train from Sister Sue."
 
 OLD CHINA 
 
 WIDOW TREVASKIS was very happy as she gently 
 dusted her chairs in her little kitchen. She had 
 prayed " fervently," as she told her niece, that a piece 
 of good luck might come to her, and it had come. 
 A long period of sickness, followed by many losses, 
 had aged her during the last six months. As she 
 dusted her chairs she wiped away a tear which had 
 come into her eye, partly in remembrance of her 
 bad luck, and partly in gratitude for the good 
 luck of to-day. She turned suddenly, for Jane 
 Ann Trevaskis, her daughter-in-law, stood in the 
 doorway. 
 
 " Come in ! " said Widow Trevaskis. 
 " I can't stay for to stop," said Jane Ann. 
 " Oh ! a minute, do," pleaded the old woman. 
 11 I'm all of a tremble, somehow ; the luck's turned 
 at last, my dear," she said. 
 
 Jane Ann looked sharply at her mother-in-law. 
 "Time too," she said. "But how?" 
 The old woman blew her nose and sat down with 
 a sigh in the rocking-chair near the fire. " I 
 don't believe as I'm ill-whist at all," she said. 
 52
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " Iss ! you be, and I could lay my finger on the 
 person as does it," said Jane Ann. "Thee's fair 
 bewitcht," she added. 
 
 " It did look like it one time," said Widow Trevaskis. 
 11 1 must own that, to be sure, but I'm pullin' 
 thro', my dear. If I could get rid of this chronic 
 in my windpipe, as the influenzie have left me, I 
 s'ud stand a chance again," and she rubbed her 
 thin old neck slowly with her left hand, while she 
 wiped her eyes with her right. 
 
 " Influenzie ain't the worst, at all," said Jane Ann. 
 " Want o' ready means be a lot more prostratin', 
 in a manner o' speakin', than illness. Any person 
 down wi' that complaint do need to fortify the 
 system, same as if they'd a low fever, and gruel 
 ain't no standby at all, neither for one whisht thing 
 nor the other." Jane Ann pulled down her apron 
 and smoothed out the creases in it as she spoke, and 
 her brow was puckered with thought. 
 " I've a dew on my tongue every mornin' since I 
 took ill," said the old woman wearily. 
 " Med'cine's the thing for that," said Jane Ann. 
 " Too costly, my dear," said Widow Trevaskis, as 
 she shook her old head. 
 
 " What about this luck, whatever it be ? " said 
 Jane Ann roughly ; " happen it 'ull pay that for 
 'e. What be it at all ? " 
 
 Widow Trevaskis put her hand into her pocket, 
 drew out a handkerchief very slowly and carefully, 
 untied a tight knot in the corner, and brought out 
 half-a-sovereign. She placed it on the table, so 
 that they could both gaze at it. Jane Ann 
 53
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 glanced quickly at her mother-in-law, and in a 
 subdued voice she said, " My blessed ! " 
 The old woman clasped her hands in her lap and 
 smiled fondly at the half-sovereign. Jane Ann 
 picked it up, and the smile slowly left the elder 
 woman's face. " Leave 'en be," she said anxiously. 
 For answer Jane Ann spat upon the gold piece and 
 replaced it on the table. " That'll double it," she 
 said. 
 
 The old woman rocked backwards and forwards, 
 her hands still crossed and her small feet, in their 
 coarse blue stockings and bright shoes, dangling. 
 " I'm fair mazed," she said happily. " I won't 
 break into 'en to-day for a world. I'll sleep wid 
 'en under my pillow for one night." 
 " How did 'e come by 'en ? " asked Jane Ann. 
 " Prayer," said Widow Trevaskis. 
 " Stuff and nonsense ! " said Jane Ann. 
 " Iss ! sure enough," carolled the happy dame. 
 The younger woman grew impatient, and she said 
 sharply : 
 
 " They days be gone by for miracle work. Tell 
 the rights o' it, for I must be going." 
 " Well ! " said Widow Trevaskis, smiling happily at 
 the recollection, " I were sittin' 'ere this mornin', 
 'avin' prayed with the faith of a grain o' mustard 
 seed, or else it ain't no manner o' use expectin' a 
 reasonable answer, when a tap come to the door, 
 and that g'eat curly-pated artist chap, as took off 
 Harriet Jane a while sin', were standin' there. I 
 asked 'en in, of course, and he looked very took 
 back somehow, as if he'd come against his will, so 
 54
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 I says to 'e, ' Sit 'e down, won't you, sir ? ' He 
 fumbled about and shuffled his feet and coughed a 
 lot, and I couldn't make it up, and he kep' lookin' 
 at the potshelf yonder, and his eyes seemed that 
 restless, I nearly took a fear. c Is anything amiss 
 over there, sir ? ' I made bold fur to ask 'en at last, 
 for I were all of a shake. Then he seemed to let 
 'isel' go all o' a sudden. l Mrs Trevaskis,' he said, 
 quick-like, as if he were most 'shamed o' 'isel', 
 4 will you sell me they two old cups and saucers 
 what belonged to your grandmother ? ' and he 
 plumped down this half-sovereign. 
 The old woman stopped for breath, and Jane Ann 
 looked hard at the potshelf. 
 
 " l It's the hand of the Lord,' I said quick to 
 myself," the old woman continued. " I almost 
 shouted with the feelin' o' thankfulness as come 
 over me." 
 
 Jane Ann was a little puzzled. " They artises 
 seems to me not exactly 'alf their time," she said. 
 " Whatever use could he make o' that flashy bit o' 
 china ? " 
 
 Widow Trevaskis was irritated. " You'm a gross 
 woman, Jane Ann," she said ; " you do never see 
 a dispensation anywhere. It were so clearly the 
 hand o' the Lord that I felt no call to tell 'en even 
 that the cups was never in our family at all. 
 Thanks be, I only gave threepence each for them 
 last Feast Monday when that cheap Jack came 
 round wi' his van. How little I knew then that 
 they was to be the means of bringing about a sudden 
 answer to prayer ! " 
 
 55
 
 JUSTICE 
 
 CAROLINE ANN STEVENS sat in her small kitchen 
 and thought over the events of the morning. She 
 was not accustomed to reflection, and her brow 
 was puckered with the effort. She would have 
 given a fortune, had she had one, to undo her 
 action of an hour ago, but as it could not be, she 
 was suffering more than she would ever have con- 
 fessed to anyone. A sombre peace reigned in the 
 little whitewashed square which enclosed her cottage 
 and three others. The gossip and excitement of 
 the early morning had subsided, and the neighbours 
 sat in twos and threes in their homes discussing 
 whether any of them would be required to give 
 evidence, if it was really true that the police had 
 been sent for. In the next cottage sat Mrs 
 Treglisson, whose " soul had been torn out of the 
 top of her head," as Wilmot Tregarth expressed it, 
 and with a grim smile on her face, which ill 
 accorded with her two black eyes and the white 
 cloth round her forehead. 
 
 As Caroline Ann meditated, she heard a knock on 
 
 her door. She was a brave woman, but she 
 
 56
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 shivered slightly as she said " Come in." It was 
 Police-Constable Uren. 
 
 Caroline Ann looked up at him quickly, and he 
 coughed as he put his hand in a determined way 
 on the table. 
 
 " Whatever do 'e want 'ere ? " the woman asked. 
 "You," replied Constable Uren. 
 " Sakes ! " said Caroline Ann. " Whatever fur ? " 
 " To inquire," said the policeman, in a formal way, 
 for he could hear people shuffling round the door, 
 "into the reason why Mrs Treglisson have been 
 furiously assaulted by you." 
 
 Caroline Ann had finished her thinking, and the 
 relief was gradually appearing in her face. She 
 was essentially a woman of action. In the five 
 years she had lived out in the West, in America, 
 she had been called " The Amazon " because of 
 her strength of character and almost masculine 
 courage. Even in this little village few people cared 
 to provoke her, as it was rumoured that she still 
 kept a pistol hidden in her bosom, as she did in the 
 wilds of America. Police- Constable Uren knew 
 Caroline Ann well by report, and he did not mean 
 to be conciliated. So when she dusted a chair and 
 oftered it to him, he said sternly : " No, thank you. 
 I can hear better standing." This seemed to upset 
 Caroline Ann. She had a dim feeling that if she 
 could stand over him as she talked, she could cow 
 him ; but he stood before her as straight as a 
 ramrod. 
 
 " What 'ave you to say for yourself ? " said he, for 
 he heard a suppressed cough outside. 
 
 57
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 Caroline Ann folded her arms in a determined 
 way, strode out into the middle of the room, and 
 stood in a fighting attitude with her feet apart as 
 she asked : "Do you 'appen to know the beastly 
 toad as is at the bottom of all this ? " 
 " Iss ! " answered the constable, relapsing into his 
 native tongue ; " she be a relation o' mine." 
 " Oh ! " said Caroline Ann, " then it's well for her 
 as there be a policeman in the fam'ly, for maybe 
 he can give she a hint or two. She's a real 
 varmint, I can tell 'e, and no mistake." 
 " Stop that ! " said Constable Uren severely, as an 
 answer to a giggle at the door as well as to the 
 woman before him. " You're only making matters 
 worse for yourself in Court by and by. What I'm 
 here for is to know why you assaulted the woman." 
 " For the reason I gave you," answered Caroline 
 Ann sullenly. " She's a real she-devil, and enough 
 to upset a world, to say nuthin' of a village." 
 Police-Constable Uren rapped hard on the table, 
 for he heard a titter outside, and he knew that half 
 the village was there by now. It was time to be 
 getting to facts. A woman outside muttered, 
 " She've got he there, sure enough," and so put 
 him on his mettle. 
 
 " Tell your story, Mrs Stevens," he said sternly, 
 " without calumny." He almost heard the " oh ! " 
 of wonder and admiration outside. 
 He had not been in the force very long, and he 
 was glad to have a little practice in dealing with 
 offenders. 
 
 "My story be short enough," answered Caroline 
 58
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 Ann placidly. " She and me be neighbours, and 
 I keep a few head of poultry, and once or twice 
 the pullets have wandered into her garden. Fowls 
 ain't Christians," she said appealingly, as she looked 
 up into the constable's face. " They don't know 
 nothin' about the rights o' property. How should 
 they ? A blade o' grass in one place is like a blade 
 o' grass in another to they. Well," she went on, 
 in a weary voice, " she worried and worried over 
 they hens going into her garden till her husband 
 told mine as he believed she'd take ill over it. 
 But she didn't. She threw a stone one day and 
 lamed my best rooster instead." Caroline Ann 
 stamped her foot savagely as she said this, and the 
 constable, listening intently, took out a little note- 
 book and pencil. 
 
 " Well," he asked, " what more ? " 
 " 'Tain't much to tell, anyway," she continued. 
 " I bound up the poor worm, and he've never had 
 the same crow in him since. It took the heart 
 out of him to be seen limpin' round with his leg in 
 a bit of cotton like that. Well, that were only 
 one of the wilful bad things as she did against me," 
 unfolding her arms and pointing savagely in the 
 direction of the other cottage. She frowned as she 
 continued : " Then, one day, her poured boilin' 
 water on my best layin' hen's back, and made her 
 screech so she terrified the other hens, and I'd no 
 eggs that day at all." 
 
 The woman wiped her hot face with her apron, 
 and the policeman held his pencil in the air. 
 " But all this was no reason for the furious assault 
 
 59
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 of this morning," said Constable Uren, in his best 
 manner, and there was a murmur of applause out- 
 side, and a few faces peeped in the door. 
 " Look 'ere," said Caroline Ann, as she edged up 
 closely to the constable, and stood with her arms 
 akimbo and her eyes flashing, "listen to me. If 
 you're a man as well as a bobby, you do knaw well 
 enough that oftentimes, when a man stanks on a 
 woman and nearly kills she, it's no worse in the 
 eyes of Him above than her continual naggin' of 
 'e, for nothin', for thirty days i' every month. 
 Everythin' turns at times as well as a worm, whose 
 nature it is to turn anyway. It relieves the bile to 
 scream, and stank, and swear, if a body's too hard 
 pressed. The very mountains, in foreign parts, 
 does it when they cain't hold theirselves in no 
 more. I bore that woman's gibes, and jeers, and 
 whimey ways, to say nothin' of her wilful malice 
 over my hens, till every drop o' blood in my body 
 seemed turned to gall. She 'ave done all the 
 unneighbourly tricks you can reckon up, and tried 
 to make me the talk of the place ; but I've never 
 so much as threatened she wi' this " and Caroline 
 Ann took the famous revolver out of her breast. 
 Police-Constable Uren put his book and his pencil 
 into his pocket. 
 
 " Nasty plaything, that ! " he said, in a low voice. 
 She still held it towards him, and smiled grimly as 
 she continued fiercely : 
 
 " The next time I'll scare she, sure enough. I 
 
 was too angry to think of it this mornin' ; but," 
 
 with a sudden look at the rather white face before 
 
 60
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 her, " I've never told you why I flew at she at the 
 last ! " 
 
 "No!" said Police - Constable Uren gently; 
 "please do." 
 
 The throng outside could not hear his voice, and 
 pressed further into the room. 
 " Because," said Caroline Ann, " because that 
 varmint could think of nothin' else to do to 
 revenge herself on me and my poor fowls, she up 
 and did just the one thing that fair maddened me, 
 and made me more like a devil than a woman." 
 Police-Constable Uren was listening intently. 
 " Whatever was it ? " he asked. 
 "Well, it was just that what finished me. She 
 took her door -mat," Caroline Ann continued, 
 " fairly smothered it wi' pepper black pepper, 
 mind you and beat it as if she'd limb the post as 
 is between our houses, and she knew, well enough, 
 that I was cutting up scraps for the fowls on the 
 other side. Before I could turn to go in I were 
 blinded wi' pepper, and I gave forth a scream with 
 the pain, and she laughed fit to kill herself." 
 Caroline Ann was gasping for breath. She held 
 the pistol towards the constable, and shouted until 
 the multitude outside held their breaths too, and 
 the greater number backed into the street, for they 
 saw bloodshed ahead. 
 
 " Dirty jade ! " went on Caroline Ann breath- 
 lessly. " I can see she now. I thought no more, 
 but I went for she like this," and she flew, with 
 rage and madness in her face, towards the man 
 before her. He turned swiftly, and shut and 
 61
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 locked the door quickly upon the excited crowd. 
 Then he advanced towards the infuriated woman. 
 " Husht ! " he said soothingly, as if he were speak- 
 ing to a naughty child. " Listen to me," and he 
 put his hands on her arms, so that the pistol was 
 turned downwards. " I'll just go to onc'st " and 
 he glanced towards the door as he whispered the 
 rest of the sentence "I'll just go to onc'st if 
 you'll leave me be, and put that firearm in hiding 
 again, and I'll have a warrant took out against 
 she " jerking his head towards the wall " for 
 assaultin' of you with the pepper-mat." 
 A little colour crept back into the policeman's lips 
 as he saw the look of triumph in the face of u The 
 Amazon." 
 
 62
 
 BILL OLIVER'S BOOTS 
 
 MARTHA HICKS and Nancy Curnow, having 
 
 finished a hard day's washing, hung the clothes on 
 
 the line in Martha's garden and then settled down 
 
 to a cosy tea with some hastily made saffron buns. 
 
 "All the strength's gone from me," said Nancy 
 
 wearily. 
 
 " I'm only just beginnin' to feel warmed to the 
 
 wringin' o' the clothes," said Martha. 
 
 " Thee was allus one to love a washin' day," said 
 
 Nancy. She stirred her tea quietly and looked 
 
 meditatively at a large lump of sugar which was 
 
 slowly dissolving in the spoon she was holding 
 
 out of her cup. 
 
 Martha smiled contentedly as she answered her 
 
 friend : 
 
 " I 'ates allus doin' of the same thing ; it makes 
 
 me doley and snappy by turns. Now a washin' 
 
 day, to me, be like a feast day be to some, and 
 
 it sends my blood all of a glow." She slowly 
 
 pulled her cotton sleeve over her strong arms, which 
 
 were mottled into a damp softness from the long 
 
 immersion in soapy water. 
 
 63
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " Where's Bill to ? " asked Nancy suddenly. 
 Martha tossed her head as she said : 
 "I don't know and I don't care. He'm a g'eat 
 fool and I'm mazed with 'en. He's like a thorn 
 i' my side more nor anythin' else, tho' he be my 
 own nephew." 
 
 Nancy's eyes fell on a pair of boots which had 
 been carefully placed on a shelf near the cupboard. 
 She smiled as she turned towards her friend. 
 Poor old Bill ! " she said ; he's the talk of the 
 place by now, I reckon." 
 " So he deserves to be,'' said Martha. 
 " I've never heard the full rights o' what happened," 
 said Nancy. " I thought when I saw him this 
 mornin' that he seemed like one took wi' a fear." 
 " So he be, sure enough," said Martha gravely. 
 " When I spoke to he about those boots he turned 
 quite queer i' the face, and he don't eat like a 
 thing to-day, and his manner 'ave changed all to 
 onc'st." 
 
 " Lor ! you don't say ? " queried Nancy. 
 " Minx's work," snapped Martha. 
 " Tell us the rights of it," said Nancy. 
 " Well ! " began Martha, crossing her feet on the 
 fender and sipping her tea with great contentment, 
 " you and me knaws well enough he's like no 
 sister's child of mine ought to be. Perhaps if his 
 mother had lived to rear 'en things would have 
 been different, but I cam't never make him up at 
 all, though he is my own flesh and blood and in 
 his one and twenty." 
 
 " He be a bit dreamy and slow-like," said Nancy j 
 64
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 "but he'll 'appen mend of that. After all, old 
 maidens ought not to have the care of youngsters, 
 and he've never gone wi' no companions to speak 
 of." 
 
 " Hold thy noise about old maidens, or else speak 
 only tor thysel'," retorted Martha sharply. " The 
 times is gone by for anyone under seventy to call 
 theirselves up i' years, and I'm younger in heart 
 to-day than Bill himself, I can tell thee. If I 
 was a man instead of a woman, no giddy hussy 
 could make me believe tight was loose, or short 
 long." 
 
 Nancy looked admiringly at her friend. 
 " No, my dear, not where money comes in. I do 
 knaw that well enough. No man could befool 
 you." 
 
 " Say you don't knaw at all," replied Martha. 
 " Things is often contrary to what appears," and 
 a half smile played on her strong mouth. " Any- 
 way," she added sharply, "no livin' man should 
 fool me twice, and every man I do knaw would 
 'ave to pay the penalty for bein' born a man if it 
 so happened one of his kind 'ad ever had the better 
 o' me." 
 
 " It's their natures to molest and overcome women," 
 said Nancy. " It's meant so, I feel sure, and it 
 don't do to expect any other," she added gently. 
 " Fiddlesticks ! " said Martha. " It's women as 
 overcomes men, but in a silenter manner. I've 
 seen it scores o' times, only they don't fuss over it, 
 and noise it abroad, like men do. Think o' that 
 artful jade as 'ave crazed Bill." 
 
 65 5
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " She never meant to, surely," said Nancy. 
 " No ! not no more than that starling means 
 buildin' in our scullery chimney," retorted Martha, 
 pointing to a bird resting on the sill, with a long 
 straw in its beak. " Apparently nowadays," she 
 continued reflectively, "nobody means nothin' 
 when they means the most of all." 
 Nancy's mind was rarely equal to the strain of 
 thought Martha put upon it, so she said humbly : 
 "You've never told me the rights of Bill's tale 
 yet." 
 
 " There ain't no rights as I can see," said Martha, 
 " The thing's wrong from end to end. It's easy 
 enough to tell, but it's a pitiable thing, to my mind." 
 Martha pointed solemnly to the pair of brand-new 
 boots on the shelf near her. 
 " See they ? " she asked. 
 Nancy nodded. 
 
 " They's the cause of the offence," snapped 
 Martha, "and they'll remain as an abiding token 
 of the foolishness of men." She cleared her throat 
 as she went on : " Bill, as you do knaw, have 
 never 'ad no best boots in his life, nothin' but they 
 g'eat beetle crushers what he uses in the clay works. 
 One day last week, I, like a weak soft, says to 'e : 
 4 Here, take this ten bob, and put it to what thee's 
 earned for the week, and go to Polkinhorn's shop 
 up to Polcoath, and buy a pair o' real best boots.' 
 It were only tenpence return, and I thought he'd 
 get real style there. c Don't tell no one, not even 
 Nancy,' says I to he, thinking how you love a 
 surprise, and how you'd open your eyes when 
 66
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 Sunday come, and he walked i' chapel in a pair of 
 lovely brown boots wi' extra shiny toes." 
 Nancy smiled lovingly at Martha, and nodded her 
 head as she asked softly : 
 " And what happened after that ? " 
 " This," retorted Martha. " He up and went 
 yesterday like a giddy goat mazed wi' his own 
 grandeur, and took the train to Polcoath. He 
 told me the rights of it when he come 'ome last 
 night, like a daft thing, sure enough. It appears 
 he went into Polkinhorn's shop, and he said he 
 felt suddenly queer-like, when, instead of a man 
 comin' towards him, up smirks a gaudy female, 
 dressed in black, but wi' nothin' else black about 
 her, so he said, except her soul, which the devil 
 took care Bill should not see just then. White 
 cuffs and collar, if you please, and a bib and tucker 
 frilled lace sort o' apron. My dear life ! " Martha 
 continued irritably, "after questioning him all I 
 knew how, I found out she'd even a flower, not 
 only in her saucy bosom, but in her back hair. 
 Think of the lustful pride o' that ! " Martha 
 fairly snorted. " It's like hearin' about a naked 
 heathen somehow when you begin to think on it. 
 Bill said as he could not stop lookin' at her, her 
 lips was so red and her eyes flashin' like stars. 
 How he ever managed to tell her what he wanted 
 will remain a mystery to both him and me, for, 
 from what he says, he seems to have lost his 
 tongue directly minute the woman spoke. He 
 says he forgot most of what happened after he'd 
 managed to make her understand he wanted a pair 
 67
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 o' brown boots. Before he knew where he were 
 he found 'iself sittin' in a big cushioned armchair 
 made o' velvet, and the pert hussy 'ad actually 
 got one of his boots off. He said all he could 
 think on at the time was how glad he felt he'd 
 chanced to put on clean socks i' the mornin', and 
 had no holes for her to look upon. He said he 
 should 'ave died o' shame if he'd not been tidy, 
 for she were like a pink wi' the mornin' dew 
 fresh on it. Those were the very words our slow- 
 mouthed Bill applied to that brazen female. 
 Think o' it all ! " ended Martha in a loud voice. 
 " You do allus mend and make for he," said 
 Nancy gently. " He rends his clothes i' pieces 
 some thing, especially socks, as I do knaw, through 
 always helpin' you to wash 'em ; but you keeps up 
 wi' the mendin' at all times." 
 
 Martha poured herself out some more tea, and 
 drowned it with milk in her agitation. 
 " It appears it's the fashion to try on boots in some 
 places instead of gettin' them in sizes like we 
 belong to do, but Bill had no notion of this, and 
 he couldn't think whatever was goin' to 'appen 
 next. He began to sweat a power when this 
 young woman, all smellin' of perfume and bendin' 
 over his foot, began talkin' to him and lookin' up, 
 smilin', into his face. It was the first time a 
 female outside o' we had ever taken the leastest 
 liberty with he, and it sent him all faintey like. 
 He says he remembers nothin' more except that 
 while she was lookin' up in his face, she was 
 gently squeezin' his toes one by one, and he had 
 68
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 the imperence to say to me that he'd never felt 
 so crazy happy in his life before. It's shameful," 
 ended Martha. 
 
 " It's witchcraft," said Nancy. " He cain't be 
 called responsible," she added gently. 
 " Well ! be it as it may, there's the testimony of 
 it," said Martha crossly, " and my money be buried 
 in it too, for they boots be no manner o' use to no 
 one." 
 
 Why ? " asked Nancy. 
 
 " Because that g'eat fool, I keep telling thee, 
 looking into that young woman's eyes, went off 
 into a sort of faint or somethin' like it, and when 
 he come to hissel' his old boots was on his feet 
 again, laced up and all. The wily temptress as 'ad 
 bewitcht him stood by smirkin' at him with a 
 brown-paper parcel in her hand, and all the words 
 she made use of to him were : l You'll find they're 
 an exact fit, sir.' He said he fell over everyone 
 and everything as he tore out of the shop, and all 
 he prayed for was a sight of his own home and 
 people again. So he can't be utterly lost," added 
 Martha more gently. 
 " It were like a trance," said Nancy. 
 " He says he feels as if he'd been a long journey, 
 and seen a heap o' new-fangled things," said 
 Martha. " The rest you do knaw as well as I 
 do," she continued, "and so do all the neighbours 
 by now, I reckon. They boots could never have 
 been no reasonable size or shape for any man, 
 unless he was a dwarf. They may do for Bill's 
 wife if ever he 'ave one, but that's all the use they'll 
 69
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 ever be. He turned fairly sick when he tried to 
 wear them ten minutes this mornin'." 
 " Why don't he change 'em ? " asked practical 
 Nancy. " It would only be the fare forth and back, 
 and that's better than losin' all the money on them." 
 Martha looked hard at Nancy. 
 " I'm surprised at your want o' sense, Nancy 
 Curnow," Martha at last said. " I believe you 
 quiet ones, be you women or men, be allus the 
 most reckless when you come nigh some things. 
 Do you think for one minute that I, a respectable 
 female, would send that innocent lamb into a fiery 
 hell o' temptation like that again, even if he had to 
 go bootless all his natural life ? There's Delilahs i' 
 the Bible and out of it, and from all I can hear 
 they's necessary evils, like snakes and toads, but," 
 and she held the poker threateningly in the air 
 before attacking the fire with it, "let 'em stay 
 wallowin' in their own mire, or if they must poison 
 and sting, let it be none o' we." 
 Martha's face had grown very stern, and her eyes 
 were turned towards the ceiling as if in intercession 
 for the peace of all decent families. She brushed 
 some stray crumbs from the tablecloth as she added : 
 " Bill 'ave been saved by that misfit, and saved 
 he've got to remain. It's not all men as gets off 
 so easy." 
 
 Nancy had risen from the table and was looking 
 intently at the new boots, scarcely daring to touch 
 them. At last she rubbed her forefinger softly 
 over the shining toes and turned to Martha, who 
 had come to her side. 
 
 70
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " When he do look upon these, my dear," she said 
 to Martha solemnly, "he'll for ever see that 
 woman's eyes and be smellin', in a manner o' 
 speakin', the flowers in her hair. The boots and 
 she will allus be kind o' mixed up together in his 
 heart. I should hide 'em away for a while." 
 Martha for once felt that Nancy's words were 
 words of great wisdom. She took her friend's 
 hand and clasped it in both her own, and for a little 
 while she did not speak, and then she said, with a 
 catch in her voice : 
 
 " My own heart should 'ave told me that, Nancy 
 Curnow, for onc'st I had no peace till I'd destroyed 
 somethin' as was between my soul and my 
 Saviour." 
 
 Nancy trembled. Never before had Martha 
 spoken in her hearing like that, and she waited for 
 more. But not another word was said. With her 
 mouth firmly set Nancy watched her friend take 
 off the three iron rings that concealed the centre 
 of the fierce fire which was always a part of a big 
 washing day. One by one she dropped the evil 
 omens into the blaze and watched them smoulder. 
 Then her face brightened a little as she murmured : 
 Poor chiel ! " 
 
 She and Nancy watched the fire doing its slow but 
 sure work of destruction. Then Martha added in 
 a low voice : 
 
 " He'll miss 'em for a little while, for perhaps never 
 again in all his life he won't chance on enough 
 money to buy another pair, even if he've the heart 
 to crave for 'em." Then, thrusting the burning 
 
 71
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 witnesses of Bill's first encounter with the wiles of 
 the flesh further into the flames, she added : 
 " Better they than he, for hell fire be a sure 
 endin' when a woman once gets a chanc'st to 
 ruin a man."
 
 THE SUBJECTION OF 
 KEZIA 
 
 JOE PENGILLY washed his face and hands at 
 the pump outside his kitchen door, and as an 
 after-thought let the water trickle over his thin 
 hair to cool his head. He had just glanced inside 
 the house and felt "all abroad," as he said to 
 himself. His usually good-tempered wife had the 
 same look on her face he had seen for weeks, and 
 it puzzled and jarred him. The woman, he owned 
 to himself, was everything in the world to him, and 
 now his life seemed threatened with dark clouds, 
 and for no reason. He sighed as he went into the 
 little kitchen for his mid-day meal. 
 Kezia Pengilly was bending over the fire frying 
 mackerel, and the spluttering of the fat prevented 
 her from hearing her husband's step. Joe walked 
 over to his place at the top of the table and watched 
 her at her work. He smiled to himself as he looked 
 at her. Perhaps after all she would turn round 
 just like herself again, and what a self it was, he 
 thought. He knew he had been crazed with her 
 
 73
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 pretty ways and quaint jokes and smiles. Kezia 
 turned suddenly and saw him. 
 " Why didn't thee speak ? " she asked. 
 " Nothin' to say, my dear," said Joe with a smile. 
 Her brow puckered as she landed the fish from the 
 bubbling fat on to a dish. 
 
 " Thee's not much company for sure," she said. 
 Joe took hold of the tail of his mackerel and began 
 picking off the fish with his fingers, and did not 
 look up. 
 
 " Can't thee answer ? " she said sharply. 
 " To what ? " he said. 
 " Why, to me, of course," she snapped. 
 He took a long drink of tea and gazed at her over 
 his cup. 
 
 " Thee'rt a g'eat beauty, Kezia," he said, as he put 
 the cup down. 
 
 "There you are again," she whimpered, "allus 
 either grumblin' or jeerin' at me." 
 " I'm not doin' neither, woman. I'm tryin' for to 
 make up for thrawting of you this mornin' over 
 they soaked crusties as I gave the cat and ruined 
 the nice clean floor." 
 
 "Now!" she cried angrily; "just when I were 
 forgettin' all about it, of course you must bring it 
 all up again, and you're tryin' now, all thee knows 
 how, to make the tablecloth like a dishclout wi' thy 
 g'eat greasy fingers." 
 
 For answer the man licked his fingers one by one 
 and wiped them on his trousers. 
 " Gracious ! " she exclaimed, almost crying, " that's 
 thee all over. Thee gives up one dirty trick for 
 74
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 another. I believe you only married me to clean 
 and tidy after you." 
 He laughed. 
 
 " Heart alive ! " he said, as he looked into her 
 young sweet face, which had a sort of sob all over 
 it, and made his heart ache. " I married you 
 because you are the only woman I've ever met 
 i' my life I could never weary of, not even if you 
 tormented me night and day." 
 Her brow suddenly cleared as she answered : 
 " You was allus one for pretty talk, Joe, but you's 
 not a bit what you were in deeds." 
 " 'Cause you snap me up so," he said. 
 " There you are again, tryin' to pick a quarrel," 
 she answered moodily. 
 He got out his pipe and blew into it. 
 " Now, Joe," she said, " I cain't abide that 'baccy 
 smell ; it gives me a headache. Go outside and 
 leave me to clear up if you've finished, for I'm fair 
 worn out ! " 
 
 He got up and put his hand on her shoulder. 
 " Kiss us, old girl," he said. 
 She shrugged his hand off. 
 
 " Don't be so silly," she said. " I don't feel like 
 it at all, and I want to be 'ome with mother again." 
 Joe went out and lighted his pipe by the pump, 
 gave a glance towards the window, and went to his 
 work. His mind was busy, and he wondered how 
 he could bring Kezia to her senses. When he 
 went in to his tea he scarcely spoke, and never 
 looked up at his wife. He went out as soon as 
 he had eaten, to have a smoke and think things 
 75
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 out. He sat under a favourite gorse bush which 
 
 served either as a shelter from the wind or a 
 
 protection from the sun. The fishing boats with 
 
 their dark brown sails were scudding towards the 
 
 open sea, like large birds migrating towards a desired 
 
 haven. There was no blue in the sea just then ; 
 
 all was grey, and Joe's pipe went out, for he seemed 
 
 to have no energy to keep it in. He turned with 
 
 an " Oh ! " of surprise and relief as he saw Matthew 
 
 Trevaskis slowly walking towards him. 
 
 " Come 'ere, mate, do," said Joe. 
 
 " Well, brother ! " said Matthew, " thee looks as if 
 
 thee'd run out o' speerits and 'baccy both." 
 
 " I'm moody, like a thing," said Joe. 
 
 Matthew laughed. 
 
 "Jaw, I suppose ? " queried Matthew, as he sat on a 
 
 big stone and fumbled in his sleeved waistcoat for a 
 
 pipe. Then he slipped on to the ground, and used 
 
 the stone as a support for his back as he turned 
 
 towards his friend. 
 
 " Eh ! jaw, isn't it ? " he repeated, as he cut his 
 
 shag with a large knife. 
 
 Joe nodded. 
 
 "Thought so," said Matthew. "Women's the 
 
 devil that way. You began all wrong, like me, 
 
 and females allus takes advantage of honeymoon 
 
 ways, and stanks on we if we don't take 'em in 
 
 hand to onc'st." 
 
 Joe sighed. 
 
 " Drat it all ! " he said. " I never began no different 
 
 to what I am now. I cain't make things up at 
 
 all." 
 
 76
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 Matthew winked and looked sideways at Joe as he 
 
 rubbed the tobacco round in the palms of his hands. 
 
 " Cheer up, brother," he said at last. " There's no 
 
 bigger fool than a man as is sent crazy wi' a 
 
 woman." 
 
 " Women is mazy things," said Joe solemnly. 
 
 " There's allus 'baccy for to fortify us against 'em," 
 
 said Matthew, and he lighted his pipe and drew a 
 
 breath of relief. 
 
 11 Kezia 'ates 'baccy in the house," said Joe. 
 
 " Smoke all the time then," muttered Matthew ; 
 
 "it's the only way." 
 
 Joe smiled and folded his hands over his smooth 
 
 head of hair. 
 
 " You allus forgets I'm bent on pleasin' of Kezia," 
 
 he said. 
 
 Matthew had crossed his arms and stretched out his 
 
 legs, and his face was calm and thoughtful. 
 
 " The more thee tries to please women, mate, the 
 
 more crotchety they becomes. Within bounds I 
 
 keep the peace in our place like a judge, but she've 
 
 learnt, Jane Ann 'ave, that I'll put my foot down 
 
 on any out-o'-the-way tantrums. Give them their 
 
 head and they'll soon 'ave we by the heels." 
 
 " Sometimes I wonder if we give 'em their head 
 
 enough," said Joe. " Perhaps they'd domineer less 
 
 if we left 'em take their own grainy ways." 
 
 " You bet ! " said Matthew emphatically. " If I 
 
 gave in to Jane Ann entirely, where the devil do 'e 
 
 think I should be at all ? " 
 
 Joe fixed his eyes on his friend's face and laughed 
 
 outright as he answered : 
 
 77
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 11 Man alive, I've no notion." 
 
 " Well ! " said Matthew shortly, " I should be like 
 a cat out in the rain, never certain where to put 
 my feet. As it is, as you do know, I can't keep 
 no dog for fear of the mess its feet 'ud make on 
 the floor ; I can't have a magpie in a cage 'cause 
 its seed 'ud 'appen fall on the table. I've got to 
 walk ginger like Tobias Penberthy for fear o' 
 disturbin' the sand on the clean floor, and I rubs 
 my feet on the mat afore I goes in to my meals, 
 enough to split it i' half. I gives in to all they 
 things 'cause I was took captive over 'em, in a 
 manner o' speakin', almost afore I'd finished courting, 
 and it takes years to understan' women's whims. 
 Bein' a real pal to thee, Joe, I'm warnin' of 'e now 
 afore it's too late, for thee's only been wed two 
 years, and there's time yet to alter things." 
 Joe's thinking had been keeping pace with 
 Matthew's talking, and he had come to a conclusion. 
 He sidled up closer to Matthew and stuck his elbow 
 into his mate's ribs. 
 " Matthey," he said. 
 " Iss," answered Matthew. 
 " Don't you think it's too late even now ? " 
 "Fur what ? " asked Matthew. " It's no use 
 speakin' i' riddles, man. Trust or no trust that's 
 my plan. Thee's the only livin' man as I've 
 blackened Jane Ann to, and if it'll ease thy mind 
 to tell what's worritin' of thee, you do knaw it's as 
 safe as if you'd dropt your secret into the mouth 
 of a mine shaft." 
 " Done ! " said Joe, and he turned over on his side, 
 
 78
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 and came nearer Matthew, so as to be closer to his 
 
 " earhole," as he expressed it. 
 
 Matthew was cleaning out his clay pipe very 
 
 carefully with his knife, and knocking it against 
 
 the stone which now served as a resting-place for 
 
 both men. 
 
 " Sling along ! " at last said Matthew. 
 
 This seemed to be the last thing Joe could do. 
 
 He seemed suddenly struck dumb. At last he 
 
 blurted out, as he wiped his forehead with his red 
 
 handkerchief : 
 
 " Awkward kind o' work pullin' your lawful wife to 
 
 bits." 
 
 Matthew laughed. 
 
 " It'll get easier as thee goes on, man. I'll help 
 
 thee. What's the row to-day ? " 
 
 " Crusties," said Joe. 
 
 Matthew winked at his friend. 
 
 " It's allus some feeble thing like that as makes 
 
 confusion in a house. Jane Ann began just like 
 
 that. Dirty boots i' the best parlour was my first 
 
 offence, and it raised hell in our house for nigh on 
 
 a whole day." 
 
 Joe felt easier as he said with a laugh : 
 
 "Well ! I never ! It was just the same thing in a 
 
 way with me. I soaked the crusties in my tea this 
 
 mornin' and threw 'em to the cat under the table, 
 
 and I suppose I must 'ave put my foot on 'em, 
 
 for Kezia went off like a thing gone mazy. She 
 
 stormed and said " and Joe wiped his brow again 
 
 " said as she were a fool to take me and all sorts, 
 
 and then she cried fit to kill hersel', and when I 
 
 79
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 spoke she told me to hold my noise, and when I 
 didn't speak she said I'd no feelin's and was worse 
 nor a stone. We scarcely spoke at dinner-time. 
 She said she wished she was dead, and wanted her 
 mother, and that, bein' a man, I was worse nor a 
 devil, and when I kept on eatin' she said she 
 wondered the food didn't choke me, and when I 
 stopped eatin' she said I was never pleased wi' 
 nothin' she'd got ready for me. My head's sore 
 with the clang of the teasy things she drove into 
 me, and I'm not good at replies, as you do knaw," 
 he ended in a weary voice. 
 
 Matthew was smoking hard, and his eyes were on 
 the ground. 
 
 " Women be mysteries," said Matthew, " and 
 without little uns they'm worse nor monsters. A 
 chiel do often alter and soften 'em, but a childless 
 woman is as near a wolf as anything I do knaw." 
 Joe's knees were supporting his two elbows, and 
 these in their turn supported his woebegone face. 
 " That's it, is it ? " he said at last, with a catch in 
 his voice. 
 
 " Iss ! " said Matthew, " that's the mischief. 
 Unless," and he looked suddenly up at Joe, 
 " perhaps she be goin' to surprise 'e by tellin' 'e she 
 be going to have a little one : that would account 
 for her bein' teasy and moody." 
 Joe laughed. 
 
 " Lor ! " he said, smiling. " Why, I should be the 
 first to know that, surely ? " 
 
 " Not a bit of it," said Matthew. " Women loves 
 
 secrets o' that sort, and my wife knew a woman 
 
 80
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 once as never told her man for over four months, 
 
 and she acted a bit like Kezia." 
 
 " No ! 'tain't that at all," said Joe. "I only wish it 
 
 was, if what you say be true of women." 
 
 " True enough, my son. I did the 'cutest day's 
 
 work in my life when I persuaded Jane Ann to 
 
 sort of take Joe to help we. I watched the two of 
 
 'em together, and found he caught his tonguing too 
 
 from she, but it had a sort o' nestle sound in it, as 
 
 if she were a cuddlin' of him. She've been gentler 
 
 wi' me too ever since Joe come back (you remember 
 
 his mother and father sent for 'en once, and he 
 
 come home to we again because he ate so much). 
 
 Jane Ann have been as different as different since 
 
 then, as she feels he really belongs to we now." 
 
 Joe was scratching his head as he said very slowly : 
 
 " I don't know of no sister's child to take on for 
 
 Kezia at all. What's the next best remedy, think 
 
 you ? " 
 
 " A thrashin'," said Matthew. 
 
 " A what ? " asked Joe. 
 
 "Wollop her just onc'st," said Matthew, without 
 
 looking at his friend. 
 
 Joe's hand came down from his head, and it was 
 
 clenched as he turned towards Matthew. 
 
 " Shame on thee, mate ! I feel more like strikin' 
 
 thee than a female. I'm sorry I told thee, if thee 
 
 can offer no more help than that. I'm not much 
 
 of a chap, but I've never struck a woman yet." 
 
 " Strike on principle then ! " said Matthew, still 
 
 not looking at his mate. 
 
 " How ? " asked Joe. 
 
 81 6
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " Like the Almighty strikes when He've got a 
 lesson for we to learn which we won't learn with- 
 out stripes and tears. Nothin' is of no avail to 
 stop His chastisement if He do think it's going to 
 work out His plan for He and we, and that's what 
 I'm wantin' of you to do by your wife for her sake 
 more than for yours. Wives must learn to sub- 
 mit," he went on harshly. " It's Divine Providence 
 as 'ave ordered it, and women be miserable, like ivy 
 and trailers of all sorts, if they've no prop to bear 
 'em up. Beat her once, and it'll make a man of 
 you and be a warnin' to she." 
 
 " But I love her, man ! " said Joe softly. " The 
 very thought o' hurtin' of her makes me creep," 
 and he shrugged his broad shoulders. 
 " Women likes bein' hurt ; it's like fondlin' to 'em 
 at times," said Matthew. 
 
 " Lor ! " said Joe humbly. " I never heard that 
 afore. How can you be sure of that at all ? " 
 " I've travelled," said Matthew decisively. " I 
 ain't been to Africa for nothin', mate. I've seen a 
 deal o' things, which if I'd happened on afore I 
 courted Jane Ann would 'ave got me through the 
 marriage scrimmage wi' no tiles off of my roof. 
 That's why I'm a-warnin' of you afore it's too late. 
 Your woman be worth gettin' i' trim, for she's 
 
 well, she's " 
 
 Joe's eyes were on his friend's face as he finished 
 the sentence for his pal : 
 
 11 She's the best sort o' woman a man could 'ave 
 for a sweetheart when her moods is off, and it's only 
 lately her've altered, and I expect it is my fault." 
 82
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " Certainly it is," cried Matthew ; " you've never 
 shown master yet, and you must this very night." 
 Joe coughed. 
 
 " How ? " he asked nervously. 
 " You must thrash her before it's too late. Have 
 'e a cane ? " 
 
 Joe jumped up, pulled down his waistcoat, twisted 
 round his necktie, undid it, tied it again, and 
 said : 
 
 " You'm a fair brute, Matthew." 
 " And you'm a coward," retorted Matthew, as he 
 sat with his hands clasped round his right knee. 
 " I've given you golden advice, and if only a pal 
 had given it to me years ago, I shouldn't be sittin' 
 out here now, but be comfortable in my own 
 chimney corner." 
 Joe put his hands in his pockets. 
 " I cain't stomach the idea at all," he said ; " it's 
 like murderin' a baby, somehow." 
 " Stuff ! " said Matthew. " You needn't lay on 
 too hard to make bruises nor nothin'." 
 Joe went pale. 
 
 " Good Lord ! " he said. " Bruises ! why, man, 
 she've got flesh like a flower." 
 Matthew looked at Joe with a smile. 
 " I almost envies thee, mate," he said ; " why, 
 thee's fair daft wi' love still." 
 
 " Of course I be," said Joe sullenly. " She's more 
 nor meat and drink to me ; allus 'ave been since 
 the first day I took to she." 
 
 " All the more reason for thee to beat her, and at 
 
 onc'st," said Matthew sternly. "You'll lose her, 
 
 83
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 sure enough, if you don't. It's the only chance 
 for thee now, and I do knaw I'm speakin' gospel 
 truth." 
 
 Joe sat down again and meditated with his head in 
 his hands. 
 
 " I'll do it," he said, after a long pause. u It'll 
 nearly be the finish of me ; but if you're certain 
 sure she'll love me more after, I'll shut my eyes 
 and set my teeth and and yes, upon my soul 
 I'll do it." 
 
 Matthew wrung his friend's hand. 
 " I swear it, brother," said Matthew solemnly ; 
 " I've never once known it fail." 
 " Never once in all your travels ? " asked Joe 
 anxiously. 
 
 Matthew looked down. 
 
 11 Iss ! " he said slowly. " Once, sure enough, but 
 the woman had never cared twopence for the man 
 to start wi'. After it she left 'en altogether." 
 " Oh ! " said Joe. 
 
 " See ? " said Matthew. " You see it was no fair 
 start like a thing ? " 
 " No, to be sure," muttered Joe. 
 " Now ! " said Matthew, striking Joe's shoulder, 
 " now for it ! " 
 
 Joe twisted round, and a miserable smile was on 
 his lips as he asked : 
 " Well, what now ? " 
 
 Matthew bent towards his pal and whispered : 
 " We must go and buy the cane." 
 " Sakes ! " said Joe. 
 
 " Bear up ! " said Matthew. " It'll all be over by 
 84
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 this time to-morrow night, and that's a great stand- 
 by, isn't it ? " 
 
 " I suppose it is," said Joe gloomily. 
 The two men got up slowly and took the narrow 
 path which would lead them into the main road. 
 To the casual observer they were only two work- 
 men lurching along after their day's toil, almost too 
 tired to talk. The curious roll of their walk 
 suggested a lethargy of temperament which comes 
 of living in a moist and enervating climate. 
 Their shoulders were slightly bent and their hands 
 in their pockets. As they neared the town, Joe 
 said : 
 
 " Who'll be spokesman ? " 
 
 " Me," answered Matthew. " How far will 'e go 
 in price ! " 
 
 The disconsolate look in Joe's face said plainly that 
 this point was not uppermost in his mind. He 
 simply said : 
 
 " Don't know, my son, and I don't care." 
 u Will sixpence ruin 'e ? " 
 Joe smiled as he shook his head. 
 They went into a shop in the town and bought 
 what they wanted, Joe looking furtively about each 
 time his pal consulted him. 
 
 " It 'ave made me sweat like a bull ! " was the only 
 observation he made as they sauntered towards 
 their homes. 
 
 When they neared Joe's house, Matthew turned 
 towards his friend. 
 
 "It's just on nine o'clock," he said, as he looked at 
 
 his watch. " Go in, and don't stop to think, but 
 
 85
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 set at it to onc'st, and she'll have time to come 
 round afore you settle for the night. Bern' Satur- 
 day, all the neighbours be mostly i' town shopping 
 and if there should be a scream I'll make up a yarn 
 to anyone who comes out, for I shan't be far off 
 till I guess it's all over." 
 
 Joe was very white and his teeth were set. His 
 eyes had a glazed look which vexed Matthew, and 
 he said roughly : 
 
 " Thee deserves to lose her if thee be real chicken- 
 'earted like this." 
 
 That settled Joe. He lifted his door-latch and 
 went into the kitchen. The light was lowered on 
 the kitchen table, and the cat was curled up asleep 
 before the almost empty grate. He caught his 
 breath. His wife must have gone to bed. He 
 grasped the cane firmly in his hand, and mounted 
 the creaking stairs, wishing there were a thousand 
 of them. He crept up very softly, and found the 
 bedroom door open. Kezia was in her night- 
 dress before the looking-glass, her white arms and 
 hands making big shadows on the wall as she 
 plaited her hair in two long braids for the night. 
 Joe turned quite giddy and almost fell against the 
 door. This roused Kezia. She turned and 
 looked at him, and the sight of her face almost 
 bewildered him. Even in their courting days he 
 had never seen such a look on it as that. His two 
 hands instinctively went behind his back and held 
 the cane so that she could not see it. They stood 
 some time looking at one another. The purity 
 and simplicity of his wife as she stood like a girl 
 86
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 before him suddenly subdued the man and the 
 
 would-be woman-tamer. She tossed one plait over 
 
 her shoulder in a coy little way as she said to her 
 
 husband : 
 
 " Seen a ghost, Joey, my dear, or is it Kezia come 
 
 to her senses at last, think you ? " 
 
 Joe never stirred. He was wishing Matthew and his 
 
 advice at the bottom of the sea. He leaned against 
 
 the door and looked long and lovingly at Kezia. 
 
 " What's come to thee, lass ? " he said. 
 
 " Guess ! " she said, as she clasped her hands 
 
 behind her small head. 
 
 " Cain't at all," he answered, smiling. 
 
 "Come inside, sweetheart," she said, as she sat 
 
 down on the edge of the bed. 
 
 The man longed to take her in his arms. Her voice 
 
 had the old ring in it, her eyes the soft, sweet look 
 
 which had made him her own. He could not 
 
 drop the cane, because it would betray him. The 
 
 sight of it might bring back Kezia the shrew, so 
 
 he was in a great dilemma. He suddenly lurched 
 
 in and sat down by her side on the bed, the cane 
 
 by his side, the side the farthest from her. 
 
 " Kezia," he said under his breath, as he put his 
 
 arms round her. 
 
 " Joey, my dear," she said softly. 
 
 There was a long pause, and at last Kezia broke it. 
 
 " He'll be the dearest little thing a woman ever 
 
 bore," she said. 
 
 Joe looked at his wife suddenly, kissed her gently 
 
 on her eyes and brow, and lingered on the mouth 
 
 she held up to him. 
 
 87
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " Heaven cain't be more desirable than this," said 
 Joe very quietly. 
 
 " To think there'll be three of we soon," she said 
 happily. "You see now why I've been so teasy 
 lately. Now I'll sing all day long, so he'll be a 
 happy boy." 
 
 Joe never spoke. He felt that long, hard rod 
 against his leg, and he almost laughed at his own 
 misery an hour ago. 
 
 " Thee'rt smiling, Joe ! " she said. " Thee and 
 me 'ave both hungered for the same thing. Did 
 thee guess it at all, I wonder ? I've kept it from 
 thee a bit to make quite sure. But lor ! my dear 
 life ! whatever be this that you've got 'ere ? " 
 Joe sat quite still, and Kezia pulled out the long 
 yellow cane. 
 
 They both looked at it very solemnly for a few 
 minutes, and then Kezia burst into a merry laugh, 
 but her lips trembled. 
 
 " Eh ! Joe ! " she said softly. " Thee was allus 
 unlike other chaps ; that's why I do love thee so. 
 Fancy thee guessing and going to buy him some- 
 thin' to onc'st ! " 
 
 She put her face in her hands and sobbed and 
 laughed together. 
 
 " Oh ! it brings it so near like," she went on. 
 " Most men would 'ave thought of a cradle or a 
 rattle, but thee ! Oh ! my dear ! " and she threw 
 her arms round his neck, "thee thought of the 
 first beatin' we should be forced to give 'en, for, 
 of course, he'll be a lad of tremenjous spirit." 
 " So he will ! " exclaimed Joe suddenly. " Both
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 his father and mother be folk o' g'eat spirit, and," 
 added Joe, as he tried the cane on his hard hand, 
 "the first time as he dirts the tablecloth or frets 
 his mother I'll lay it on him as, thanks be, I've 
 never laid it on nobody yet."
 
 A HARD DAY 
 
 "Gooo evenin' to you, my dear," said Martha 
 Hicks to Jane Treglisson, one fine June night. 
 " How be 'e at all ? I've scarce set eyes on 'e 
 since that spurt wi' the bobby and Caroline Ann 
 there," and she jerked her thumb in the direction 
 of the little white cottage near. 
 Jane Treglisson smiled. 
 
 "We ain't seen the end o' that yet," she said, 
 rubbing her forehead slowly. She still bore the 
 marks of the famous fight between her neighbour 
 and herself, when " her soul had been torn out 
 of the top of her head,'' as Wilmot Tregarth 
 expressed it. 
 
 " Police-Constable Uren ain't no fool at all, and 
 I'm expectin' a rare surprise for she," jerking her 
 finger towards the wall, " when he've had his say 
 to the inspector. To think o' she flyin' like a 
 turkey cock at me 'cause I shook my own door- 
 mat against my own door-post. How was I to 
 know there were black pepper all over it, and, if 
 it was there, how were I to know it would go into 
 her leery eyes ? " 
 
 90
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " Of course not, my dear," said Martha reassuringly. 
 " I never took to that woman after she'd once 
 lived so many years in Americy. She've never 
 really favoured we since. She seems now more 
 like a foreigner or uplong, and I cain't abear they." 
 Jane Treglisson sighed as she said : 
 " Lor ! woman ! the doctor do say I must keep 
 my head quiet for a bit o' while, but it's gone like 
 a traction engine to-day, for I've done more nor 
 ever I belong to do on a washin' and bakin' day 
 in one." 
 
 " Why, what 'ave you been workin' at ? " asked 
 Martha, as she sat down in the little corner settle. 
 " Well ! I began wi' sittin' in my winder to do 
 a bit o' mendin', but first one thing come along 
 and then another, and I were fair mazed wi' it all. 
 I'd no sooner settled down than, if you please, I 
 sees John Rogers come along lookin' as 'igh and 
 mighty as a magistrate on a bench. I hollered 
 after he to know wherever he were off to in that 
 hurry, but I were too late. I got no answer at all. 
 I fair itched to know whoever could 'ave been this 
 late payin' of their rates. I craned my neck, my 
 dear, till I saw 'en go into Bob Olds's house. He 
 were there a long while, and that kept me on the 
 stretch, in a manner o' speakin', till I feel all askew 
 like, even now." She rubbed her thin, long neck 
 irritably and went on : " He were there close on 
 half an hour, and came out wi' a look on his face 
 like a whipped dog, and I sail never know the 
 rights o' that," ended Jane sadly. 
 Martha laughed. 
 
 9 1
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " And Bob Olds 'ave allus the manner of his 
 
 betters on Sundays," she said, " and 'as the airs of 
 
 a man as pays his way at all times." 
 
 "Well, my dear, he ought to have the bounce o' 
 
 two wi' a wood mouse of a wife like heVe got," 
 
 said Jane. " Not that I dislike the woman at all," 
 
 she added. 
 
 " Tobias Penberthy can brighten she up well 
 
 enough," said Martha with a laugh. 
 
 41 Iss, sure enough," responded Jane. " They'm 
 
 like two doves when they'm together, and Bob be 
 
 like a g'eat blind rooster struttin' and crowin', wi' 
 
 nothin' but noise to commend him." 
 
 " Well ! what else 'ave e' done to-day ? " asked 
 
 Martha. 
 
 " What I've told 'e were only the beginning of my 
 
 day," said Jane. " It 'ave wore me so I feel as if 
 
 I should be too tired to sleep. I'd 'ardly settled 
 
 down again when who should I see a-comin' past 
 
 my door, wobblin' from side to side on a bicycle, if 
 
 you please, but Harriet Jane, Widow Trevaskis's 
 
 g'eat fat grandchiel ! " 
 
 At the recollection of this Mrs Treglisson held her 
 
 sides with laughter, and Martha ejaculated : 
 
 " My Gosh ! what next ? " 
 
 " It were a sight to see, I can tell 'e," went on Mrs 
 
 Treglisson. "It were like watchin' a toad on a 
 
 hot grill. Her e'eat fat carcase was near breakin' 
 
 O O 
 
 the springs o' the thing as she bounced down along. 
 Well ! I were bound to know the rights o' that, for 
 I couldn't make out where she'd got the machine 
 and what it all meant ; and if you believe me," she 
 92
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 went on rapidly, " I 'ad to go into five neighbours' 
 housen afore I got at the real rights of it ; but I did 
 at last," she ended triumphantly. 
 " Lor ! " said Martha. " Fish girls will be startin' 
 of bicycles next. G'eat awkward straddle leg 
 things, to my mind, which would 'ave been hooted 
 out of the place when I were young. My own 
 two legs be good enough for me." 
 " And me too," said Mrs Treglisson a little 
 moodily. " Nobody would lend me things if I did 
 want 'em ever so, and no artists' wives comes to 
 teach me to ride no bike. It's well to have 
 carroty hair enough to set a hayrick on fire, seems 
 to me. It leads to artists wan tin' the person as 
 'as it for to sit to 'em, and from that to presents is a 
 near step, I notice." She sighed as she ended, and 
 her pale face looked suddenly very old and tired. 
 " Forthy maid, that ! " said Martha, " and no 
 notion o' bakin' or scrubbin', and her granny nigh 
 starvin'." 
 
 " Things nowadays is gettin' all twisty and 
 crosty," said Jane Treglisson. " The old uns 'ave 
 allus to spoil the young uns seemly. I'm almost 
 glad I've no chiel, for I'm not one for pettin' and 
 fussin', even what I likes the most." 
 " Nor me," said Martha. 
 
 " I got quite a turn, talkm' o' pettin'," said Jane 
 suddenly. " This afternoon, just when I'd finished 
 my bit o' pastry, who should I see go by the winder, 
 linking, if you please, like a courtin' couple, but 
 Jim Curtis and Ned Olds's eldest girl. I got up 
 to onc'st, my dear, but lor ! they was out o' sight 
 
 93
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 billin' and cooin' for their lives, and I all of a shake 
 at the sight of 'em. I went into Wilmot's to hear 
 the full rights of it, but she took it very calm, for 
 she said my window panes shows things wrong 
 sometimes through 'avin poor glass in it, and she said 
 it were Jim's own girl and not Maria Olds at all." 
 " Stuff ! " said Martha. " A sickly preacher 'ave 
 got the earhole o' Wilmot lately, and now whatever 
 you do say against a neighbour she turns it into a 
 different class o' thing altogether. I'm one to like 
 black to be black, and I've more respect for it 
 real black than when it's a washy grey, like a 
 thing." 
 
 Jane was smiling at Martha as she said : 
 " I don't know no one i' the world who is so soothin' 
 to talk to as you be, Martha Hicks." 
 " Thank 'e kindly, Jane Treglisson," answered 
 Martha curtly. " It's allus better, though, to be my 
 friend than my foe. I've a nettly tongue when 
 I'm roused." 
 
 Jane made no comment, but went to the little 
 drawer in the kithen-table. She brought out a 
 letter, opened it carefully, and pulled Martha to- 
 wards it. 
 
 " Read that," she said. 
 
 Martha glanced at the paper before her and said : 
 " In my young days readin' and writin' wasn't of 
 much account, so it do take me a g'eat while for to 
 master the full sense of a thing like that," pointing 
 to the letter on the table. " What be it at all ? " 
 Jane coughed. 
 " The postman left it 'ere this aternoon," she said, 
 
 94
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " and you see whose name be on the envelope, and 
 in a man's writin' too : big and sprawly and 
 audacious-like. Well, my dear," coming closer to 
 Martha, " I know you'll commend me for this, for if 
 neighbours don't look after one another, who will, I 
 should like for to ask ? " 
 Martha looked puzzled as she said : 
 " I don't follow 'e at all." 
 
 " See ! " said Jane, as she poked Martha in the 
 ribs. " I itched to know the rights of all this, for 
 you know the talk there've been lately over she 
 and that lodger fellow who were here a bit since. 
 Well, I up and took a kettle o' boilin' water (all 
 these things takes time, I'll have 'e knaw) and I 
 opened the letter to find out the rights of it all. 
 Of course, you understand, I never did it for no 
 pryin' at all, and I'd be better pleased than anyone 
 if she could clear herself, for I likes the woman 
 well enough, and " with a little gasp "you 
 understand, of course, that's why I've done what 
 I 'ave over this 'ere. It were time wasted partly," 
 added Jane. " All there was in it was askin' of 
 she if he could come again in her rooms by and by, 
 when he were off duty. Of course," she added, 
 " there's more there, I'm thinkin', than you or me 
 could ever find out, but to all appearances it's a 
 innocent letter enough." 
 
 " It don't allus do to believe the blackest of even a 
 neighbour at all times," said Martha thoughtfully. 
 Jane slowly put the letter back in its envelope, and 
 licked the surface before pressing it down with the 
 palm of her hand. 
 
 95
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 "There!" she said. "Who'll be the wiser but 
 
 you and me ? The postman can have it when 
 
 next he comes. There's many things remedied i' 
 
 this world by a friend knowin' aforehand how to 
 
 act." 
 
 Jane turned suddenly as she saw Martha going 
 
 towards the door. 
 
 " Lor ! Martha ! don't go yet," she cried. " I've 
 
 lots more to tell thee, for it 'ave been a 'eavy day, 
 
 sure enough ! " 
 
 " Iss ! " answered Martha, and her face was a 
 little white under her turned down black hat. 
 " I'm not for reprimandin' a neighbour at all, mind ; 
 everyone knaws their own work best ; but if doin' 
 o' things like that," pointing to the letter, " be the 
 only means o' settin' a village right, give me, my 
 dear, light days and not heavy ones, for it 'ud lie 
 heavy on my conscience when I come to sleep, for 
 fear I'd be found out, and be a gibe to they who 
 was worse nor me." 
 
 Martha slowly closed the door and went into the 
 street. 
 
 " Gosh ! " ejaculated Jane Treglisson to herself. 
 " Martha be a Christian woman according to her 
 lights, but narrow-minded over some things, sure 
 enough." 
 
 96
 
 COURTSHIP 
 
 TOBIAS OLDS stood before his looking-glass in his 
 little hired bedroom and gazed at his face with 
 nervous dread. It was very red, for after many 
 violent tugs at his stiff high collar, he felt as if 
 he were going to have a fit. A flannel shirt, open 
 at the throat, was more to his taste, but he knew 
 what girls needed when they walked out with their 
 sweethearts, and he was determined to live up to 
 the traditions of his race. After one more gasp 
 and wrench, in order to try and loosen the tight 
 collar, he turned to a little drawer, opened it, and 
 took out three ties. One he rejected at once. It 
 was a pale mauve with black spots. 
 " More like a funeral," he muttered. He hesitated 
 over a dark red tie, but eventually chose a very 
 bright blue one. He tied and untied this at least 
 half-a-dozen times, until the front of the white 
 collar had distinct marks on it where his half-clean 
 fingers had been. Purple and red patches of colour 
 spread over Tobias's face. " Darn clothes ! " he 
 97 7
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 muttered. " They'm mazy things, sure enough, 
 and I'm feelin' like a trussed fowl already," and he 
 glanced apprehensively at some shining brown 
 boots near his bed. 
 
 These he put on very slowly, making wry faces as 
 he did so, for when he stooped the tight collar caught 
 him like a halter, and the large shirt-front bulged 
 out with its own dignity. At last the boots were 
 on, and Tobias stood up, sighed, shook himself, 
 and put the little looking-glass on the floor to see 
 the effect. 
 
 " Brave and little feet in they," he muttered. 
 41 To walk far i* these and court at the same time 
 will knock me up for clay-work to-morrow." He 
 lifted the glass slowly, so as to get a good view of 
 his smart blue trousers and jacket, and when he 
 had got as far as the tie he muttered again : 
 " Masher, sure enough ! " 
 
 Something did not quite please him as he put the 
 glass down, and his face was grave as he still 
 surveyed himself in the mirror. He went to a 
 little cupboard and brought out a small bottle con- 
 taining a thick yellow fluid. He undid the cork, 
 smelt at the contents of the bottle, and pro- 
 ceeded to pour some carefully on to the palm of 
 his left hand. Then he rubbed his hands together 
 and brushed the liquid well into his hair, which, 
 after a time, shone to his satisfaction, for he nodded 
 at his image in the little glass. With his tongue 
 hanging out, because of his pre-occupation with 
 the top of his head, he carefully plastered his thin 
 hair over his forehead in a slight curve, and at the
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 sight of this triumph of art over nature, Tobias 
 
 leaped in the air and clapped his hands. He ran 
 
 to the wash-basin and scrubbed the oil from his 
 
 ringers, whistling softly to himself "Jerusalem the 
 
 Golden." He took a bowler hat from a drawer 
 
 near by, and very carefully placed it on the side of 
 
 his head, giving it a careful but firm pat on the top 
 
 with his open hand to keep it in its place. The 
 
 door opened suddenly, and his room mate came in. 
 
 " Gosh ! " cried Ben Rogers, " what 'ave we 
 
 here ? " Tobias winked at Ben and coloured to 
 
 the roots of his hair. 
 
 " A mash, sure enough ! " said Ben, and he eyed 
 
 Tobias from head to foot with an envious contempt. 
 
 " They boots alone be like a gen'leman born, my 
 
 son." 
 
 " They'll pass," said Tobias modestly. " Thanks 
 
 be, it ain't a dampin' night." 
 
 " Hair-oil be plentiful," said Ben. 
 
 " So be imperance, seemly," retorted Tobias. 
 
 " Thy collar be nearly hangin' oft" thee already," 
 
 said Ben, with an envious eye on his friend's neck. 
 
 " Thanks be, I've never felt no callin' to hitch 
 
 myself in a thing like that." 
 
 " Wait ! " said Tobias. 
 
 " Fur what ? " asked Ben. 
 
 Tobias hung his head, fearing he had given himself 
 
 away, but he added hastily : 
 
 For a call." 
 
 Ben whistled, as he said gravely : 
 
 " Took wi' religion, mate, be you ? It don't usually 
 
 take a feller that way." 
 
 99
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " Sometimes it do," said Tobias quickly. " Clean- 
 liness be next to godliness, we're told." 
 Ben was puzzled, and he sat on the bed to gather 
 his wits together. 
 
 "We're warned against pride," said Ben, "and 
 that," pointing to his friend's shirt-front, "is 
 nothin' but lustful pride." 
 " It's for a girl," said Tobias slowly. 
 " For what ? " cried Ben. 
 " You heard all right," growled Tobias. 
 " You'm mad," said Ben. 
 " Why ? " asked Tobias. 
 " She'll never look at you," said Ben. 
 Tobias strode towards his friend and said fiercely : 
 " How the devil can you tell that ? " 
 " I knows the breed," said Ben. " It's all glitter 
 and jaw wi' they, and a lot of masterfulness. 
 You've none." 
 
 Tobias went back and looked in the glass. He 
 turned suddenly towards Ben. 
 "My eyes be fierce enough," he said, "and my 
 studs and hair shines like real gold, and as for master- 
 fulness, wait till I've had my first kiss ! " 
 " That's the first bit o' real speerit I've ever beheld 
 in thee," said Ben, with reluctant admiration. 
 " Go on, mate. Love 'ave taught you a thing 
 or two already, but who's the girl ? You've kept 
 it some quiet, old man." 
 
 For answer Tobias put his thumb to his nose and 
 winked at Ben. The two men laughed together 
 as Tobias said : 
 
 " I'm not such a Johnny as I look." 
 100
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 44 I shall spy on thee," said Ben slowly. 
 
 "I shall knock your eyes in if you do," said 
 
 Tobias. 
 
 Ben got up and put his hands on his friend's 
 
 shoulders, as he said slowly : 
 
 " Man, thee's changing, sure enough ! Takin' to 
 
 love and fightin' i' one night ; what next ? " 
 
 " We shall see," said Tobias, with a smile growing 
 
 on his lips. 
 
 44 You're cocksure, I'm thinking," said Ben, 4t and 
 
 that shows you don't know your quarry." 
 
 44 She've given me to understand," said Tobias. 
 
 44 That's a bad sign," said Ben slowly. 4l If 
 
 they're forthy they don't mean coming on ; and 
 
 if they're backward, look out ! They'll have their 
 
 arms round you in no time." 
 
 44 Which way are they with thee, mate ? Thee 
 
 seems to know a terrible lot," said Tobias. 
 
 44 Enough to keep away," cried Ben. 4t I wouldn't 
 
 have any of 'em at a gift. They'm a whisht jest 
 
 i' any man's life." 
 
 The clock struck eight. 
 
 44 I'm off," cried Tobias. 
 
 As he went out of the door Ben muttered, dangling 
 
 his legs from the bed : 
 
 44 Eight o'clock, and Wednesday night, too. The 
 
 reg'lar courtin' night, sure enough. He's in dead 
 
 earnest, and I'm broke," and his mouth grew grave 
 
 as he continued under his breath : 4t He'm a 
 
 grand mate, and I like his silent, deep manners, 
 
 and I've got used to him now." He jumped from 
 
 the bed on to the floor as he murmured slowly : 
 
 101
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " I've lost him. He'll win a woman if he's set his 
 heart on her, and she'll play with him like a cat 
 plays wi' a mouse. The worst is, he'll think he's 
 happy when he's really miserable without me to 
 jaw with him in the evenings, and " here he 
 sighed deeply "the measly part of the whole 
 thing is that he'll happen never know what's wrong 
 wi' him till his dying day." 
 
 II 
 
 Susan Curtis, with a frown on her brow, sat 
 looking into the street one fine June night. She 
 was waiting for her best friend, who was late in 
 coming from her work. It was Susan's hour of 
 relaxation. She served in a shop in the chief 
 street in the small town, and all day, and every 
 day, Susan had to meet each stranger who came 
 in with her head a little bent on one side and an 
 engaging smile on her lips, though in her heart 
 there was anything but a kindly feeling to the 
 world at large. She had no parents, and her one 
 longing in life was to have someone for her very 
 own someone to whom she was of vital import- 
 ance. The kitten in the little cottage she stayed 
 in with her fellow-worker was the only thing in 
 the world that regarded her in the light of an 
 ideal, or to whom she was a necessity. The girl 
 with whom she lived received Susan's friendship as 
 a matter of course, and no one knew better than 
 Susan that the affection was nearly all on one side. 
 102
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " Oh ! " suddenly exclaimed Susan. " There you 
 
 are ! " and the morose little face, with its thin lips 
 
 and upturned nose, brightened as she added : 
 
 " You're late, sure enough." 
 
 There was a flutter and a spring on the stairs, and 
 
 the door opened. Loveday Oliver tripped into 
 
 the room, and threw her hat on the bed and her 
 
 lace scarf after it. 
 
 " Oh ! " ejaculated Loveday with a smile, as she 
 
 sat down on a chair. " Hot, isn't it ? " 
 
 Susan ran to the water bottle, and poured some 
 
 water out for her friend to drink. 
 
 " Thanks," said Loveday ; " and I've drunk two 
 
 cups o' tea just now wi' Mrs Richards, too ! " 
 
 " That's where you've been," said Susan, as her 
 
 eyes followed every movement of the girl before 
 
 her. Loveday was opening first one drawer and 
 
 then another, and slamming them to again as she 
 
 threw out a bit of lace, a little silk handkerchief 
 
 with a yellow border, and a white lace hat with a 
 
 large feather. 
 
 " Sakes ! " cried Susan, under her breath. 
 
 11 What's up ? " Loveday tossed her head, and 
 
 her pretty mouth pouted winsomely as she asked 
 
 the question. 
 
 Susan's eyes hardened as she said : " You'm 
 
 prettier nor ever, Loveday. If I was a chap 
 
 " Shut up ! " said Loveday. " Don't be a soft." 
 Susan turned her head towards the window. 
 " It's courtin' night," she said slowly. 
 " Queen Anne be dead," said Loveday. 
 " Loveday Oliver ! " cried Susan, turning round 
 103
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 and facing her friend as she went on : "You've 
 real designs this time. It 'ave just struck me." 
 " Smart girl ! " said Loveday. 
 " Mercy on us ! " said Susan. " It gives me a 
 shivery feelin' only to think of it. It's all so 
 unbeknowns and awful, somehow, in a manner of 
 speakin', and we seems mad to run after it." 
 " After what ? " asked Loveday, as she held the 
 tongs over the little stove before curling her hair. 
 " Love ! " said Susan slowly. 
 
 Loveday coiled her front hair round the tongs and 
 twisted them fiercely, till she had almost touched 
 her forehead, and as she did so she looked at herself 
 fixedly in the little gkss. Susan watched her with 
 bated breath, and as Loveday turned, their eyes met. 
 " You'm jealous 'cause you've no chap," said 
 Loveday sharply. 
 " Iss ! " said Susan shortly. 
 
 Loveday's brow was puckered as she said : " You 
 soft." 
 
 " It's no good hidin' the feelin'," said Susan 
 crossly. " There's nothin' so hard as lookin' on 
 at some things." 
 
 " Perhaps it won't come oft"," said Loveday slyly, 
 as she slid two common little combs into the sides 
 of her hair and poked out her fringe with a hat-pin. 
 " Iss, it will, if you're bent on him," said Susan 
 slowly. " There's no other end for he if you're 
 bent on him." 
 
 " Stuff ! " said Loveday. " He'm not a herrin' i* 
 a net, girl ! " 
 
 " No ! " said Susan slowly ; " but he'm a strong 
 104
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 young man mazed wi' your beauty and catching 
 ways, and you know the tricks to fetch men on 
 with." 
 
 " You've taught me," said Loveday. 
 " By words only," said Susan ; " but you've got 
 the way to draw 'em by nature, like a thing. I 
 ain't got the manner at all, but I can reckon it 
 all up same as if I had, for it's all inside me, same 
 as in you." 
 
 Loveday was nearly ready, and she asked Susan to 
 pin her belt to her dainty white skirt. 
 " You've taught me a lot about chaps," said Love- 
 day, as she patiently stood before her mirror while 
 Susan did the odds and ends of things in a woman's 
 dress which can never be satisfactorily done by 
 herself. 
 
 " Iss ! " said Susan, as she took a pin out of her 
 mouth to fasten into the belt. 
 
 " I'm allus stand-offish, as you do know ; but I 
 feel a coming-on sort of feelin' wi' this slow- 
 tongued Tobias Olds. He's so quiet and slow, but 
 he seems fairly crazed wi' me somehow. If it 
 wasn't the very unwisest thing to do, I could throw 
 my arms round 'en and fair hug 'en this very 
 night." 
 
 Susan caught her breath as she said sharply : 
 " I feel tempted to tell you to do it, but I wants 
 you to be happy, so I tells you that if ye do, your 
 game's up. Fling 'en off again and again. If he's 
 bent on 'e he'll foller you madder nor ever j if he 
 isn't, it'll do no harm, but good to all o' we, for it 
 don't do to let men think we're crazy over 'em. 
 105
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 Toss your pretty head and swing your dress round 
 
 your heels and slap him i' the face, in a manner o' 
 
 speakin'. He'll be at your feet to onc'st." 
 
 Loveday looked hard into Susan's bitter little face 
 
 as she knelt on the floor putting the finishing 
 
 touches to the front of her friend's skirt. 
 
 " Susie, you've been chucked, and you've never told 
 
 me ! " 
 
 A large tear slowly rolled down Susan's face as she 
 
 said : " And so will ye be if you give in too easy. 
 
 It's the chase they do love every bit as much as we. 
 
 I 'ates 'em really," she said, under her breath. 
 
 " No, you don't," said Loveday roughly ; " you 
 
 adores 'em in your heart." 
 
 " Not like I do you," said Susan faintly. 
 
 " Goose ! " said Loveday. " I should be nowhere 
 
 to-morrow if the right chap came along. Think I 
 
 don't know ? " 
 
 " Your very eyes are brighter," said Susan 
 
 inconsequently, "and your clothes sit on you 
 
 prettier, and you look ever so sparkly, somehow." 
 
 Loveday was bored, and covered her mouth with 
 
 her hand to hide a yawn as she turned towards the 
 
 door. 
 
 " Good-bye, old girl," said Loveday ; " wish me a 
 
 brave time." 
 
 Susan hung her head as she got up from the floor. 
 
 " Give us a kiss," she said suddenly. 
 
 Loveday held a cold cheek. 
 
 " No ! " snapped Susan crossly, " mouth ! " 
 
 Loveday laughed as she asked : " What would he 
 
 say ? " 
 
 1 06
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 "'Tain't his yet, and I keep tellin' you you're a 
 fool if you kiss too sudden. They loves not to be 
 sure, and they likes to be off and on for long 
 enough. Kiss 'en to-night and you're done for." 
 " Well, here's a smacker for you, then," said Love- 
 day, as she put her arms round Susan's neck, and 
 added : " If I don't hug someone tight to-night I 
 shan't be able to get along at all, for I feels hungry 
 and crazy for frolic, and kissin' be only that." 
 Susan's eyes brightened. " You can hug once in 
 a way," she said, as she gazed into Loveday's 
 glowing face. " You must care a bit for me to 
 hug me as tight as that," and she watched her 
 friend down the passage, and never saw the little 
 shrug of the pretty shoulders, or the murmur of 
 "You little fool," as Loveday went out into the 
 street. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Tobias Olds stood near a disused blacksmith's 
 shop, evidently waiting for someone, for he coughed 
 nervously at intervals, and pulled down his waist- 
 coat every few seconds. 
 
 " Kind o' sweatin' work," he muttered, " waitin' 
 for a lingering girl." As he looked up, Loveday 
 Oliver stood before him. 
 " Evenin'," said Tobias. 
 
 Loveday smiled and made no answer. Tobias put 
 his hat a little more on one side. Loveday shook the 
 dust from her skirt, and looked at Tobias out of the 
 corners of her eyes. Tobias stuck the heel of his 
 107
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 brown boot into the earth as he said under his 
 
 breath : " Sky looks tender : it'll make rain before 
 
 mornin'." 
 
 " Iss ! " said Loveday. 
 
 There was a long pause, and Loveday adjusted her 
 
 hat, and fastened the lower button of her gloves. 
 
 " Let's be movin'," said Tobias. 
 
 " Iss ! " said Loveday. 
 
 Tobias pointed with his finger first in one direction 
 
 and then in another, as he asked : " Down along or 
 
 up along ? " 
 
 Loveday nodded her head towards the lower path. 
 
 " Come on, then," said Tobias. 
 
 The two walked in silence for some time, and at last 
 
 Tobias said slowly : " Still night for a walk." 
 
 " Iss ! " said Loveday. 
 
 Tobias looked down at the girl by his side and shyly 
 
 peered under the large white hat as he asked : " Are 
 
 you quite well ? " 
 
 " Iss," answered Loveday ; " I'm never ill." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Tobias, with a sigh of relief, " that's 
 
 good hearin', anyway." 
 
 " Why ? " asked Loveday, in almost a whisper. 
 
 " 'Cause a sick w " He stopped, coughed, 
 
 and shuffled his feet, as he continued rapidly : " A 
 sick woman ain't no use to herself nor nobody else." 
 There was another long pause. 
 " Pilchard shoal in the bay ! " cried Tobias. 
 They both looked out to sea, and stopped to watch 
 the little boats. 
 " Tasty fish," said Tobias. 
 
 " I dearly love 'em," said Loveday, with animation. 
 1 08
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " A real savour," said Tobias briskly. 
 " Wi' vinegar and watercress," said Loveday. 
 11 Never tried the watercress dodge," said Tobias. 
 " It's prime," said Loveday. 
 
 Tobias turned to face the girl, and then suddenly 
 hung his head. 
 
 " What was you going to say ? " said Loveday 
 indifferently. 
 
 Tobias spat on the ground nervously. " It's nice 
 to have tastes alike," he jerked out. 
 " Everybody likes pilchards," said Loveday slyly. 
 They walked on in silence for some time. 
 " Shall we sit down ? " said Loveday. 
 " Thankful to, I'm sure," said Tobias j " these 
 boots be a murderin' of me." 
 
 Loveday laughed as she said : " You'm real swell," 
 and she looked up into his face. 
 Tobias blushed to the roots of his hair as he 
 muttered : " Like me, do you ? " 
 " Of course," said Loveday. " You'm a reg'lar 
 mash." 
 
 Tobias fumbled for his pipe. 
 
 " Object ? " he queried hurriedly, as he rammed 
 tobacco into the bowl. 
 
 Loveday shook her head, and said slyly : " Men 
 loves their 'baccy better nor anythin' i' the world." 
 Tobias struck a match sharply on his boot, and 
 drew long, quick pulls before he spoke. Then he 
 said shortly : " No, they don't." 
 Loveday edged a little nearer to Tobias as she 
 said, emphatically : " Iss, I've heard 'em say so." 
 " Then it's lies," said Tobias. 
 109
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " Oh ! " exclaimed Loveday. " How dreadful ! " 
 
 " What ? " asked Tobias. 
 
 " To say what you don't mean," said Loveday. 
 
 Tobias frowned. 
 
 " Do girls allus tell true ? " he asked. 
 
 " Oh ! Iss ! nearly always," said Loveday 
 
 confidently. 
 
 " Why be you walkin' out wi' me to-night ? " 
 
 suddenly snapped Tobias. 
 
 Loveday jerked back to her former position on 
 
 the grass. 
 
 Tobias watched her with keen eyes as he drew at 
 
 his pipe. "Say!" he insisted, as she did not 
 
 answer. 
 
 " I likes fresh air," said Loveday gently. 
 
 " Hang air," said Tobias sullenly ; " don't 'e like 
 
 nothin' else ? " 
 
 " Iss ! " said Loveday. 
 
 " What ? " queried Tobias eagerly. 
 
 " Sittin' on the grass, watching the pilchard boats," 
 
 said Loveday, quietly. 
 
 Tobias knocked the bowl of his pipe against the 
 
 toe of his boot as he muttered : " You're having 
 
 me on." Then, as he saw her scared and inquiring 
 
 look, he murmured : " You'm real takin'." 
 
 Lovedav tossed her head, as she said with a pout : 
 
 " Saucy manners wi' you, sure enough, Mr Olds." 
 
 11 Mr be hanged ; drop it, Loveday ! " 
 
 She gave a little scream, and jumped up as she 
 
 said : " It's gettin' late, and we'd better be goin'." 
 
 Tobias stood by her side as he said slowly : " I'm 
 
 i' dead earnest." 
 
 no
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " And I'm tired," said Loveday, as she came 
 
 closer to the man's side. 
 
 " Let me carry you," said Tobias, under his breath ; 
 
 " you're only a feather's weight." 
 
 " You'm forthy and silly," said Loveday, with her 
 
 head lowered. 
 
 " Nothin' seems to matter but one thing," said 
 
 Tobias. 
 
 " What's that ? " asked Loveday, with a defiant 
 
 little smile. 
 
 " You'm cold," Tobias said quickly ; " you'm 
 
 shiverin'. Here, take my coat," and he began to 
 
 pull his jacket off. 
 
 "Silly Billy!" said Loveday, to think I'd be 
 
 seen wearin' a chap's coat." 
 
 " Cuddle up to me, then," said Tobias softly. 
 
 For answer Loveday went further away and walked 
 
 quickly towards her home. 
 
 " Vexed ? " queried Tobias. 
 
 " Iss ! " murmured Loveday, in a frightened voice. 
 
 Tobias came close to the girl's side and whispered, 
 
 " Give us one," and he caught her arm. Loveday 
 
 gave a little scream and began to run, but Tobias 
 
 kept hold of her still as he said, " You'm mazin' 
 
 me," and his breath came quickly as he added, 
 
 " No girl's ever had the chance afore." 
 
 " Oh ! let me go, do ! " cried Loveday breathlessly. 
 
 " I I I don't don't want to be kissed a bit," 
 
 and she put her hands over her face as she added : 
 
 " It's truth. I never thought of such a thing." 
 
 They were at her door, and her hand was on the 
 
 knob. 
 
 in
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 Tobias, with a white, tired face, wrenched her out 
 
 into the street by the arm, as he said harshly : 
 
 " Like it or not, it's got to be." Loveday fell into 
 
 his arms. " There ! " he said, as he let her go, 
 
 with a deep sigh : " A second chap can't never 
 
 do no better nor that, and I'll bung his eyes in if 
 
 he tries." 
 
 Loveday was leaning against the little cottage wall 
 
 and crying piteously. Tobias jerked her hands 
 
 from her face, as he said boldly : " Look up, 
 
 girl ! Face your sweetheart ! " 
 
 She smiled shyly out of her tears as she sobbed 
 
 out : " You'll you'll never want me no more 
 
 now never ! I know that, but but it was not 
 
 me at all it was all you." 
 
 " Iss ! " said Tobias, " and it's to go on for ever 
 
 and ever, mind." 
 
 The girl looked up at Tobias. 
 
 " You'm grown into a real big chap," she said 
 
 feebly. " I've never noticed till now," and she 
 
 put up her little tear-stained face to his. 
 
 " Thanks be to God as made men and maids," said 
 
 Tobias, as he kissed her again. 
 
 112
 
 UNDER CONVICTION 
 
 " PLEASE, missis, will you come and speak to John 
 James ; he've forgot the firewood, turned the 
 bucket over when he was milkin', and has a 
 wanderin' look ! " The little maid flicked her 
 duster against the wall to remove a stray cobweb, 
 and added on her own account : " It's a pity men 
 'as such chancy ways. I cannot abear them myself 
 and 'ate them round the house." 
 I laughed as I said : 
 
 u I'll be down in a moment. Where is John ? " 
 " In the stable," Maria Jane answered. 
 I slipped on my hat and went out to interview my 
 farm hand. He had been in my service for some 
 time, and I was not alarmed at the statement of 
 the little maid in whose eyes he found no favour. 
 " Good morning, John," I said, as I saw the man 
 I wanted standing in the doorway of the cowshed. 
 As there was no answer I looked sharply into his 
 face. It was a very white face. The previous 
 night John James had seemed well, and his whistle 
 had persistently irritated my nerves until he had 
 left work. I was puzzled. 
 
 113 8
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " Good morning, John," I repeated emphatically. 
 He did not answer, but fixed his eyes on my face 
 and smiled. Then he moved towards me. 
 " Shake hands, missis," he said in a broken voice. 
 My worst fears were getting confirmed. He 
 seemed to have been drinking or to be in some bad 
 trouble. The man had completely altered from 
 the vigorous worker of the day before. I thought 
 it wiser to humour him, so I shook his hand, 
 silently. 
 
 " God bless you," he said solemnly. 
 I waited for something further which might explain 
 his strange conduct. 
 " And you'll come too ? " he asked. 
 The situation was getting very puzzling. I 
 glanced towards the yard and replied mechanically : 
 " Where to, John ? " 
 
 " Christ ! " was all he answered, and his eyes never 
 left my face. 
 
 I wondered whether it would be best to laugh or 
 to be severe, and so bring him to his senses. I had 
 little time to think. John James stood before me 
 with cksped hands, and his white lips trembled as 
 he almost sang out the words : 
 " Missis, I'm saved ! " 
 
 It was ridiculous not to be able to respond to this 
 clarion note of joy, but I could do nothing but 
 stand and stare as I realised how the man had 
 become transformed. His body seemed to have 
 shrunk and his muscles become limp. I did not 
 speak ; I simply continued staring. 
 He again broke the silence. 
 114
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " I'm under conviction, missis," he said, and his 
 eyes glittered. 
 
 " So am I, I think," I at last found voice to 
 answer. " I'm pretty well convinced that to pay a 
 man a pound a week to do his work badly is a 
 mistake." 
 He smiled. 
 
 " It's only this mornin'," he said ; " I'll make up for 
 it. I couldn't see nor hear for joy. Millions of 
 voices in my ears, and gladness in my heart made 
 me feel caught up, in a manner of speaking. I've 
 never slept at all for the night, only prayed wi' 
 thanksgiving ; but," and a look of regret passed over 
 his face, " I couldn't cry to save my head." 
 " Is that necessary ? " I asked. 
 " Iss ! " he answered seriously. " Everyone in the 
 chapel last night as was saved cried a stream, and 
 my poor evil heart was that hard I could not shed 
 a tear. Oh ! " he went on, and a brighter look 
 came into his face, " you should 'ave seen them all. 
 Enemies jumpin' over chairs to get to one another 
 quicker so as to be friends again ; women as 'ad 
 'ated one another kissin' and cryin' all to onc'st ; 
 neighbours shoutin' wi' praise and joy ! Oh ! it 
 was a grand sight, and they was all drawn i' the 
 fold like herrin' in a net," and he clapped his 
 hands and looked up at the stable beams over his 
 head. 
 
 " I'll give you the afternoon to go to your football," 
 I said ; " you need it badly." 
 
 For answer he pointed solemnly into the yard. 
 
 There, on a clothes' line, dangling like tiger skins, 
 
 115
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 out of which the wild beast had been cruelly 
 wrenched, were the symbols of a game which I had 
 always encouraged because of the pluck it put into 
 the man. I looked at him now, and his smug 
 smile irritated me. I pointed to the yellow and 
 black jersey swinging in the wind. 
 " Why are those football clothes there ? " I asked. 
 " For a testimony," he answered. 
 " Rubbish ! " I retorted. 
 He bent his head and said in a half whisper : 
 " No dallyin' in the paths of sin now, no joinin' those 
 who curse and fight and bet and smoke. I'm the 
 Lord's elect and must be a shinin' light to all." 
 I looked at the man and said : 
 
 " Clean your stable and take in wood to the girls, 
 or I shall give you notice." 
 For answer he smiled at me as he said : 
 " You'm a black-hearted woman yet, missis, but I 
 shall change all that by and by. I shall pray for 
 you three times a day, and the prayer of a righteous 
 man availeth much." 
 
 I turned my back on John James, went into the 
 house and sat at my open study window. The 
 smell of the gorse after the rain, the twittering and 
 carolling of the birds getting ready for the work 
 and play of spring love, the scent of the wet earth 
 with the primroses peeping out, as if to abash the 
 shy white violets, almost hidden beneath their 
 leaves, soon restored my irritated nerves. The 
 whole of nature, after all, was " under conviction," 
 too. Why should I be irritated with the man 
 groping towards light while the things in nature, 
 116
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 bursting joyously out towards the sun, calmed and 
 comforted me ? The blue sea, the bluer sky, the 
 basking of my cat in the garden, luxuriously 
 sunning herself with her head twisted in between 
 her two front paws, coying with the sunlight, gave 
 me some of the inner peace John James imagined 
 he had had bequeathed to him as a personal legacy. 
 In the field opposite, my little thick-coated donkey, 
 alternately biting his mother's legs and then sucking 
 her milk, hitting her hard with his rough little 
 head in the process, brought some of the tenderness 
 into my heart the women " under conviction " 
 must have felt when they became reconciled after 
 long separation. Harmony seemed to be evolving 
 out of discord in all the sights under my window, 
 and I became soothed and softened. The black- 
 bird opposite called out its spring message, and I 
 felt, suddenly, quite lenient to the songster's 
 brother, John James, who had such a grotesque 
 way of proclaiming his April mood. I was 
 meditating a return to the stable to say a gentler 
 word to him, when Maria Jane hastily knocked at 
 the door, and entered my room with a flushed and 
 angry face. 
 
 " Missis, John James be took worse nor ever ; he 
 be silly crazy, sure enough," she said. 
 " What is the matter now ? " I asked. 
 " He says he've heard a voice while he were milking 
 the cow," she answered, "and that's why he've 
 upset the milk." 
 " A voice ? " I queried. 
 
 " Iss, missis ! " T'he little maid blushed as she 
 117
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 continued : " He says it were the voice of God, 
 and it sat in judgment on all o' we, and mostly on 
 you." 
 
 I smiled into the anxious face of Maria Jane, and 
 my big black retriever sat on her haunches, and, 
 with a scared look in her eyes, lifted her paw on to 
 my knee. 
 
 The little maid looked worried as she went on : 
 " He says he's had a g'eat illumination and can see 
 things we can't nohow, and the sows isn't fed yet, 
 and nothin' done outside, and he's terrifyin' we in 
 the kitchen wi' his strange talk." 
 " Send him to me," I said with a sigh. 
 Maria Jane left the room, and I looked out of the 
 window for renewed calm in order to face the 
 situation. 
 
 In answer to my " Come in," John James stood 
 before me. I looked sharply at him and said : 
 " Why don't you come to your senses, John, and 
 do your work ? There will be time enough after 
 five o'clock for your converting." 
 " Now is the appointed time," answered John 
 James. 
 
 " Tut ! " I ejaculated crossly. " I simply can't 
 stand any more of it j you will go mad with it all 
 if you are not careful. Go and feed the pigs at 
 once." 
 
 " Poor missis ! " he said in a low voice. " To 
 think that when I'm in heaven and you are in hell 
 I shan't even be left to moisten your tongue wi' 
 three drops o' water." He sighed as he added : 
 " So far is the unjust put from the just, that I shan't 
 118
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 even want to leave the throne to minister to you 
 then." 
 
 " Poor John James ! " I muttered, " if you are so 
 stupid I shall have to part with you. I will not 
 have the maids disturbed and frightened, and I 
 cannot afford to pay a man to preach to me instead 
 of doing my work, so you must promise me not to 
 behave like this again." 
 
 I walked over to the window and looked out. 
 John James followed me and said in a measured 
 drawl : 
 
 "You can gibe and jeer and send me forth, 
 missis, but I do knaw what I do knaw, and it 
 is all against your eternal soul. I've been told," 
 and he looked at me as men look at their dead, 
 " that the devil will never tempt you in this world 
 again." 
 
 " I'm gkd of that," I said, " but I fear what you 
 have heard is too good to be true." 
 " No ! " he said solemnly. " The devil will never 
 come nigh you again until your dying hour." 
 " Why ? " I asked curiously. 
 
 John James walked away from me, and his finger 
 pointing at me added emphasis to his words as he 
 said : 
 
 " Because he's sure of you, that's why, and the 
 call will come some day when you're least 
 thinking of it." 
 
 A voice under my window prevented an immediate 
 answer. A man dressed in black, except for a 
 clerical tie, replied to my inquiry as to what his 
 business was by saying he had come to enrol a 
 119
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 shining light in his preaching van, which went from 
 place to place converting sinners. My useless farm 
 hand had evidently made his mark. 
 " The first call from a gentleman in black is for 
 you, John James," I said, as I pointed towards 
 the door. 
 
 J2Q
 
 MRS PENGILLY IN 
 LONDON 
 
 " LOR ! my dear ! " said Mrs Pengilly to me one 
 
 fine morning in June. "You don't mean to say 
 
 you're going to leave all o' we for months to live 
 
 i' London again ? " 
 
 " Yes," I said, " important business has to be seen 
 
 after, and go I must, but I hope only for a few 
 
 weeks." 
 
 Mrs Pengilly sighed and looked at me out of the 
 
 corner of her eye as she said : 
 
 " Bein' so bold, is it a g'eat expense to go to 
 
 London ? " 
 
 " Not so very much," I said. 
 
 " Oh ! " she gasped, " me and Charlotte there," 
 
 pointing to her daughter, " be fair longin' to go 
 
 some day. Should us get lost, think you ? " 
 
 " Come while I am there," I said ; " you will be 
 
 most welcome." 
 
 Mrs Pengilly sat down, and her face flushed suddenly 
 
 as she said : 
 
 121
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " Lor ! my dear woman ! that would be too good 
 to be true." 
 
 " No ! " I answered. " Come whenever you like. 
 I go to-morrow, and I'll leave you my address and 
 I shall expect you." 
 
 "This day week, if you please," said Mrs 
 Pengilly. "I've made a particular practise never 
 to delay a benefit, and this be almost like a 
 miracle," she ended joyously. 
 
 Charlotte looked up from her ironing and said 
 slowly : 
 
 " It'll never be, mother. There's some things too 
 good to be true, so don't let us dwell on it at all." 
 " A week to-day I shall expect you," I said, smiling. 
 "Lor! to be sure!" said Mrs Pengilly. "It'll 
 mind me of gettin' ready to be married, finery and 
 all, and it do surely need no braver heart to start 
 on a journey than to begin i' matrimony. It's all 
 fearsome and unbeknowns anyway, in a manner of 
 speakin'." 
 
 As I went out of the door I said : 
 " It is quite a comfort to me to think that I shall 
 so soon see some of my neighbours again, so don't 
 disappoint me, for I'll leave you all directions to- 
 night." 
 
 "We won't fail you for a world," said Mrs 
 Pengilly, as she shook my hand. " I shan't get 
 no proper sleep till I'm on my way. Who'd 
 'ave thought when I made the beds this morning, 
 that before evening I should be plannin' what I've 
 dwelt on and reckoned with for years," and her 
 eyes shone as she closed the door after me. 
 122
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 II 
 
 " Lord ! have mercy on we ! " exclaimed Mrs 
 Pengilly, as she and her daughter jumped out of 
 a third - class railway carriage at Paddington, a 
 week later. <l I'm some thankful to see 'e, sure 
 enough, for me and Charlotte there have been 
 almost murdered i' the full light o' day." 
 " Whatever has happened ? " I asked, as I shook 
 hands with the trembling pair. 
 The tears ran down Mrs Pengilly's cheeks, and 
 even a few of the bustling crowd turned in surprise 
 to see such a bovine face convulsed with hysterical 
 crying. She looked such a pitiable object. Her 
 old-fashioned silk pelisse had got twisted almost off 
 her shoulders, and her new black bonnet with its 
 gaudy red poppies had slipped to the back of her 
 head. She seemed indeed a woman who had 
 fallen on some evil chance. 
 
 " It were Jack the Ripper, I'm sure," she mumbled, 
 " as were in the train wi' Charlotte an' me. He'd 
 a dreadful black bag by his side, and for miles and 
 miles he never took the g'eat eyes of 'en off of we. 
 He made a pretence now and again to read his 
 paper, but behind it we could see him peerin', and 
 we held on to the cushions for dear life, and we 
 scarcely dare breathe, much less speak the one to 
 the other." She ended with a loud sob. 
 " By your leave," from a porter, made Mrs Pen- 
 gilly jump as if she had been shot. She wailed 
 out : 
 
 123
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " Oh ! I thought that were his voice, sure enough," 
 and she caught her daughter's hand in frantic terror. 
 The poor girl looked as if her eyes would drop out 
 of her head as she answered : 
 
 44 Ma ! why did us come to this noisome, bewilderin' 
 place ? " 
 
 As the two women clung together I pointed out 
 to a porter the carriage they had come from, and 
 told him to take the luggage to a hansom. The 
 man's face was a picture as he emerged with two 
 large carpet bags, one being maroon and yellow 
 and the other orange and red in colour. 
 44 They'm very small," said Mrs Pengilly apolo- 
 getically, 4t but I did not bring many clothes for a 
 week's stay, and, as it were the first time she and 
 me have ever been in a train, we were afraid to 
 trust our things in the van wi' other people's 
 truck." 
 
 I hailed a hansom, and the porter, with a wink at 
 the cabby, flung the bags on to the top of the cab. 
 The mother and daughter looked at one another 
 in dismay. 
 
 44 Lor ! enough to send 'em all abroad ! " Mrs 
 Pengilly exclaimed. 
 
 The porter and I assisted the trembling woman 
 into the cab, and as she sat down she held her 
 arms frantically open lest her daughter should be 
 left behind on the platform. I jumped in and 
 literally sat down upon both these children of the 
 soil and tried to reassure them. The perspiration 
 poured from Mrs Pengilly's face as she convulsively 
 whispered to her daughter : 
 124
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 * Oh ! if only I'd left off that felt under skirt wi' 
 all the pockets sewn in it, my dear, I should not feel 
 so overcome with the heat j but then," sinking back 
 with a sigh, "he might have picked all the outer 
 pockets, so perhaps the under ones have been the 
 savin' of we." 
 
 Just as I thought all was well at last, a scream 
 pierced my ear from the tormented woman at 
 my side, and Charlotte pinched my arm as she 
 clung in terror to my skirts. 
 " Lord ! have mercy on we ! " yelled Mrs Pengilly. 
 " He've got on the top of this conveyance, sure 
 enough, and oh ! my dear life ! look at the awful 
 eye of him ! " 
 
 The impatient cabman, peering through the hole 
 at the top of his hansom, gave a grunt of disgust, 
 being quite unprepared for the savage upward 
 poke of Mrs Pengilly's umbrella in his face. He 
 banged down the shutter and I got up and stood 
 in the front of the cab, and explained that the 
 ladies were strangers and very nervous, and that 
 he was to drive slowly to our destination. In 
 answer he jerked his thumb at the carpet bags and 
 growled : 
 
 " Noah's ark party, I should say ! " 
 Mrs Pengilly's astonishment at the crowded streets 
 and vehicles expressed itself at intervals in short 
 gasps and exclamations. As we passed a line of 
 hansoms she turned to her daughter and said : 
 " Lor ! they do tend their cattle fine here. They 
 must eat a power o' oats to get the coats of 'em 
 shiny like that." 
 
 125
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 Charlotte remained speechless for some time, and 
 at last she said in a low voice : 
 " I'd never a notion there were so many people 
 reared in safety in London. But I suppose you 
 never know what may befall you any minute. I 
 told ma, afore we left, we ought to have our photos 
 took, for there's no knowin' if we should ever get 
 home again." 
 
 Mrs Pengilly's face was more serious than ever 
 as she adjusted her black pelisse before speaking. 
 " It do give me grave thoughts o' the Resurrection 
 when I look round," she at last said. " How can 
 there be room i' heaven for us all, and how could 
 I ever find my little John as died in a crowd like 
 this 'ere ? " 
 
 " Nothing is impossible," I said, as I looked into 
 the troubled face of the woman near me. After 
 this we all sat in silence until we reached our 
 destination. The first thing they asked for was 
 a drink. I opened a bottle of sparkling water, 
 and offered it to Mrs Pengilly. She drank it 
 quickly, and, to my surprise, put down the glass 
 with a shudder. 
 
 " Whatever is it, ma ? " asked her daughter in 
 surprise. 
 
 " Lor ! " wailed Mrs Pengilly, " whatever sort of 
 place 'ave we dropped on at all ? The very water 
 pricks like needles and pins." 
 
 Charlotte carefully sipped the dangerous fluid, and 
 said : 
 
 " Mercy me ! " 
 
 " Do the place allus sing song i' your ears like 
 126
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 this ? " asked Mrs Pengilly suddenly. " I've a 
 buzzin' in my head most ever since I got out 
 o' the train, and the murders we've heard on so 
 much must be goin' on constant by the loud cries 
 I keep hearing. I shall never dare to walk abroad 
 i' this place even in full daylight, so I shan't see 
 no sights, I'm fearin'." 
 
 " A good supper and a sleep will give you fresh 
 courage," I said ; " and to-morrow I'll take you 
 about." 
 
 " Deary me ! " ejaculated Mrs Pengilly, after 
 supper was over, " to think of people livin' all 
 their natural lives i' clouds o' furnace smoke and 
 screams, when the blue sea and green fields be 
 lyin' waste, in a manner o' speakin'. I'd give my 
 life to see the yellow cream on my milk pans i' 
 my dairy now. It were just whitewashed afore 
 I come away," she added wistfully. " It's like 
 thinkin' o' heaven to picture it so quiet and cool 
 and peaceful." 
 
 " Don't, ma ! " cried Charlotte, with the tears 
 starting into her eyes j " I shan't never be able 
 to undress for longin', if you say any more." 
 
 Ill 
 
 Mrs Pengilly had attained the ambition of her 
 life. She was in London, and as she got out 
 of bed the next morning in the little room I 
 had chosen for her in my small flat, she felt a 
 distinct feeling of elation. When I went into 
 127
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 her bedroom to see how she had slept, I found 
 her full of excitement. In spite of the exhaustion 
 after her journey, the unknown outside my windows 
 made her eagerly draw aside the curtains, in order 
 to get a glimpse of the great roaring city. She 
 turned towards her daughter with a little cry of 
 surprise. 
 
 "Charlotte, my dear," she said eagerly. "Get 
 up to onc'st. I've heard there are no trees i' 
 London, and here's one at our very door. Do 
 go out as soon as you are dressed, and pick a few 
 leaves, and we'll send 'em this very day to Mary 
 Jane, for it must be a special thing to find trees 
 here." 
 
 " Lor, ma ! " responded Charlotte, from under the 
 bedclothes, " I'm that tired I could die, and the 
 buzzin' and roarin' i' my ears all night 'ave driven 
 me silly crazy. It's worse nor a thousand hobby- 
 horses at Polcoath Fair." 
 
 She slowly got out of bed, and did her mother's 
 bidding, and the two women crooned over their 
 discovery of sooty leaves from a London garden, 
 as strangers in their land glory in the wonders of 
 yellow gorse and daffodils. 
 
 After breakfast we all began to plan the best way 
 to see London. 
 
 " Statutes is what I've wanted to see more nor 
 anythin'," said Mrs Pengilly. 
 " And me the Zoo," said Charlotte. 
 " Wild beasts of a sort you can see in your own 
 fields," said Mrs Pengilly, " but statutes be part of 
 a g'eat city, I'm told." 
 
 128
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " Let us get ready," I said, " and you shall see all 
 you want, but I must let you go to some sights 
 alone to-morrow, as I shall be busy." 
 " Statutes to-morrow ! " said Mrs Pengilly joy- 
 fully ; " my eyes fair long to see 'em i' all their 
 loveliness. 
 
 " I've promised they at home," said Mrs Pengilly, 
 when we were ready to start, "to keep a book 
 of all the grand sights I see, and so we'll take it 
 with us." 
 
 Armed with three well-pointed pencils and a thick 
 account book, Mrs Pengilly, revived by her sleep 
 and breakfast, beamed upon me. 
 " It be a gran' thing to travel," she said. " I feel 
 already that it don't matter so very much even if 
 Mary Jane do burn the cream i' scaldin' it, or John 
 Thomas don't water the horses quite reg'lar. 
 Frettin' over they little things do sometimes give 
 me a sick stomach, and I shain't do it no more. 
 It don't never alter nothin' to keep hollerin' about 
 it, after all." 
 
 With this dissertation we made our way towards 
 Chancery Lane. I hailed an omnibus, and we 
 scrambled to the top. 
 
 " Lor, my dear ! I'm most shamed at what I've 
 done ! " said Mrs Pengilly. " It shows how new 
 notions get hold of a body. I wouldn't be paid 
 to go as high as a haycart at home to show 
 my ankles like that," and she wiped her flushed 
 face. 
 
 " Ain't it some grand, Charlotte ? " she asked her 
 daughter. " Look at the millions of folks, and see 
 129 9
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 what a pace they go at. Jacob 'ud take a fear to 
 see anyone walk over the roads like that there. 
 It's most like flyin', and they all seem as if they 
 was hurryin' to a deathbed or a confinement, wi' 
 that eager, tormented look i' their faces." 
 Out of respect to the susceptibilities of our fellow- 
 passengers, I whispered gently : 
 " Let us speak softly, as people can hear all we 
 say." 
 
 My remark was unheeded, perhaps unheard. With 
 a cry of joy Mrs Pengilly had clasped her daughter's 
 arm, and, pointing to several flower girls at the 
 corner of Gray's Inn Road, she said eagerly : 
 " Sakes, Charlotte ! Do look at they lovely flowers ! 
 Penny posies for the bosom, sure enough ! " 
 This enthusiastic exclamation had made its mark. 
 Every passenger on the top of the omnibus 
 twisted round, or bent forward, to look into the 
 face of Mrs Pengilly, who, at last realising the 
 attention she had called upon us, drew herself up 
 and exclaimed in a severe voice : 
 " Mercy me ! how very forthy the London men 
 are ! " She then planted her umbrella firmly 
 between her knees, folded her two large hands 
 over the handle, and looked up at the sky. 
 " P'licemen seem to be most everywhere," said 
 Mrs Pengilly suddenly. "You'd think they was 
 posted along the roads for ornament, the way they 
 stand, and such g'eat, tall fellers, too." 
 " Lor, ma ! " cried Charlotte, " whatever be they ? " 
 A long line of sandwich men had caught her 
 eye. 
 
 130
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " Gosh ! " continued Charlotte. " Perhaps they 
 wear they boards to straighten their backs." She 
 turned to me. " If they do it for their health, it 
 don't seem to cure 'em, for they all look whisht, 
 don't they ? " 
 
 I explained that they were men who had to do this, 
 because it was the only work they could find, and 
 that probably they looked " whisht," as they had not 
 had a square meal for weeks. 
 
 " Lor ! " said Mrs Pengilly. " Better they carted 
 manure on a farm place, or anything but that. 
 It do make me giddy to watch that line o' boards 
 swayin' from side to side, wi' only an empty 
 stomach, in a manner of speaking, keepin' them 
 from touchin' one another. It's pitiable," and she 
 wiped her eyes. "Just think of the g'eat pasty 
 Jacob belongs to eat after ploughing, and the way 
 he folds his arms and stretches out his legs and 
 smokes. He's tired, of course, but full o' flesh 
 meat and contentment. Think upon that, and 
 then of how those starved dears be feelin', crawling 
 along in the heat," and she pointed to the long dis- 
 appearing line in the distance. 
 
 " The children here looks all in a decline," said 
 Charlotte, pointing to a white little maid just 
 entering a tavern with a jug. 
 
 " All people who live long here grow pale," I 
 explained. 
 
 "Mercy me ! " said Mrs Pengilly. "Livin' amongst 
 beautiful sights and gettin' a power o' book learnin' 
 ain't the things, seemly, to build up a constitoo- 
 tion wi'."
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " Here we are at the Bank, so we must get down," 
 
 I said. 
 
 " This is where all the money is made, Charlotte," 
 
 said Mrs Pengilly to her daughter, in a solemn 
 
 whisper. " Think of that ! " 
 
 " It do seem more like a church to look at it," 
 
 said Charlotte. 
 
 "So it do," said Mrs Pengilly, "and you might 
 
 almost fancy that crowd goin' in be worshippers." 
 
 I pulled the excited woman from under a horse's 
 
 nose, and she stood and looked at the animal with 
 
 great admiration, as she said : 
 
 " The very cattle here do seem to know more than 
 
 some Christians along o' we. What a grand sight 
 
 the Zoo must be ! " 
 
 " We will have lunch, and if it is fine we will go 
 
 this afternoon," I said. 
 
 " Charlotte's treat, that," said Mrs Pengilly, " and 
 
 the statutes to-morrow ! " 
 
 "Yes, without fail," I said. 
 
 IV 
 
 I was resting after a long day of exertion. Showing 
 my guest, Mrs Pengilly, over London, was more 
 exhausting than I had expected. Her continual 
 appeal to see " statutes " had given me the excuse 
 I wanted in order to return to my home. We had 
 spent the morning looking over St Paul's, so after 
 lunch I put Mrs Pengilly and her daughter in 
 charge of an omnibus conductor, and told him to 
 132
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 put them down at Mudie's, having given the two 
 
 women minute directions how to find the British 
 
 Museum. 
 
 " Come in," I said, startled out of my half doze by 
 
 a knock at the door. Mrs Pengilly and Charlotte 
 
 appeared before me and sank into chairs. 
 
 " Oh ! my dear life ! " exclaimed the exhausted 
 
 woman, " my legs is fair bustin' and my inside be 
 
 all of a shake. I could scream wi' weariness." 
 
 Charlotte was actually crying, and only muttered 
 
 between her sobs : 
 
 " My back is tore abroad and my feet's i' blisters." 
 
 " Wherever have you been ? " I asked anxiously. 
 
 Mrs Pengilly produced her notebook and showed 
 
 me pages of large writing. 
 
 " Ma have fair wrote a book," said Charlotte. 
 
 " How did you like the statues ? " I asked. 
 
 Mrs Pengilly's face radiated at last, and she took 
 
 off her bonnet, and carefully rolled up the strings. 
 
 Then she pulled off her gloves, and drew out the 
 
 fingers, blowing into them one by one, still smiling 
 
 at her happy memories. 
 
 " Too wonderful for words, I reckon," she said at 
 
 last. " Charlotte and me was a long time findin' 
 
 any statutes at all, for I'm sure that sniggering 
 
 'busman as you told to put we out mistook the 
 
 place, or did it to fluster we. When we got down 
 
 we saw nothin' but books in a quiet street wi' a 
 
 building like a large church at the end. We were 
 
 afraid to ask people, for they seemed in such a 
 
 hurry, and looked so sour and unfriendly, so we 
 
 walked on a bit, looking about at the shops, and by 
 
 '33
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 a bit of good luck we hopped on the statutes to 
 onc'st." 
 
 " They did not disappoint you at all ? " I asked, a 
 little amused at her instinctive good taste in works 
 of art. The bovine face turned towards me, and 
 her eyes were bright and happy as she answered : 
 " I'll never forget they so long as I do live. Like 
 life itself, sure enough. Even the top boots and 
 gloves were as natural as natural." 
 
 I started. 
 
 " Top boots ? " I queried. 
 
 " Why ! Iss ! " and she turned towards Charlotte 
 
 to confirm her statement. 
 
 II Yes," said Charlotte wearily. " Ma were some 
 took with they costumes, for she'd heard that 
 statues were mostly naked, but she couldn't help 
 thinking how handsome Jacob would be in one set 
 o' clothes a dark, tall feller had on. He were 
 dressed in black velvet and a lovely white waistcoat 
 and tie. He were so natural he'd actually his hand 
 stretched out as if he was speaking to you." 
 Where had they been ? What could they have 
 seen ? Had they walked miles and reached 
 Madame Tussaud's ? 
 
 " Did you pay to see these statues ? " I asked. 
 " No, my dear ; that is the wonderful part of it. 
 There " handing me the large notebook " I put 
 down the name over the group we saw to tell 'em 
 at home, though what it do mean I don't know." 
 I took the book Mrs Pengilly handed to me and 
 read the name of a large Holborn tailor. 
 "Get water to onc'st, Charlotte," cried Mrs 
 134
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 Pengilly, as she patted my back. "Whatever 
 have took 'e so sudden ? I used to be took like 
 that pretty often when I were left with the chronic 
 in my windpipe after influenza." 
 " It is nothing," I said, and then added : " I'm 
 glad you found just what you liked." 
 " I wouldn't 'ave missed they for a world," said 
 Mrs Pengilly, patting her notebook. " Charlotte 
 and me stood so long admiring they, that we 
 got real footsore, and we walked back to where 
 we'd started and saw the church I spoke of just 
 now. We thought we'd see if it was open ; so we 
 went up to the doors, and as we saw the people 
 going in, we followed them ; but it weren't no 
 church at all. It were a queer, old-fashioned sort 
 o' place, wi' solemn churchwardens about every- 
 where carryin' long cane poles, like fishin' rods. I 
 whispered to Charlotte to watch if one particular 
 one should follow we, but he didn't ; he only 
 walked wearily about like one in a sleep. Charlotte 
 and me were thankful to sit on the benches which 
 seemed to be provided free." 
 
 " Did you see any statues ? " I asked, grasping at once 
 that they had found the British Museum by mistake. 
 " No, nothing to speak of," said Mrs Pengilly. 
 "We saw some half-made figures, some without 
 legs or arms, and some even without heads, and 
 some were quite unwholesome and shameful to look 
 upon." She glanced sideways at Charlotte. " No 
 place really to take a young girl to, for it even gave 
 me queer qualms, as if I'd looked upon something 
 I shouldn't see at all. Anyway, they wasn't life- 
 '35
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 like a bit. Those that looked most like we belong 
 to look had something wrong with them, but I was 
 glad of the rest, anyway," ended Mrs Pengilly, 
 with a sigh. 
 
 " Some folkses liked they figures," said Charlotte, 
 41 for there was a' artis' chap, like as comes down 
 along o' we sometimes, takin' oft" one lady wi' 
 scarce a rag on she, and he kept smilin' quite 
 friendly at ma and me." 
 
 " Well, I'm truly thankful I saw the real statutes," 
 said Mrs Pengilly. " I've heard so much of 'em, 
 and it was the thought of seein' them that half 
 persuaded me to come to London at all. They'm 
 certainly far more splendid than I thought they 
 were." 
 
 " You will be able to see plenty of those," I said, 
 looking into the face of the woman who had found 
 her ideal. " I rather envy you your enjoyment of 
 them. I've lived here too long to care for them." 
 " Lor ! " she said sympathetically, " that's a 
 miserable state to get to. It's how I feel some- 
 times about primroses and hollyhocks, and even my 
 dairy, wi' all its g'eat shining pans, what I takes 
 such a pride in, and what uplong people think so 
 lovely. I'm used to 'em, you see, and can't see 
 nothin' in 'em at all, after a bit." 
 We all three sighed. 
 
 Mrs Pengilly's excursions into the heart of London 
 had tired me more than they had her. The 
 continual answering of questions which followed 
 one another in an inconsequence only to be met 
 with in like form in " A Child's Guide to 
 136
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 Knowledge," added to continual journeys on foot, 
 rail, or omnibus, had set up a severe nervous head- 
 ache on the fourth day after her arrival, and I had 
 retired to my bed early with the hope that nothing 
 would disturb me till late the next morning. My 
 little maid had received these instructions with 
 anything but a serene face. 
 
 44 If Mrs Pengilly should want to see you very 
 much ? " she queried. 
 
 44 Tell her I'm quite ill," I said, as I went into my 
 peaceful room. 
 
 A long, dreamless sleep did its work, but I was 
 awakened by one of the worst thunderstorms I had 
 ever heard. Flash on flash of lightning, followed 
 by terrific peals of thunder, made the grey dawn 
 seem more terrible than midnight. I covered my 
 head with the bedclothes ; but I suddenly heard, 
 combined with the noise of the elements outside, 
 another tragic sound. There was evidently a fire 
 across the road. I leaped out of bed, and saw three 
 fire-engines at work. The play of the lightning, 
 the shouts of the men, the hissing of the water, and 
 the roars of thunder made a scene not easily forgotten. 
 I got back into bed, and as I did so I heard a 
 violent knock at my door. 
 
 44 Please, mam, the lady has gone mad," shouted 
 my maid. 
 
 44 Come in," I said in dismay, and, capless and 
 apronless, my ordinarily demure little attendant 
 rushed in. 
 
 44 Oh ! " she exclaimed, as she stood before me. 
 
 44 Do go to her. She's beside herself, and she 
 
 137
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 must be gone crazy, for when I went into the 
 room, she had her head in her carpet bag." 
 I got up, put on a dressing-gown and slippers, 
 and went to Mrs Pengilly's room. No answer 
 greeted my repeated knocking, so I opened the 
 door and walked in. Mrs Pengilly and her 
 daughter were both dressed, and were clasped in 
 each other's arms at least, they would have been 
 if their arms had not been otherwise employed, for 
 their hands were over their eyes, and only their 
 bodies clung together in abject terror. When at 
 last they saw me, they separated and rushed towards 
 me, holding me by the skirts. 
 
 " It's the Day of Judgment," yelled Mrs Pengilly, 
 " and, oh ! my family, my family ! " 
 Charlotte blurted out between chattering teeth : 
 " Men wi' gold head-pieces and g'eat ladders be 
 tryin' to stop the elements, and oh ! " with a wail, 
 "they cain't do nothin' at all. The very earth 
 seems on fire, and see " with a new realisation of 
 the awful situation " the smoke's got in here, and 
 listen, listen ! Whatever s'all us do, what s'all us 
 do ? " 
 
 The terrific noise outside made it almost impossible 
 for my voice to be heard, but I tried to explain that 
 all would be well in a little while. A great flash of 
 lightning, followed instantly by ear-splitting thunder, 
 seemed to give the lie to my words. Mrs Pengilly 
 sank on to the bed, and covered her face with 
 her hands. Her long, grey hair hung over her 
 shoulders, and her open carpet bag was at her feet. 
 She dropped her hands into her lap at last. 
 138
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 u I've packed 'en," she said, pointing to the bag at 
 her feet, " but I don't believe we shall ever go 
 forth from this alive, and in our rightful senses. 
 I'm not exactly even now, and never shall be 
 again." 
 
 I assured her all would soon be well, but each 
 shout from below and each roar of thunder agitated 
 her more than ever. Suddenly, as if a miracle had 
 happened, all the noises ceased. The fire engines 
 had done their work and gone, and the storm was 
 over. The rain was coming down in torrents, but 
 almost noiselessly in its intensity. The soft twitter 
 of a sparrow now and again was soon the only 
 sound we heard. Mrs Pengilly's sobs gradually 
 ceased, and Charlotte's teeth stopped chattering. 
 We all three looked at one another and tried to 
 smile. 
 
 " It's a lesson," said Mrs Pengilly. 
 I waited to hear more. 
 
 " If such a terrifyin' and unbeknowns thing as that 
 can come on us afore we are aware, what could 
 happen at midnight in an evil city like this 'ere ? 
 I feel we are in a worse place than the preacher 
 warns we of when he tells us of Sodom of long ago. 
 It's a judgment for our sins, and I'm goin' home 
 to onc'st." 
 
 " No ! " I said, " don't do that, but stay your week 
 out." 
 
 " Not an hour more, my dear," she said gravely. 
 " Thank you kindly all the same, but it could 
 never be. The thought of the little garden at 
 home, wi' all the pansies and roses in it, 'ave almost 
 '39
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 choked me wi' longin', even in the midst of this 
 horrible disaster of smoke and sulphur and heart- 
 rendin' sounds. I'll risk no more visitations, but 
 get home," and she stooped to lift the carpet bag 
 on to the bed. 
 
 " I'd rather be transported than live here another 
 day," said Charlotte. 
 
 "Well, we shall be home to-night," said Mrs 
 Pengilly, with a happy smile. 
 " I don't believe we shall ever get home i* safety, 
 mother," said Charlotte, in a hard voice. " We're 
 ill-whisht, I tell 'e ; we've that awful journey yet," 
 and the two women's eyes grew nervous as they 
 thought of it. 
 
 " I will see to that," I said, " and put you in the 
 guard's care." 
 
 Mrs Pengilly shook her head as she answered : 
 " Guards be Londoners mostly, too. Nothing 
 but an assurance that we are in God's hands can 
 fortify we after all we've passed through." 
 I helped them to pack, and gave orders for 
 their breakfast and cab, and as they stood in my 
 little sitting-room before leaving, I noticed that 
 Mrs Pengilly had aged considerably, and her hair 
 had grown much greyer. 
 
 " The thoughts of this week will never leave me," 
 said Mrs Pengilly sorrowfully. " It 'ave fair ran- 
 sacked me, inside and out, and I can't believe I 
 shall ever put on my big apron again to make 
 butter with a peaceful mind, and as for ever being 
 real clean again, it can't be possible, for the soot 
 must have got right into my very skin." 
 140
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " It 'ave cured me of a longin' ever to move from 
 my own doorstep," said Charlotte. 
 I sighed as I said : 
 
 " And I, too, long to be back in the quiet 
 country, and I shall hurry through my work and 
 start as soon as possible." 
 
 " Good-bye, my dear," said Mrs Pengilly, as the 
 cab was announced. " How you keep medium 
 decent is a puzzle to me in a place seem'ly like 
 hell itself, wi' ravening wolves around 'e, and God's 
 peace and light never in evidence at all. It's a 
 heart-rendin' way of livin', and not suitable to they 
 who have their immortal souls to save." 
 
 141
 
 AN ARTIST 
 
 " GOOD mornin', missis. I'm rare and glad to see 
 you back in our pairts again. From all I hear 
 you've had a bad spell of weather in London." 
 So spoke Ned Curtis as he looked up at my study 
 window two or three mornings after my return. 
 " I'm glad to be back," I said ; " this blue sea and 
 sky suit me better than smoke and darkness." 
 Ned Curtis, with his head a little on one side, gazed 
 at me with an affectionate smile as he said gently : 
 " Missis, do 'e for onc'st give a fellow a job 
 and let me show 'e I do knaw what real work 
 is. Now John James have gone I'd willingly 
 take his place, for I do understand a power o' 
 things to do with gardens and such like. You 
 see," he went on, as he leaned his arms on the wall, 
 " there's some can do more wi' looking at a thing 
 if they understands what they'm looking at than 
 others if they work till they sweat a stream. 
 That's what folkses as isn't in the exact know 
 over work can't rightly understand. Plannin' and 
 schemin' be as good as toilin' and moilin', if you've 
 a plain goal ahead. I've never tasted a crumble 
 142
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 since yesterday dinner time, and my woman ain't 
 nothin' i' the world to go on with in the house." 
 " How is that ? " I asked. " Why can't you get 
 work ? " 
 
 Ned shook his head solemnly and wiped an 
 imaginary tear away with the end of his orange- 
 coloured smock, and then blew his nose as he sighed 
 deeply. Looking up at my window suddenly he 
 said : 
 
 " There be folkses allowed to live and thrive, in 
 a manner o' speakin', by stealin' the characters 
 of their equals and betters. A gentleman once 
 nearly took me on for a place like yours, light work 
 and lots of 'sponsibility, and fur why do you think 
 I lost the job ? " 
 " I cannot imagine," I said. 
 
 " Some foul-mouthed gabbart as wanted the place 
 hissel' told the gentleman never to take on no 
 man as had patches in the elbows of his jumper, 
 nor yet in the knees of his trousers." Ned affec- 
 tionately patted the yellow squares on his orange- 
 coloured smock, which testified to the careful 
 mending of his clothes by his wife. 
 "What a strange idea!" I said. "But no one 
 could have been influenced by such a silly thing as 
 that." 
 
 " Iss ! he were, sure enough ! " dejectedly answered 
 Ned, "for he gave a seemly reason, my enemy 
 did. When a man's your neighbourly foe, so to 
 speak, he don't pick and choose how he'll ruin you ; 
 he just goes for you anyway. That blackguard 
 said as how every man what has patches on his 
 
 H3
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 elbows and knees can't never be no use for hard 
 work, for they gets wore, so he says, by the constant 
 habit of leaning his elbows on his knees, or on 
 walls or any comfortable resting-place. c Lazy 
 louts, all of them,' were the words he made use 
 of to the gentleman. The place was got by a 
 man wi' leggings and breeches and a tight coat as 
 no reasonable man can move his limbs in. But 
 there's comfort i' most things, and perhaps the loss 
 o' that job were only a sort o' dispensation, so that 
 I should be in readiness for a better place," and he 
 fixed his blue eyes on my face. 
 " I've nothing to give you to do but some rough 
 digging in my side garden," I said. 
 " Well ! give me the job, anyway," he said, " for 
 life's awful hard sometimes on some of we, missis, 
 and we can't often get any flesh meat or even 
 weddin' cake from one week to another." 
 " Wedding cake ! " I said. 
 
 " Iss ! " he mumbled, " allus a good take of fish 
 means plenty of wedding cake for we folkses 
 hereabouts, and we do dearly love it at all times. 
 I had a mate once as made a habit, when he'd 
 had a long spell of fishing and taken a good haul, 
 of going to bed for two days and making his wife 
 waken 'en reg'lar to feed 'en wi' strong tea and 
 wedding cake, and when the cake were all done 
 he'd get up a new man, ready to start fair again." 
 " Well ! " I said, smiling, " if you want to earn 
 some money for wedding cake you had better 
 begin at once. I'll show you the work I want 
 you to do." 
 
 144
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 I took him to a little side garden, gave him a spade, 
 and told him to turn the earth in one particular 
 corner. I then went back to my window, where 
 I could see my new hireling as he worked, though 
 he could not see me. I certainly saw him dig at 
 least once in the two hours, as I carefully watched 
 him from my window. He began by turning one 
 spadeful of earth, and then he slowly spat, first on 
 one hand and then on the other, letting the long 
 spade rest against his chest. He manipulated in- 
 visible tobacco, at least so it seemed to me, as the 
 process was long and almost rhythmic in its slow, 
 monotonous, and circular movement between the 
 palms of his hands. Then he slowly, so slowly 
 that no mere word-painting can give any idea of 
 the studied lethargy of the movement, removed the 
 long spade from his chest, and lowered it on to the 
 ground. That done, he, as slowly, put a hand on 
 each hip, and seemed to be trying to rub the invisible 
 tobacco from his palms with the same deliberation 
 that he had placed it there ; but the process was 
 apparently more pleasurable, for it took much 
 longer. That ended, he looked round, and then 
 up at the sky, as if for inspiration, and at last 
 seemed to be studying minutely every weed in my 
 neglected garden, making mental comments there- 
 on, for his lips moved j that I could see quite 
 plainly from my window. 
 
 Then he settled himself in a comfortable sitting 
 posture on the sloping bank near by. I watched 
 him solemnly meditating on that bit of ground he 
 had to turn until I laughed aloud, much to the 
 145 10
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 bewilderment of my little maid, who came in to 
 ask if I had called for anything. 
 After a rest of about ten minutes, he caught the 
 spade in a sort of splendid frenzy, and gave such a 
 vigorous dig into the ground that his cap fell off. 
 Down went the spade again before he picked up 
 the cap, which had to be wiped slowly and carefully 
 with his sleeve. There was then a readjustment 
 of the cap altogether, its mishap in the mud necessi- 
 tating a different indentation in the middle. 
 When that was settled, a slow rubbing of the 
 smock which had been used to clean the cap was 
 essential, and, after all this exertion, a new rest and 
 a new meditation seemed necessary, and finally a 
 withdrawal from his pocket of the lunch, which 
 evidently was the first bite since yesterday. 
 I watched him slowly pull asunder, bit by bit, half 
 a very appetising pasty, and between each mouth- 
 ful he ruminated on that piece of ground which 
 bore a few inches of evidence that he was in very 
 truth a working-man. I glanced at the clock. 
 He had been there over an hour, and to my certain 
 knowledge had turned only one shovelful of my 
 garden. I was growing indignant, but curiosity 
 held me still. Surely now, invigorated by his 
 lunch, he would set at his task and finish it. I 
 did not yet know my man. He fumbled in the 
 inner folds of his orange-coloured smock, and, after 
 a little time, produced a minute and very blackened 
 clay pipe. The tobacco he first cut and rolled was 
 real shag this time. After he had pressed it with 
 vigour into the little pipe, a somewhat long search 
 146
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 ensued for a match, which was found at last in the 
 paper in which his pasty had been wrapped, and the 
 man, with folded arms, and still gazing at the work 
 he had to do, smoked the pipe of great content- 
 ment. I could stand it no longer. I fled down- 
 stairs like a hare, and found my tortoise just knock- 
 ing the ashes slowly out of his pipe, which, as he 
 saw me, he slipped warily into his pocket. I went 
 up to him and said very slowly : 
 " I shall put you in a book, my good man. Do 
 you hear ? " 
 
 He shifted his head, smiled at me, and once more 
 blew his nose on his orange-coloured smock. 
 " In what book ? " he drawled, with a pleasant 
 smile still in his eyes and round his mouth. 
 " A book," I answered, " in which I mean to 
 describe all kinds of artists, for I fancy you are 
 one." 
 
 He got up slowly, took his long spade, and proudly 
 patted the few inches of ground he had turned. 
 He faced me, and looked straight into my eyes, 
 with the smile growing on his face, and he said, in 
 the tone of a devoted slave : 
 
 "There's few men hereabouts, to say nothin' of 
 women folkses, missis, as could reckon up as you've 
 done what a power o' real hard, sweatin' work do 
 lie in doin' a job like this 'ere," and he pointed 
 proudly to the newly-turned earth. " It's a heavy 
 task, sure enough ! "
 
 GOATS 
 
 " TOBIAS, my son, whatever be wrang wi' thee ? 
 Thee has all the appearance of a man as 'ave lost 
 a shilling and found a brass button." 
 Tobias Curnow hung his head, and slowly put his 
 hands into his trousers' pockets. Then he jerked 
 his head in a weary way towards a field on the 
 left as he added : 
 
 " It's they goats as is frettin' me to skin and 
 bone." 
 
 For why ? " asked Paul Rodda. 
 Tobias shook his head as he answered : 
 " 'Cause they cling like the devil hissel'. I can't get 
 rids of them no ways." 
 
 "Sell 'em," said Paul carelessly, as he filled his 
 pipe. 
 
 A hard laugh was the answer. 
 
 " Why de 'e laugh ? " asked Paul, as he pressed 
 down his shag. 
 
 " 'Cause I ain't a woman thing, and so don't go 
 for to cry," snapped Tobias. 
 
 " Sakes ! " ejaculated Paul. " Cry over goats ! 
 Why, a child would scarce do that ! " 
 148
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " Say you don't know," said Tobias slowly. 
 "Two more were born last week, making six 
 in all now." 
 
 " Quite a family," grinned Paul. 
 " Don't jeer," cried Tobias. " It's a real trial 
 and no laughing matter at all. I took that g'eat 
 stinking Billy there and his two wives for a bad 
 debt, and I thought I'd got a bargain, sure enough, 
 and now I've such evil thoughts over the man as 
 handed them to me, I could most murder he. 
 They've never done nothin' but devastate and 
 ruin since they came, and as for sellin' 'em " 
 Tobias looked fiercely at his friend "you might 
 as well talk o' sellin' a teasy-tempered wife." 
 Paul frowned as he said curtly : 
 " Shoot 'em. It's allowable to kill animals as is in 
 your way, and then you'll have them off your mind." 
 " I've bad luck enough," said Tobias. " I ain't 
 goin' to risk shootin' anything as 'ave the mark 
 o' the devil on 'em as clear as they trade 'ave." 
 " Give 'em away," said Paul. 
 Tobias found the heart to wink as he said : 
 " Only a circus 'ud take 'em, and there's none 'ere, 
 and " with a laugh " I guess I'd find 'em near 
 by when the show 'ad moved on." 
 " Goat's milk, what of that ? " asked Paul. 
 " Ever tasted it ? " asked Tobias. 
 " No," answered Paul. 
 
 " Never do," responded Tobias. " I once sold a 
 quart to a dying child for sixpence, and the mother 
 came later, and told me it had killed her daughter, 
 and said she'd a mind to sue me." 
 149
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 "Use it fer the family in tea, and eat the kids," 
 suggested Paul. 
 
 44 You don't know what you're talking of," said 
 Tobias. " No livin' stomach could stand more 
 nor one meal of that." 
 
 " Get a cart and harness the brutes, and make 'em 
 pay i' the season on the sands," said Paul suddenly. 
 44 That's a splendid plan." 
 Tobias smiled into his friend's eyes. 
 " Lor, son ! have 'e never heard ? " 
 44 What ? " asked Paul. 
 
 " How only a week ago we tried that game, and 
 one goat pulled one way, and the other another, 
 and the nurserymaid had high 'sterics over it, and 
 the wheel came off, and at last we had to carry 
 everythin' 'ome in a cart. In the scuffle the 
 parties never paid me the hire, and I've never had 
 the heart to go and ask for the money." 
 Paul Rodda turned towards the field where the 
 goats were feeding, and leaned his elbows on the 
 wall. 
 
 " Unbeknowns creatures, sure enough," he said, 
 as he watched two kids leaping high in the air. 
 The Billy stopped eating and looked at Paul 
 with fear in his narrow, yellow eyes. Suddenly 
 he raised his head, and showed his large teeth as 
 he sniffed the air. 
 
 44 Like Satan, sure enough," said Paul softly. 
 44 So I should think," said Tobias. 
 44 Do these goats belong to you ? " The voice 
 came from behind the two men. 
 Paul nudged Tobias, and said in a low voice : 
 150
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " Hold thy noise." Then, turning to the newcomer, 
 he said smilingly : " Iss, mam ! " 
 " Pretty creatures ! " said the lady. " All one 
 family, I suppose ? " 
 " Iss, mam ! " answered Paul. 
 " Tame ? " queried the daintily-dressed lady at 
 Paul's side. 
 
 " Like lambs," answered Paul. 
 Tobias put his head in his hands and gazed at the 
 goats. 
 
 " Charming pets for children," said the lady. 
 " First-rate ! " heartily responded Paul, 
 " Have they ever been in harness ? " she asked. 
 " Oh iss, mam ! Me and my mate was just 
 wonderin' if we could ever abear to lose sight 
 of 'em, and sell 'em to the gentry for that pur- 
 pose." 
 
 " How very curious ! " said the lady. 
 Tobias gave a slight shudder. Paul put his hand 
 on his friend's shoulder as he turned towards the 
 newcomer and said : 
 
 " He be that 'tached to they dumb brutes, he do 
 fair dread an offer for 'em." 
 
 " It was just what I was going to make," said the 
 lady. " I heard you had goats, and I've come 
 quite an hour by train to see them." 
 Tobias turned pale and fixed his eyes on Billy. 
 " He's the favourite ! " said Paul. 
 " Well ! Perhaps we could do without him," said 
 the lady. " The two other big ones could pull the 
 cart, and the little baby goats are really what I 
 want the most to amuse the children."
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " Billy 'ould only die without his wives and family," 
 said Tobias in a choked voice. 
 
 " He couldn't separate 'em, mam, but he'll need a 
 lot o' persuadin' to sell 'em at all, I fear," said Paul. 
 " I'd give you just what you think right in the 
 way of money," said the lady, "and they would 
 have a good home." 
 
 " Thank you," said Tobias brokenly, and he 
 climbed the fence and went towards Billy. The 
 goat gave a sharp cry and butted his head against 
 his master's arm in an affectionate way. Tobias 
 scratched the beast's neck and put his hand over 
 the large horns. The gentle voice murmured : 
 " How wonderfully tame and good-natured he 
 seems ; how the children will love him ! " 
 Paul touched the lady's sleeve and beckoned her to 
 one side. " Offer him five pounds down, and 
 make him take you to his house near by and 
 give you a receipt. He'm a fair misard over 
 ready gold." 
 
 The prettily-dressed woman pulled out her purse 
 and went to meet Tobias, who was getting over 
 the wall. . 
 
 "Will you take this for all the goats," she said, 
 " and give me a receipt ? " 
 
 Tobias stared at her stupidly, and muttered with 
 lowered eyes : 
 " It ain't fair." 
 
 " I told you," said Paul hastily, " but another 
 quid will probably do it I mean, mam, another 
 sovereign." 
 
 The lady opened her purse and said : 
 152
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " I shall not give any more than this," and she 
 
 placed the gold piece with the banknote on the wall. 
 
 Tobias looked at the goats and then at the woman 
 
 before him. " Be you rich ? " he asked. 
 
 She blushed as she answered : 
 
 " Not rich enough to pay fancy prices, however 
 
 much I want a thing." 
 
 Paul looked hard at Tobias, and said sternly : 
 
 " Don't be such a fool. Let 'em go, man. He'm 
 
 fair crazy over they goats," he added. 
 
 The three wandered slowly to the house, and in a 
 
 few minutes the prettily-dressed lady left and tripped 
 
 towards the station with a beaming face. 
 
 " The devil in they goats 'ave got into we," said 
 
 Tobias to Paul, as they watched her retreating 
 
 figure. 
 
 '53
 
 LIGHTNING 
 
 " MY head's like needles and pins," said Tobias 
 Penberthy irritably. " I feel as if I've been flayed 
 by a yard broom made wi' wire." He looked at 
 Bob Olds and shook his head. Olds was a thick- 
 set man, who sat comfortably in the corner of his 
 fireplace smoking a little clay pipe. 
 " It was some dirty weather last night, sure enough," 
 Olds replied stolidly, "but I rather likes the feelin' 
 of bein' tucked in comfortable while the elements is 
 roarin' outside. It ain't often as there's thunder, 
 lightning, and hail all to onc'st." 
 " Thanks be ! " said Tobias. 
 
 " We must take it as it comes," said a gentle-voiced 
 woman who was knitting in the corner, and who 
 raised her head now and again to catch what her 
 husband and his friend were saying. 
 " We ain't no choice," said Bob. 
 " Lightnin's a fearsome thing," said Tobias. 
 " It's like fireworks to some," said Bob. 
 " It's like death to others," said Bob's wife. 
 " It was to the cat," said her husband, yawning. 
 " I've never seen no such things," he went on. 
 154
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " The poor beast shook for hours wi' its tongue 
 out, and panted as if it had run miles, its eyes 
 dartin' out of its head like as if it was mad. The 
 chintzycat, now, might have been born and reared 
 i' claps o' thunder, the way she purred and lapped 
 her milk." 
 
 " It's different dispositions," said Tobias. 
 " It's pluck," said Bob. 
 
 His wife's knitting needles flicked in the firelight 
 as she said gently : 
 
 " Perhaps it's a voice to some, and nothin' but a 
 noise to others." 
 
 Bob laughed. Tobias looked across at his friend's 
 wife, and the two men pufted hard at their pipes. 
 Bob at last got up, tapped on the stove to knock 
 the ashes out of his pipe, and then stretched himself 
 and clasped his big hands over his head. 
 41 You can never reckon," he said, looking at his 
 wife Grace, " what way women is going to take 
 anything up." Then, jerking his thumb towards 
 her, he added : " I sometimes think she's worse nor 
 a play-actor for fancies." 
 
 The woman was counting stitches in the heel of 
 her sock, and her lips moved. Tobias watched her 
 for a few minutes and then glanced at Bob. 
 " She do keep a cozie home for thee, Bob, in spite 
 of fancies," said Tobias, and he sighed as he spoke. 
 " I'd beat a woman as was a slut or a snap-tongue," 
 said Bob. 
 
 Grace glanced at her husband, and Tobias sighed 
 again. 
 
 " Thee may well sigh," said Bob roughly. " Thee's 
 155
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 never had no real go and pluck in thee since thy last 
 dance at the Cat and Whistle. It was most the 
 end of thee. Thy wife 'ave triumphed over thee 
 now till thee do end or she do end i' the cemetery." 
 Tobias frowned as he said : 
 
 " You'm right, Bob, and a sudden storm like this 
 'ere do sometimes give me hope, for you never 
 know when your turn may come. I knew a man 
 once as took lightning as a sort o' friend, but that 
 was 'cause it saved his life. I should reckon it 
 
 mine if " 
 
 Grace looked up suddenly and held her finger on 
 one stitch so as not to forget her counting, and her 
 face was pale as she spoke. 
 "A friend?" she said. 
 " Iss ! " said Tobias. 
 
 " Tell about him," said Bob, and he stretched out 
 his legs towards the blaze. The woman folded 
 her thin hands over the sock she had laid in her 
 lap. 
 
 " He were a man I knew quite well when I was a 
 boy," Tobias began. " One night, out on the 
 cliffs, he were overtaken wi' a storm like we had 
 last night. It were pitch black, like ink, and the 
 thunder and lightning seemed to fight one another 
 to see which could do the worst. And then, 
 sudden like, the lightning stopped, and the thunder 
 too, and the hail came down like pebbles, so, though 
 the man knew every inch of the cliff road, as he 
 thought, he could not find the path before him. 
 He got scared, and turned to the left, 'oping it 
 would lead him out by the lane near his house." 
 156
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 Tobias cleared his throat, and coughed as he went 
 on : " It allus gives me the crawls when I think 
 upon what that chap went through that night, and 
 I often start at the thoughts of it when I wake 
 sudden like." Grace's eyes were fixed on the 
 speaker's face, and Bob was cramming his pipe with 
 fresh tobacco. 
 
 " Why ! What happened ? " asked his wife. 
 Tobias turned towards her as he answered : 
 " He had his foot over the cliff as he turned to the 
 left, and a g'eat flash o' lightning come that second, 
 and he saw that it were just i' time. He told me 
 he stood like that, wi' his foot in the air, for long 
 enough, for all the power had gone out of his limbs. 
 Flash after flash came, and still he could not move. 
 He said he felt bound to stay there and watch, 
 same as if he was bewitched." 
 
 " Why ! What did he see ? " asked Grace, in a 
 low voice. 
 
 "Death in < Hell's Mouth,'" said Tobias slowly. 
 " He were just over it, and in less time than I take 
 to tell it he would have been a dead man but for 
 that flash of lightning." 
 
 " Enough to make a minister of him," said Bob 
 roughly. 
 
 The woman said nothing, but folded her hands 
 together over her knitting and looked into the fire. 
 Tobias glanced at her as if expecting her to speak, 
 but as she did not he went on. " No, it never 
 took him a bit like that. He never seemed to 
 think it was the hand of the Lord at all, but some- 
 thin' life-like in the lightning itself. Chaps used to 
 
 157
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 tease him often about it, for just as some go crazy 
 
 wi' terror when a storm's brewin', he looked then 
 
 for all the world as a man does when he's goin' to 
 
 see his sweetheart." 
 
 The woman began knitting again as she said : 
 
 " I never heard of no such thing before." 
 
 " It's yarns, seems to me," said Bob. 
 
 " No, it ain't," said Tobias quietly. " It's gospel 
 
 truth. Over everythin' else the man was as hard 
 
 as nails, and had no soft feelin's for women nor 
 
 childer, nor even cats and such like, but the 
 
 lightning allus made a new man of him ; he'd sit 
 
 alone with it for hours, never go nigh no one when 
 
 a storm was on, and was for days after it was over 
 
 a quiet, good-natured chap, ready to do a turn for 
 
 anybody. Nobody could make it up, and no more 
 
 can I," ended Tobias thoughtfully. 
 
 "Worse nor a woman's fancy, that," said Bob. 
 
 " I can't abide whims and unbeknowns ideas o' 
 
 that kind ; they allus make me sick." 
 
 " Perhaps it was unavoidable in him," said Grace. 
 
 " What's strong in the heart must out some way." 
 
 Bob scratched his head with the stem of his pipe, 
 
 which he rubbed between his finger and thumb, 
 
 and began smoking again as he said : 
 
 " Grace is the sort as could get a whimey notion 
 
 like that over lightning, and there'd be no puttin' 
 
 it out of her head if she did," he said, as he jerked 
 
 his thumb towards her. 
 
 There was a pause. 
 
 " Do the lightning fuss you at all, Mrs Olds ? " 
 
 asked Tobias gently. 
 
 158
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 The woman smiled as she answered : 
 11 No, it do never make much difference to 
 me one way nor another. I allus take what 
 comes just as it comes, but," and she looked 
 nervously towards her husband, "of course, I do 
 allus feel it can cause sudden death at times, and 
 though I know it is a quick and easy way of dyin'," 
 she added softly, " still, I should not like to be un- 
 prepared, and so I allus puts clean pillow-slips on the 
 bed when a storm comes for fear we should be took 
 sudden in the night, for I should like to be found 
 clean and tidy, however quick my end was." 
 Bob gazed into the fire and smoked harder than 
 ever, and Tobias stopped smoking and looked at 
 the woman as she ceased.
 
 IDOLATRY 
 
 " GOOD morning, my dear," said Widow Trevaslcis 
 one December day when I went in to see how she 
 was. " How do 'e find yoursel' i' this dark, cold 
 weather after coming from foreign parts ? " 
 " Pretty well, thank you," I said. " How are 
 you ? " 
 
 " Tolerable for me, my dear, but I feel the weight 
 of a world sometimes i' the long evenin's and wi' 
 no one to speak to." 
 
 I looked at her resigned, old face, and wondered 
 how she managed to live at all, for added to her 
 loneliness was a sorry lack of means. My thoughts 
 were interrupted by the old woman pointing to a 
 strange image in the dark corner of her kitchen, 
 and saying : 
 
 " But for he, my dear, I sud 'ave been in the 
 cemetery long ago." 
 
 I got up to examine the curious object she had 
 pointed out. It was coal black and shone, as the 
 old dame expressed it, "like a kitchen stove on a 
 Saturday night." I could not imagine what it was 
 for, though it was evidently supposed to resemble 
 1 60
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 a human being, the exaggerated lines of its face 
 made me shudder, as at things eerie and satanic. 
 Its huge, flat forehead and dilated nostrils made 
 me feel anything but rested as I stood in its 
 presence. Its large chest and uplifted hands awoke 
 no enthusiasm in my heart, such as I saw in the 
 eyes of Dame Trevaskis. 
 
 " Why does that comfort you ? " I asked, as I 
 pointed to the image. 
 
 The old dame rocked herself backwards and 
 forwards in her chair, and crossed her little hands 
 on her clean apron as she looked up at the strange 
 figure. A tender smile stole over her face. 
 " Lor ! " she said, " he'm like a thing human to 
 me. Look how he smiles upon me this minute, 
 and maybe another time if you look up he do seem 
 to frown, like a thing. I were fair scared of 'en 
 onc'st, but that were afore he were black. Now 
 I seems to understand." 
 
 " What colour was he before he was black ? " I 
 asked in surprise. 
 
 "Some heathen colour, my dear, as wasn't no 
 proper colour at all, and wouldn't clean nohow. 
 I polished 'en and scrubbed 'en and soaked 'en till 
 you'd 'ave thought he'd be gone altogether, and 
 not a bit o' difference could I make in 'en. I've 
 never made use o' no swear-words i' my life afore, 
 but I did over he, sure enough. I thought I should 
 never get 'en into a decent Christian thing at all." 
 u What is it ? " I asked curiously. 
 " Why, a little heathen god, my handsome. It is 
 one as my eldest son brought 'ome just afore he 
 161 ii
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 died, and he put 'en there," pointing to the corner, 
 "and said as how he were bound to bring me 
 luck. Dear fellow ! " continued Widow Trevaskis, 
 wiping her eyes with the corner of her apron, " he 
 said to me : c Take great care of he, mother, for 
 he've a sight o' good and evil in him, and as you 
 serve he he'll serve thee.' The dear soul winked 
 and laughed as he spoke they words, but they were 
 gospel truth, sure enough. When the dear lad 
 were buried up, I turned to he like as if he was 
 the only one as 'ad known my boy ; but 'is colour 
 worrited me some thing, and I seemed to see in 
 the eyes of 'en a command for me to obey, and one 
 
 I could not find out at all. It weren't no manner 
 o' use speaking to Jane Ann, poor Matthew's 
 wife, for she be too snappy i' the tongue to harken. 
 Poor Matthey ! " sighed Widow Trevaskis, " he'm 
 a splendid man beatened into bitterness and silence. 
 He never broke she in the first start off, and he'm 
 good as doomed as far as peace be concerned." 
 Widow Trevaskis saw my eyes were fixed on the 
 idol, and she folded her hands as she returned to the 
 subject we had started when I first came in. 
 
 II Lor ! my dear ! " she said, " we'm forgetting he," 
 pointing to the image. " Well, I said nothin' to no 
 one, but one day, as I told 'e, I scrubbed 'en and 
 soaked 'en and polished 'en, but he went more the 
 colour of a corpse than ever, and I were fair scared 
 of 'en. I got my little grand-chiel Harriet Jane 
 to sleep here with me one night for deadly terror 
 of the eyes of 'en. Whatever it were he wished 
 me to do I could not make out at all, but I was 
 
 162
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 certain sure it had nothin' to do wi' soap and water, 
 or brass paste and such like." 
 
 The old woman was gazing affectionately at the 
 image before her as she continued : 
 "I don't wonder the heathen worship they little 
 gods, for they'm wonderful knowin' i' all sorts o' 
 ways. I believe they puts the things they wants 
 carried into practice into our heads, else why should 
 us suddenly know, like I did ? " 
 " What did you find out ? " I asked, amused at 
 her talk. 
 
 " Look ! " she said suddenly. " Believe me or 
 not, I were sittin' thinkin' o' my dead boy one 
 night, and lookin' up at the image there like I 
 belong, when all of a sudden it flashed over me 
 that there could be nothin' i' England fit to polish 
 such a thing as that, for I've heard my son say that 
 the idols i' heathen lands shines like gold, and that 
 people bow down and worship 'em, thousands at a 
 time, for what they can do. I thought that night, 
 my dear, till I'd a headache from it, but the idea 
 must 'ave come straight from he," she went on, 
 pointing solemnly towards the image, "for I took 
 it into my head to blacklead 'en and make 'en 
 shine that way instead of wi' gold. I sat up all 
 night, and I polished 'en and rubbed 'en till my old 
 back ached, and then I put 'en back on his stand 
 again. The very features of 'en had changed ; 
 he've somehow never ceased to smile on me, for 
 apparently that was just the thing to please 'en, 
 and so I polishes 'en up regular, same as I wind 
 the clock and clean the grate, and he and me be 
 163
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 rare company o' nights. I seem to hear 'en telling 
 me of all the gran' things my son did i' foreign 
 parts." The old woman sighed as she looked into 
 the fire, and a gentle smile was on her face as she 
 said : " Him and me now have grown friends, and 
 I very often forget he's a god at all since I've 
 polished 'en up so, for I've got sort o' used to he 
 and not a bit afraid of 'en. Time was when I 
 used to look down on idols, but it seems to me 
 they must be the salvation o' many cannibal dears, 
 when they dare scarcely tell even their own kin 
 the monstrous murders they belong to do at times." 
 " I envy you, Mrs Trevaskis," I said, as I sighed 
 and rose to go. 
 
 164
 
 USELESS TOOLS 
 
 " Do you think it would be any use to speak to the 
 police about the loss of my watch ? " I said to 
 Martha Hicks one morning. I had been distressed 
 to find, on returning from my bathe, that my watch 
 was not on its chain. 
 
 " Lor ! speakin' to the police ain't no manner o' 
 use," said Martha. 
 Why ? " I asked. 
 
 u They'm useless tools hereabouts," said Martha. 
 " What they find out is not worth the asking most 
 times, and what is worth while catching for chastise- 
 ment, if they do happen on it, they 'ave to keep to 
 theirselves for fear of what may befall them." 
 " Oh ! " I said curiously, " surely it is their duty 
 to report things to head-quarters." 
 Martha Hicks smiled as she carefully ironed an 
 apron, and when it was folded she turned and faced 
 me as she said : 
 
 " A lesson be allus a lesson if it's taught wi' pain 
 enough, and even a p'liceman don't care to look 
 death i' the face more than needs be." 
 " Death ! " I ejaculated. 
 
 165
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " Iss ! " snapped Martha. " Either by fire or 
 water or stones, or even worse, a body 'ave to pay 
 the penalty if they interfere with we. We'm a 
 people whose motto is 4 One and all,' and we ain't 
 going to let no neighbours be put upon or hurted 
 in no ways, law or no law. Their very orders 
 from uplong do make the police more like foreigners 
 and strangers than those who do belong hereabouts. 
 Even if a man be reared in the place, as soon as he 
 claps that there uniform on, and his helmet and 
 belt, he looks more like a dressed-up enemy than a 
 man with a human heart inside him." 
 " Have the police not been in these parts very 
 long ? " I asked. 
 
 " No, my dear ; some fifteen year or so, that's all," 
 said Martha, as she pulled out a print dress from 
 the basket for ironing. " Whoever first started 
 the notion of police here I can't think," she con- 
 tinued, " but all of a sudden one of they arrived 
 in uniform, and for a bit he was real welcome, 
 as he kep' most of our children quiet follerin' him, 
 and as it was the holidays it seemed a real stroke 
 of good luck. But the pleasant part of it did not 
 last long, for the g'eat chap got mopish findin' 
 nothin' to do, and he a hearty feller too, and so 
 he up and fines Matthew Trevaskis for lettin' his 
 bullocks wander in a lane they'd been allowed 
 to go in for years." Martha turned to the kitchen 
 range and poked the fire fiercely as she went on : 
 " Imperance, sure enough ! we taught he, we did. 
 We had no manner of use for creatures like that, 
 who'd allus be hard upon we when they was lost 
 1 66
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 for a job. It's allus pitiable, to my mind, to see 
 a man peerin' and pryin' to get a livin' out o' 
 nothin', in a manner o' speakin', like writers and 
 such queer creatures as a spade 'ud frighten for 
 fear it spoke of good hard work." Martha went 
 to the fire and got a new heater and put it in the 
 ironing-box. As she held the iron near her cheek 
 to test its heat she added: "We began to think 
 he'd be running hens in for police practice next, 
 so we thought we'd just settle him." 
 " How did you manage it ? " I asked, for the 
 woman's mouth was twitching with smiles as she 
 bent over her work. 
 
 " Why ! chastisement, of course ! " said Martha, 
 still smiling grimly. My puzzled look amused 
 her. 
 
 "We ain't scared o' nobody in these parts that 
 is, as long as one neighbour will stand by another. 
 When Lawyer Rodda's wife refused to let her 
 nurse-girl out o' Sunday we talked it over, and 
 three of our lot broke the winders of the house, 
 and, though he were the law itself Rodda, I 
 mean in a manner o' speakin', he never did a 
 thing. He'd lived here too long to tempt we, and 
 only his wife were an uplong. Next Sunday the 
 maid were out dressed up and walking with her 
 chap till ten o'clock." 
 
 " But how did you settle the policeman ? " I 
 asked. 
 
 " Lor ! my dear," she said sharply, " we all that 
 
 is, most of the village sat an hour and talked the 
 
 thing out, and my brother-in-law, being six foot in 
 
 167
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 his stocking feet, were chosen to do the main part 
 o' the job when next that useless tool began to 
 play at law with the likes o' we. We hadn't to 
 wait long, for one day he come after Jacob Pengilly's 
 dog licences, and he told him he'd be had up for 
 not taking a licence for his bobtail sheep-dog as 
 he kept purposely for cattle. Jacob told 'en he'd 
 never paid no Government for keepin' that dog, 
 and he said, what was more, he never would. 
 The bobby said he must, and he made notes in 
 his little book. Jacob showed him the end of his 
 boot, and told him, so my nephew said, to go to 
 hell. 'Shain't go so far as that,' the bobby 
 answered. l Jacob,' he said, { you'll hear more of 
 this, my good man, before very long.' That were 
 too much for Jacob. He gave the policeman a 
 good shove out of the farmyard, and he were 
 served aforelong wi' something about assault and 
 battery. It woke murder i' Jacob's heart, and he 
 sat thinking darkly night after night, instead of 
 smokin' and jokin', as he do belong. He never 
 told his women folkses, nor even me, nor no female 
 in the parish what he were meditating." 
 " Wise man," I ventured to remark. 
 " Fool ! " responded Martha. " A man's wisdom 
 without a woman's wits to further it be a very 
 washy, unconvincin' thing, and often enough leads 
 to disaster." 
 
 " Did it in this case ? " I asked. 
 " Iss ! and no ! " responded Martha. "Jacob and 
 all the strongest youngsters in the place hunted that 
 new-fangled bobby like they'd hunt a rat out of a 
 1 68
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 hole, and drove 'en down to the sea, and when 
 they got 'en there they threw 'en in like a ball. 
 He swam for his life, and he come up again by the 
 quay swearin' some thing. They saw he were 
 more dangerous than ever, so they dragged 'en to 
 the end of the pier and threw 'en in again, knowing 
 by then he could swim like a fish, and he did too. 
 He swam over to the little river by Yane, and 
 went to the police station dripping like a dog out 
 of a pond. There was a fine talking and set to, 
 and the youngsters were terrible scared, but the 
 chap were a man as well as a bobby, and made 
 things easy for Jacob and the rest." 
 " How could he do that ? " I asked. 
 " He actually said it were mostly his fault for 
 braggin' and hustlin' and pryin'," answered Martha. 
 " Jacob Pengilly," she continued, " were so took 
 back, for he expected a few months, that he sent 'en 
 half a pig when he killed next, and I'm sure I'm 
 thankful he didn't kill 'en that way," added Martha 
 gravely, " for pork were out of season and swine 
 fever were in most places." 
 
 " There seems little chance of my recovering my 
 watch," I said dolefully. 
 
 " A big reward do allus go further wi' the likes o' 
 we than police or the law," said Martha. 
 
 169
 
 DOUBTS 
 
 " I FEEL very droopy," said Nancy Christopher 
 to me one misty morning, as she stood in my door- 
 way, with her white, tired face more drawn than 
 usual. 
 
 " What is the matter ? " I asked. 
 " Pain in the back, my dear, and water lodgin' 
 round the 'eart." 
 " Poor you ! " I said. 
 
 " Lordy ! Lordy ! " she whispered, " I'm a rare 
 wicked woman, and it preys badly on my mind, 
 it do." 
 
 " Why ? " I asked, smiling. " I always look upon 
 you as a very happy and good woman." 
 Nancy looked on the ground and walked slowly 
 into my cottage. 
 
 " By your leave, my dear," she said, and sat down 
 heavily on the stairs. Then she looked up at me 
 and clasped her two old hands round one knee. 
 " Sister be took bad again, and I'm " here she 
 stopped, unclasped her hands, and held them over 
 her head as if in prayer " I'm mazed to think on 
 it. She's all my life, and if she be took it 'ud be 
 170
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 like the 'eart being cut out o' my poor old body. 
 I've reared she, tended she, wintered and summered 
 she sin' we were little childer together, and she's 
 all I do want i' the world. The doctor says she's 
 fair wore out, for her nerves is like a thing ruined, 
 and I'm wastin' wi' terror at what has to be." 
 " It may not be as bad as that," I said. 
 "'Tis, my dear," she sobbed. Then, looking 
 quickly up at me, she said bitterly : " I deserve it 
 if she be took ; that's the worst part of it all. 
 When they told me she were to die, I up wi' my 
 fist like this," and she raised her clenched hand to 
 my face, " and I said to the doctor, c Husht ! I 
 cain't and won't hear no such thing. Let some 
 useless worm be took, but not she as is all my life,' 
 and then I made use of a strange sayin' which is 
 makin' me sad and trembly ever since I spoke it, 
 for I were mazed wi' grief, and rebellious wi' terror, 
 and I 'ardly 'ad time to collect my senses." 
 The old woman was rocking to and fro, and a 
 great misery had made her eyes dull and tired. I 
 touched her shoulder gently as I asked : 
 What is it ? " 
 
 " Oh ! " she answered in a weary voice, " I up 
 and said to the doctor, nearly strikin' of him as I 
 stood before him, c If she do leave me you'm worse 
 nor a useless tool, and if there's a God above, which 
 I can never disbelieve, He've a 'eart like a gaol door 
 and not a heart o' love at all.' Oh ! " she went 
 on slowly, "how I ever come to harbour such a 
 thought I cain't tell, for it were no sooner said than 
 I knew it were not true, but," looking up piteously 
 171
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 to the ceiling, "if He heard it, my dear, surely 
 He'll feel bound to chastise me for my soul's 
 salvation, and so," sobbing bitterly, "both of we 
 lone women 'ull be punished for the rash words 
 of one of us, for my handsome won't be really 
 happy in heaven without me to tend she. I do 
 know that well enough. She've often said it do 
 give her the crawls to be parted from me, even 
 for an hour, and eternity cain't even be thought 
 of without one another." 
 
 The old woman suddenly brightened, for she saw 
 I was smiling. 
 
 " Cheer up," I said, " there is no real parting for a 
 love like that." 
 
 " Are 'e quite sure, my dear ? " she asked wistfully. 
 " Quite sure," I said. 
 
 " How do 'e know ? " she almost whispered, and 
 the eager look in her face had brought a little 
 light into her tired eyes. 
 
 " I do know that's all," I said sympathetically, 
 and she nodded her head again and again as she 
 smiled and whispered : 
 
 " Iss, iss, you speak out of conviction, my dear, as 
 well as from book learnin', and I be comforted. I 
 be very low in the body, and perhaps it do affect 
 the mind. I'm up late and early tendin' she, and 
 we neither of us dare speak of what's rendin' we in 
 pieces. What do 'e think my handsome said to 
 me this mornin' ? " 
 " I don't know," I said. 
 
 " l Sister,' said my poor, weak dear, * do 'e come 
 
 close to my bed and tell me if it be really true that 
 
 172
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 the primroses be out i' the garden, and the daffies 
 i' bud ? ' I told her there were a few just out. 
 1 Then there's hope, sister,' she said, c buds, buds, 
 and the spring comin', think of it ! ' and she looked 
 her old self at the thought of it. I put on my 
 shoes and went forth and brought her in some 
 primroses and violets, and we put them in a vase 
 by her bed, and we sang a hymn of thanksgiving 
 together, just as we did when we was children. 
 And as I come up-long to see you, my dear, I kep' 
 hoping the dear Lord would happen 'tend more to 
 the loud singin' o' faith than to the wicked word I 
 made use of in my great tribulation. I do allus 
 forgive my handsome directly minute after she've 
 crossed me, and it's likely He'll be more merciful to 
 a poor human worm than I be to a sister, eh ? " 
 she asked anxiously. 
 
 I nodded, and she got up to go. As she clasped 
 my hands she said : 
 
 " Buds be burstin', my dear, and 'ope is surely comin' 
 back to poor old Nanny's heart." 
 
 173
 
 MAKING AMENDS 
 
 " WELL, my dear ! whatever can I do for 'e to 
 make amends for all e've done for my poor 
 mother ? I sail never be able to repay 'e at all, 
 I'm thinking." 
 
 I looked at the woman who stood before me, and 
 smiled at her earnestness. She was the daughter 
 of a dear old soul with whom I had spent many 
 bright hours, for, though she was paralysed, she 
 was the very spirit of patience and good humour. 
 " I want no thanks," I said ; " what little I did 
 for your dear mother was because I liked her." 
 " Ah, well ! " answered Jane Hocking, with a fine 
 upward turn of her head ; " if I can't pay 'e in 
 hake, my dear, I will in herrin', be sure of that ; 
 and the Lord will see to the rest. You'll never 
 want, anyway ; but above all any of we poor 
 mortals can do for 'e you'll be abundantly blessed, 
 I'm thinking." 
 
 She wiped a chair, and drew it to the fire, and we 
 sat facing one another with our feet on the little 
 fender. We stayed for some time enjoying the 
 
 174
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 warmth in silence, and then Jane Hocking spoke 
 again. 
 
 " Mother was very nearey, my dear," she announced 
 suddenly. " Do you know, when we come to 
 look into her things a bit, we found quite a lot of 
 sovereigns hid away in her bed-tye, sewn right in 
 it, mind. Me and John George divided 'em up 
 atween we and Ann Grace, and I can't tell 'e 
 what a lot o' frettin' and naggin' it have spared we. 
 Mother maybe meant the gold for her buryin', as 
 she allus loved the thought of a hearse and bearers, 
 but that was all done afore we found the money, 
 and so, thanks be, it was too late to use it that 
 way. Nothin', my dear, do make a man and 
 woman so fretful and ugly as not havin' enough to 
 go through with ; it fair turns my blood to cabbage 
 water to have to look at a sixpence and know I'm 
 going to hustle and bustle it to do the work of a 
 shillin'." 
 
 I laughed. " We all know that," I said, as I re- 
 turned the woman's impressive nod. 
 " But there," Jane Hocking went on with a sigh, 
 " I've got enough now to make my pillow easy to 
 my head, and to let me walk with pride among 
 my neighbours, and give them a smart of envy as 
 they look upon me. It don't never do to tell 
 folkses just what you've got ; allus tell 'em a little 
 more, in a manner of speakin', and throw in a word 
 or two to make 'em guess more than you say 
 eh ? " She smiled in a drowsy, contented sort of 
 way as her eyes followed the flickering flames in 
 the grate before her. She moved a saucepan to 
 175
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 one side, so that it should not boil over, and turned 
 once more to me. 
 
 "A thought's just come to me," she said. "Do 
 'e by chance ever wear home-knitted stockings ? " 
 " Yes, sometimes," I answered slowly, for I feared 
 she was going to offer me the coarse pair her 
 nimble fingers were making as she chatted to 
 me. 
 
 " Well, I'll tell 'e what I'll do to make amends to 
 'e for bein' so kind to poor mother. I'll knit 'e a 
 pair of nice, warm black stockings ! There ! " 
 She put down her work and folded her hands in her 
 lap in a determined way. 
 
 " Thank you," I said, in rather a feeble voice ; " it 
 is very kind of you." 
 
 The bright eyes narrowed a little as she half-closed 
 her lids and looked at me ; then she bent forward 
 and said very quickly, as she poked my knee with 
 her forefinger: 
 
 " You buy the wool to-morrow, my dear, and I'll 
 make 'em for 'e. Naw ! " 
 
 Thanking her once more, I said good-bye, and 
 promised to come the next day. 
 The wool was bought, and in less than a week the 
 stockings were made. 
 
 " I've told 'e, my handsome, as I'd do anything 
 for 'e any hour of the day or night ; go through a 
 furze-bush backwards if it came to that," said Jane 
 Hocking, with fervour, as she presented me with 
 the long, thick, black stockings, which I promised 
 to wear, hoping, with a Jesuitical hypocrisy, that a 
 way of deliverance would be found for me to escape 
 176
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 the hair-shirt type of penance. She seemed to 
 detect a want of fervour in my thanks. 
 " Don't 'e like them, my dear ? " she queried. 
 The shrill note of interrogation in her question 
 almost made me jump off my chair lest she had 
 read my secret heart. 
 
 " Oh yes ! very much ; they are beautifully 
 worked," I said emphatically. 
 
 I saw she was far from satisfied as her eye caught 
 mine. I shuffled my feet and tried to smile. I 
 grew more nervous still as she edged close up to me, 
 as if she had detected the bland hypocrisy in my 
 voice. I liked her, and would not willingly hurt 
 her, and yet what was I to do ? I held one long 
 black stocking dangling from my hands, and tried to 
 turn my eyes from hers, so that I could fasten them 
 on her gift to me, and so tell a lie more easily; 
 but her sharp eyes were riveted on mine, and the 
 tension of the moment was getting more than I 
 could bear. I knew I should soon laugh outright 
 or drop the stocking and run. But she broke the 
 silence. 
 
 "What," she said slowly, still keeping her eyes on 
 mine, "what do 'e pay for knitting they long 
 stockings you do wear ? " 
 
 The tension was relieved, though I could not 
 imagine why she asked me a question which seemed 
 so far from the point at issue. 
 " Two shillings," I answered. 
 
 " Well ! " she said, as she sidled quite close to me 
 and winked solemnly into my wide-open eyes, 
 " I'll only charge 'e, as it's you, half-a-crown for 
 177 ' 12
 
 MY CORNISH N E I G H-B O;U R S 
 
 this pair that I've knitted for 'e. Naw ! " and 
 the benevolence radiating from her face prevented 
 any answer as I slowly drew my purse from my 
 pocket. 
 
 178
 
 MAGNETISM 
 
 " MARTHA, my dear, whatever 'ave happened to 
 Bill ? " said Nancy Curnow to her friend Martha 
 Hicks one fine morning. 
 
 Martha knitted more quickly than ever as she 
 answered : 
 
 "He'm a forth right fool, but he won't listen to 
 reason. He's dead set on marry in' Harriet Jane 
 Quick.' 
 
 " Whatever can 'e see in her at all ? " queried 
 Nancy, in a low voice. 
 
 "Somethin' as don't 'appen to come under the 
 range of my eyeballs," snapped Martha. 
 " She'm pock-marked," said Nancy. 
 " Her's squint-eyed i' some lights," said Martha. 
 " And carroty hair," said Nancy. 
 " Splay feet too, like a thing," said Martha. 
 " A g'eat mouth like a young thrush i' the nest," 
 said Nancy; "but, there, on the other hand, her 
 don't make use of as much victual as you'd suppose 
 by the look o' she." 
 
 " Company manners ain't nothing to judge by, for 
 
 the uses o' daily life makes they soon go to pieces," 
 
 179
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 said Martha. " Bill will need all he do earn to 
 keep she." 
 
 " Whatever took him, I wonder, to choose she ? " 
 asked Nancy ; "it ain't as if she'd money neither." 
 " Obstinacy," responded Martha. 
 " Lor ! " said Nancy. You don't say." 
 " Bill 'ave allus had rather a fancy for saucy 
 women," said Martha, " but lately he've sobered a 
 bit ; but I never thought he'd turn all the other 
 way like this. I couldn't believe he were making 
 up to she, and I tormented he a lot and cried she 
 down like a foolish, unlearnt woman i' these things. 
 If you want a man to drop a female, you just praise 
 her night and day ; the abuse o' she be a patent for 
 hitching him tight, I can tell 'e." 
 " But," said Nancy thoughtfully, with her head on 
 one side, " no man marries a woman except to 
 please hissel'. She must 'ave something in her to 
 fetch him as we cain't see, for I reckon love is a 
 rare thing for opening a man's eyes to see marvels." 
 " Hold thy noise, Nancy Curnow," said Martha 
 sharply. " Whatever do you know about love ? " 
 " By observation," said Nancy. 
 " By fiddlesticks ! " said Martha. " You may as 
 well say you know how to swim by looking at the 
 sea." 
 
 Nancy bent her head, and a slight flush crept over 
 her face as she said quietly : 
 
 " You allus know what belongs, my dear. I be a 
 foolish woman to talk about things as I knaw nothin' 
 about." 
 
 The door opened and a tall man came in. He 
 180
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 jerked his head and smiled at the two women as he 
 drew his chair to the table. 
 
 " Have you fitted a cup o' tea, aunt ? " he asked, 
 looking at Martha. 
 
 " No, my son, we've been coseying and talking 
 about thee," said Martha, with a glance at Nancy. 
 " About me ? " he queried. 
 
 Nancy's gentle voice piped out somewhat nervously 
 as she looked at the young man : 
 " Only hoping well for this marriage o' thine, Bill." 
 Martha planted the kettle on the fire with a shrug 
 of her shoulders. 
 
 "There was no hopin' about it at all," she 
 murmured ; " we was wonderin'." 
 Wonderin' what ? " asked Bill. 
 "What 'ad taken thee in Harriet Jane Quick to 
 make thee want to marry her," said Martha grimly. 
 Bill planted his elbows on the table and looked at 
 the two women. 
 
 " Same as takes most chaps," he said. 
 Stuff ! " said Martha. 
 " Unlikely ! " said Nancy. 
 " Fact ! " said Bill. 
 
 " Beauty, I suppose ? " queried Martha, with a 
 sneer. 
 
 " No ! " said Bill. 
 
 Nancy fixed her gentle eyes upon the man before 
 her. 
 
 " Nice figure, eh, Bill ? " she queried. 
 " Maybe ! " said Bill. 
 
 "Not that even," said Martha, suddenly turning 
 round and facing the two. 
 181
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " No, not that I do Icnaw," said Bill, laughing. 
 " I never even thought o' that till you put it in my 
 head." 
 
 " Sharp tongue, perhaps ? " asked Martha acidly. 
 " I don't cotton to that," said Bill slyly. " That 
 'ud go against she with me." 
 
 "Sak.es!" said Nancy nervously, as she glanced 
 towards Martha, "a sharp tongue be a grand 
 stand-by for directin' of a house. A silent, sullen 
 woman be often a sword i' the flesh, where a teasy 
 one be only a thorn by comparison." 
 "Well spoken, Nancy Curnow," said Martha, as 
 she poured the water into the teapot. 
 " I've never had no dealin's wi' sullen females," said 
 Bill thoughtfully. 
 
 " Perhaps it be wealth 'as 'ave mazed *e," said 
 Nancy. 
 
 Bill hung his head as he muttered : 
 "I've never made so bold as to ask what she've 
 laid by." 
 
 " She's too sly to let on," said Martha. 
 " She ain't no such thing," said Bill sharply. 
 " Hold thy noise," cried Martha. " I don't knaw 
 the maid. I was merely wonderin' what had 
 fetched 'e, that's all." 
 
 " Well ! " said Bill, as he cut into a large piece of 
 heavy cake and drank his tea, " I'll satisfy 'e for 
 onc'st." 
 
 The two women leaned forward, glancing sideways 
 at one another, and Martha put a piece of sugar in 
 Bill's tea. There was a long pause, broken only 
 by the sound of Bill's " supping " his tea, for hay- 
 182
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 making is " dry " work. As he rubbed his mouth 
 
 with the back of his hand, he said quietly : 
 
 " I never made no observations about Harriet Jane's 
 
 looks, nor yet her figure, nor such-like. As for 
 
 her savin's, it's same as with her temper and general 
 
 constitution ; they can all be studied by and by, 
 
 when the bans 'ave been read and the weddin' day 
 
 gone." 
 
 The two women shook their heads gravely as they 
 
 looked at Bill, who went on rapidly : 
 
 11 What 'ave drew me to she, and what 'ave fixed 
 
 me into a longin' for matrimony is " 
 
 There was a pause, and the two women bent 
 eagerly forward, and Bill coughed as he snapped 
 out with a short laugh : 
 
 "Well, a come-hither look in her eye which I 
 couldn't withstand nohow."
 
 MRS PENGILLY AT 
 HOME 
 
 JACOB PENGILLY sat by the kitchen-fire with his 
 long legs stretched out to the blaze and his eyes 
 riveted on the kettle, whose lid was jumping about 
 with the spluttering water under it. His bucolic 
 nerves were a little disturbed. He looked up 
 irritably as the door opened. 
 
 " Lor ! Jacob ! you bean't smokin' nor nothin', 
 my son. You don't belong to sit moody like this 
 'ere," said Mrs Pengilly. 
 
 Jacob turned slowly round and faced his mother, 
 and his dull brain gradually realised she had changed 
 in a few weeks. He scratched his head and still 
 looked at her, for he was at a loss to understand 
 things. 
 
 "You'm altered like a thing," he said jerkily. 
 " You'm like a stranger woman i' some ways." 
 Mrs Pengilly sighed, and then she smiled as she 
 said : 
 
 "Jacob, if anybody had told me that my milk- 
 pans could ever become to my eyes almost as dear 
 184
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 as my own childer, I should have told 'em they was 
 willing liars." 
 
 Jacob folded his arms and said : 
 " You'm mazy." 
 
 " I'm home," said Mrs Pengilly gently. " Nothin' 
 else matters. I keep wanderin' round the house, 
 almost swallowin' the very sunbeams as catch 
 and kiss atween thy room and Charlotte's, and 
 and " the woman looked at her son under her 
 eyes " if it hadn't been too silly I could 'ave 
 fair hugged the white pillow on my own bed, for I 
 feel as if I'd been away years and years." 
 Jacob looked moodily at the toe of his boot. 
 " Fancies, I guess," he said slowly. " Women, 
 they say, don't never like changes. They'm like 
 cats can't be drove from their own firesides." 
 " London be a bewilderin', dark, heart-rendin' 
 place," said Mrs Pengilly. 
 Jacob grunted as he answered : 
 " It can't be so bad, or else so many folkses wouldn't 
 live there." 
 
 " Lots o' folkses dwell in hell so far as numbers be 
 concerned," said Mrs Pengilly solemnly. 
 Her son smiled, and his heavy mouth twitched. 
 " I wonder," he said roughly, " if folkses ever tire 
 of heaven. I'm beginning to 'ate the very sun- 
 light and the barkin' o' the dogs and the birds 
 singin', I want to see sights so badly. A circus do 
 put me in a glow for days." 
 
 Mrs Pengilly sat down and folded her hands on 
 her white apron. Suddenly her face cleared, and 
 Jacob watched her with interest. 
 185
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " Seen anythin' ? " he said. 
 She wiped her eyes. 
 
 " Lor ! I'm surely daft," she said. " A bit o' 
 bramble and honeysuckle against the winder there 
 made my heart flutter almost as it did when your 
 father began courtin' of me. I feel I could do 
 a kindness to a fair blackguard in thanksgiving 
 for bein' here once after that dreadful time in 
 London." 
 
 Jacob suddenly stood up. 
 
 " I've thought o' nothin' else for years," he said, 
 " but of the day I should get to London town, and 
 now you'm trying all you know how to cool me 
 off. Why ! " he added eagerly, " I never read no 
 paper but I feel my heart beatin' against my ribs 
 'cause of all the things I know be goin' on there. 
 None of my penny stories as I take in every week 
 be in it for fightin' and bloodshed when you come to 
 read what's going on daily and nightly in London." 
 Mrs Pengilly grew a little pale as she answered : 
 "When you read about they things, Jacob, you 
 never reckon wi' the sulphur smell in your nose 
 and the sharp screams all around in your ears, nor 
 the dirt in your eyes, and the jostling and shoving 
 everywhere, and no proper light to see by. It all 
 seems to choke you and make your back ache and 
 your head split." 
 
 A large black cat had walked solemnly into the 
 room and suddenly jumped on Mrs Pengilly's knee. 
 She stroked it gently, and its purring was soon 
 the only noise in the kitchen. Jacob frowned as 
 he glanced at his mother and the cat. 
 186
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " Silly noise," he said. " Allus the same every- 
 thing here allus the same." 
 " Thanks be," said his mother. 
 Jacob got down his gun and fingered the trigger. 
 " Shootin' be the only thing I like doin' now," he 
 said. 
 
 " Lor ! " said Mrs Pengilly, " I wonder why men 
 folkses allus love to hurt." 
 
 "'Cause it's meant," said Jacob. As he spoke, 
 a brown setter bounded into the room, and lashed 
 her tail with delight against Jacob's legs. He 
 patted her head, and she rushed towards the gun 
 and smelt it. With a low cry of joy, she jumped 
 in the air and tried to lick her master's hands, and 
 from them she turned to the gun again. 
 " The only sensible female I do know," said Jacob, 
 smiling. "We'll go and kill somethin', and we 
 shall both feel better." 
 
 As Jacob turned towards the door, his mother 
 called to him sharply. 
 
 "Jacob," she said, "the farm be payin' well, sure 
 enough." 
 
 " Fairly, I reckon," said Jacob. 
 " Go to London," said Mrs Pengilly. 
 The man drew a long breath as he asked : 
 " What's come to thee ? " 
 " Revelation," said his mother. 
 " Sakes ! " said Jacob. 
 
 " It be borne in on me, my son, from my own 
 wanderin's lately," and the woman looked hard at 
 Jacob, " that the best way to learn your own mind 
 is to follow it, and if you run after mazy, crazy 
 187
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 things, like a mad dog after its own tail, it's better 
 
 so than to keep you back. You'll happen be 
 
 humbler presently, and if you ain't well, then, 
 
 you'll be proud, and there's room enough in the 
 
 world for both sorts." 
 
 " I'll go," said Jacob, " and to onc'st ; and mind, 
 
 make me a pasty as big as my head, and plenty of 
 
 saffron buns and some cold tea and milk." 
 
 The woman smiled as she put the cat gently from 
 
 her knee. 
 
 " I'll make them," she said, as her son strode out 
 
 of the door, whistling ; " but, thanks be, it need 
 
 never fall to my lot to eat pasties, heavy cake, and 
 
 saffron buns out of my own home, for they taste 
 
 sodden and physicky in a strange land." 
 
 188
 
 RESOLUTIONS 
 
 "ANOTHER year just on gone," said Martha 
 Hicks to Nancy Curnow, "and the wind blaws 
 without ceasin', and the days be dark and dreary, 
 sure enough." 
 
 " This time o' year be allus unsettlin'," said Nancy, 
 in a gentle voice. " After Christmas, when all 
 the bustle and decoratin' be over, a body feels 
 strange and lonesome, don't 'e think ? " 
 Martha had taken her large black hat from the 
 peg, and was looking into the crown. She shook 
 her head and brought the hat over to Nancy, as 
 she muttered : 
 
 "Wore out at last, I believe. It have wintered 
 and summered me for many a year, but it'll scarce 
 hold together now." 
 
 Nancy smiled into her friend's face as she said : 
 " It seems to belong to 'e, Martha, same as the 
 mole on your cheek." 
 
 " It is like a friend, sure enough ! " said Martha. 
 " I've rooted up dahlias in it when summer were 
 over, and I've weeded in it between the snowdrops 
 and violets in the first sunny days. I've tended 
 189
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 and looked upon all the things in my garden in 
 this 'ere hat, ever since mother died. I hate new- 
 fangled things and folkses, and I'm only comfortable 
 wi' the old-fashioned ways. New friends, as you 
 knaw, Nancy Curnow, be brave and tryin' after 
 old ones, and they be mostly thorns i' the flesh, 
 and not much account for trustin' wi' nothin' you 
 want to keep to yourself." 
 
 " They means well, I'm thinkin'," said Nancy ; 
 "but things is changin', and folkses jerk and jump 
 about more nor they used to do, and there's no 
 time for neighbourin' and coseyin' like there was 
 once." 
 
 Martha tossed her head as she said : 
 "There's time enough for scatterin' abroad all 
 the misplaced talk i' the parish, I'm thinking. 
 
 I've taken a resolve to start the New Year wi' ' 
 
 she added, as she hung up her hat with a sigh. 
 " Oh ! " said Nancy ; " what, then ? " 
 " If you're a sensible female, you'll do the same," 
 said Martha ; " that is, if you values peace and 
 quietness." 
 
 Nancy folded her hands, and looked at her friend. 
 Martha poked the fire, and snapped out : 
 " I'm goin' to turn the other cheek if I'm buffeted 
 on one, and if a neighbour hits that one, I shan't 
 be sparey in givin' back ; but I'll let them have 
 a bit of a chance." 
 
 " Shall I make you a cup o' tea ? " asked Nancy, 
 with a smile. " Somethin' 'ave upset you. What 
 can it be ? " 
 
 " Sakes ! " cried Martha. " Cain't a body lean 
 190
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 a bit to a parson's way, without a companion taking 
 
 it for a jeer ? We're taught not to return evil 
 
 wi' evil, though a hard answer, if too much is laid 
 
 on anybody, can't count as a hit back. Natural 
 
 defence, of course, be a virtue, and I mean allus 
 
 to justify myself whenever I'm tormented." 
 
 " But that's no new thing," said Nancy, smiling 
 
 into Martha's face. "Thee've never been ready 
 
 wi' soft answers, my dear." 
 
 " That's all you do knaw, Nancy Curnow," said 
 
 Martha briskly ; " but I've found somethin' out in 
 
 my older years." 
 
 " What ? " asked Nancy. 
 
 "To hold my tongue and let other people wag 
 
 theirs. That's the sure way to make friends and 
 
 to keep them, too." 
 
 " Lor ! " said Nancy, " and you do love to 
 
 " Hold your noise ! " said Martha sharply. " I'm 
 off gossip, for it do graw like ferns i' the lewth, and 
 you never knaw the end of it. It be worse nor 
 knives and guns for killin' anybody in a manner of 
 speaking, and then it's not fair no way, for a person 
 can't fight for theirselves behind their own back." 
 " Martha Hicks, my dear, be you feelin' ill ? " 
 asked Nancy anxiously. 
 Martha coughed as she snapped back : 
 " Do 'e allus credit a good resolution that way, 
 Nancy Curnow ? " 
 
 " But it's all unnatural," said Nancy solemnly. 
 "It seems like a token to hear you talk like 
 that." 
 
 "I don't suppose I'm good enough to die yet," said 
 191
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 Martha shortly, " but I've been thin kin' a lot lately, 
 and the New Year do make a body begin all over 
 again. Of course, I may be more eager for a 
 slander in a day or two just from keepin' back a 
 little, but I'm beginning to understand now why 
 things go awry i' this village." 
 " Why ? " asked Nancy. 
 
 " 'Cause we'm taken up wi' frettin' over any bit o' 
 prosperity or good luck we see about us instead of 
 spending our time in bein' comfortable and happy 
 ourselves. My dear woman, it 'ave come over me 
 like a dream that it's breaking a commandment to 
 grudge a bit of luck to a neighbour or to steal their 
 good name for pastime. It's somethin' to think on, 
 I can tell you, for it stops jawin' when you've 
 hopped on the truth that a body can't even tell a 
 lie by theirselves, for it needs the person as listens 
 to back it up by understandin' of it, and so there's 
 two culpabable instead of one." 
 Nancy Curnow got up from her chair, and took a 
 little box from the shelf, opened the lid in silence 
 and shook her head. Martha laughed as she 
 watched her. 
 
 " It ain't pills I do want, Nancy, my dear," she 
 said. " I finished the box only last night, and the 
 * painkiller ' be there, too, if I need it. It's a real 
 light I've got, I tell thee, and there's nothin' like 
 being convicted over some things." 
 The door opened, and a stout, red-faced woman 
 peered in. 
 
 " Lor ! " cried Nancy. " Whatever 'ave took 
 Sarah Friggens ? " 
 
 192
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 Martha looked frowningly at the new-comer as she 
 stood in the doorway. 
 
 " Have you heard the news ? " asked Sarah breath- 
 lessly. "That varmint up there," jerking her 
 fingers towards the road, " 'ave shown her colours 
 at last." Here Sarah blew her nose noisily on the 
 corner of her apron. " She've been found out, sure 
 
 enough, and " 
 
 " Come in, do," said Martha bnskly, as she poked 
 
 the fire and drew a chair towards it for Sarah. 
 
 Then she murmured : " The weather or somethin' 
 
 'ave given me the fair hump, and the very sight of 
 
 a neighbour wi' a bit of news be most cheerin'. 
 
 Sit down and begin to onc'st." 
 
 Nancy coughed nervously as she whispered to 
 
 Sarah : 
 
 "Don't tell it if it be against the woman. It 
 
 won't do no good, and Martha can't abear it. It 
 
 do give her qualms now to hear measly tales about 
 
 neighbours." 
 
 Sarah Friggens looked at Martha Hicks, and the 
 
 two women laughed outright. 
 
 " Fit a cup o' tea, and make it strong," said 
 
 Martha, and her back was turned to Nancy as she 
 
 gave the order.
 
 ONE AND ALL 
 
 " * To let,' do look cold and bare, like a thing," 
 said Mrs Pengilly, as she pointed to a large white 
 card in my front window. I turned to my boxes 
 and cases standing in a row in the passage, and 
 said : 
 
 " I wonder if I shall ever want to come back 
 again ? " 
 
 " Iss ! my dear," responded Mrs Pengilly. 
 "Just because you've had to battle so freely wi' 
 elements and nuisances of all sorts, your heart'll 
 turn back to the old place again. It's only what a 
 body 'ave suffered over what draws 'en, in rages of 
 longing, like a thing they can never forget seemly. 
 You've been one here against all, in a manner of 
 speaking, for it do take years with we to treat a 
 stranger like one of our own. We've been reared 
 to look on all uplongs as natural foes, and though 
 we all likes you, my dear, still it 'ave been a matter 
 of principle wi' some, and wishing you no harm 
 neither, just to show they could frustrate you in 
 any undertaking. It's not malice, mind you, any 
 more than wrestlin' or that sort." 
 194
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 I sighed. 
 
 "Don't 'e take it to heart," said Mrs Pengilly. 
 
 " There's natural and unnatural enemies, and I 
 
 don't believe you'll leave behind a single one of 
 
 they last. Neighbours do commend 'e right and 
 
 left, and I heard Matthew Trevaskis say the other 
 
 day that you was the all roundest woman he'd ever 
 
 met." 
 
 Jacob Pengilly drove up to the door and shouted 
 
 cheerily : 
 
 " Be your boxes ready ? I'm going to give you 
 
 the last send off, and I hope the heartiness of it'll 
 
 make you change your mind one day and come 
 
 back along o' we again." 
 
 " Perhaps," I said, and I smiled as the boxes were 
 
 lifted into the cart. 
 
 "She'm real relieved to be going, mother," said 
 
 Jacob. "The place 'ave weighed on she like 
 
 London town on you. What's prime bullock's beef 
 
 to one be wormwood to another. We'll send you 
 
 cream and pilchards to mind you of we. They'll 
 
 happen taste sweet in your tooth with all the smoke 
 
 and noise up there," and he flicked his whip 
 
 towards the road. 
 
 " Thank you," I said, as Jacob turned his horse's 
 
 head towards the station. As Mrs Pengilly and 
 
 I sauntered after the cart, she said to me in a 
 
 choked voice : 
 
 "It be leery work sayin' good-bye to you, my 
 
 handsome. I shall miss 'e, some thing." 
 
 As she spoke, Tobias Penberthy appeared in the 
 
 turning of a lane, and his face beamed as he said : 
 
 '95
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 " Lor ! I were most afraid you'd be gone without 
 a chan'st of saying good-bye to you." 
 "There's the whistle of the train leaving the 
 junction," said Mrs Pengilly shortly. "We're just 
 nigh the station, thanks be, but there's no time 
 for no tonguing, Tobias." 
 
 Tobias hung his head and took the hand I held out 
 to him as he muttered : 
 
 "Well time or no time, I'm bound to tell you, 
 missis, as I'm droopey at the thought of you going, 
 for I'd allus hoped, if I'd outlived you, which God 
 forbid, that I should 'ave had the good luck to be 
 a bearer at your funeral. If any neighbour had 
 asked me where I were speedin' to all dressed in 
 black, I should have told him to mind his own 
 business, and I'd 'ave helped carry you to your 
 grave with all the goodwill in the world." 
 " Thank you," I said heartily, as we ran towards 
 the station, " I shall always bear your goodwill in 
 remembrance." 
 
 At the station Kezia Pengilly, with her baby 
 in her arms, ran forward to say good-bye, and 
 on the platform Martha Hicks, in her flat black 
 hat and a long silk pelisse, edged with fringe, 
 awaited us. 
 
 " Sakes ! " said Martha. " You be running away 
 like a thing, and you look whisht over it too. 
 Strong air, like we do have here i' the early spring, 
 be often times too much for feeble constitootions, 
 but I wish you well all the same, and I shall miss 
 you dropping in at times, for I be most like a 
 barnacle wi' stayin' in the house so much." 
 196
 
 MY CORNISH NEIGHBOURS 
 
 As the train slowed into the little station, Kezia 
 held her baby up for me to kiss it. 
 " She be named after you, mind," said Kezia, " and 
 in a way it 'ave made up for her not being a boy, 
 for Joe and me had reckoned on a son." 
 " Lor ! " said Mrs Pengilly, as she pushed me 
 into the carriage, "don't go for to overcome the 
 woman afore a long journey. She's nigh weepin' 
 now, for she be most like a real neighbour after all." 
 I looked through dim eyes at the little group 
 waving and gesticulating on the platform as the 
 train began to move. Just as we curved into the 
 tunnel, I saw Tobias Penberthy leaning over the 
 wall above the station. His head was in his hands, 
 and a forlorn hope was depicted in his anxious face. 
 We had entered the tunnel, and I had lost sight of 
 all my neighbours. 
 
 FRINTED BY NEILL AND CO., LTD., EDINBURGH.
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 SEAWEED 
 
 A Cornish Idyll 
 
 Mrs HAVELOCK ELLIS 
 
 "Edith Ellis deserves credit for 
 the simplicity and courage with 
 which she handles a difficult prob- 
 lem." Manchester Guardian. 
 
 " As a piece of literary workman- 
 ship, it is well-nigh all that we could 
 desire. The characters are all clear- 
 cut, strongly marked, and each is 
 consistent throughout. The story, 
 it must be confessed, lays hold of the 
 reader like a spell. There is not a 
 dull page in it ; the interest is more 
 than sustained, is intensified to the 
 close." University Magazine.
 
 New Fiction Six Shillings 
 
 MrsERRICHERS 
 REPUTATION 
 
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 THE FIFTH QUEEN 
 AND HOW SHE 
 CAME TO COURT 
 
 By FORD MADOX HUEFFER 
 
 THE PURSUIT 
 OF MR FAVIEL 
 
 By R. E. VERNEDE 
 LONDON : ALSTON RIVERS, LTD.
 
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