n now be in existence
were it not that St. Lowe was a fishing centre of very great importance.
The little district that comprehended St. Lowe, Garth in Roselands,
Stoep in Roselands, Lucent-Polwint, Rafiel, and all the smaller hamlets
around them, was fed by this line; but, even so, the little train was
never crowded. Tourists did not, and even now do not, go to Polwint and
St. Lowe because "they smell so fishy," nor to Rafield "because it's
too far from the railway," nor to the Roseland valleys "because there's
nothing to see there.", May these reasons hold good for many years to
come!

Today there were three farmers in brown leggings, with pipes, and thick
knotted walking-sticks, two or three women with baskets, and a child or
so, and an amiable, absent-minded clergyman in a black cloth so faded
that it was now green, reading The Times, and shaking his head over it
as he stumbled up and down the platform. One of the farmers had a large,
woolly sheep-dog, who, of course, excited Hamlet to a frenzy. Jeremy,
therefore, had his time fully occupied in checking this; but he had,
nevertheless, the opportunity to observe how one of the farmers puffed
the smoke out of his cheeks as though he were an engine; how one of the
women, with a back as broad as a wall, had red stockings; and how the
clergyman nearly fell on to the railway-line every time he turned round,
and only saved himself from disaster by a miracle. The train arriving at
last, they all climbed into it, and then had to wait for a hot, grilling
half-hour whilst the engine made up its mind that it was worth its while
to take all the trouble to start off again.

"An hour late, upon my word," said Mr. Cole angrily, when at last,
with a snore and a heave, and a grunt and a scream, they started. "It's
really too bad. I shall have to complain," which, as everyone present
knew, he had not the slightest intention of doing. In Jeremy's carriage
there were his father, his mother, Uncle Samuel, himself, Mary, and, of
course, Hamlet. Hamlet had never been, in a train before, and his terror
at the way that the ground quivered under him was pitiful to see. He
lay first under the seat, trying to hold himself tightly together, then,
when that failed, he made startled frenzied leaps on to laps (the lead
had been removed for the time), finally he cowered up into the corner
behind Uncle Samuel, who seemed to understand his case and sympathised
with it. Whenever the train stopped (whi