time, else I shall have to scold you."

Having received a message for poor Mrs Batten, the miner's wife, the
doctor left the cottage, and proceeded to pay his visits. Let us
accompany him.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

IN WHICH OLIVER GETS "A FALL," AND SEES SOME OF THE SHADOWS OF THE
MINER'S LIFE.

In crossing a hayfield, Oliver Trembath encountered the tall, bluff
figure, and the grave, sedate smile of Mr Cornish, the manager.

"Good-morning, doctor," said the old gentleman, extending his hand and
giving the youth a grasp worthy of one of the old Cornish giants; "do
you know I was thinking, as I saw you leap over the stile, that you
would make a pretty fair miner?"

"Thanks, sir, for your good opinion of me," said Oliver, with a smile,
"but I would rather work above than below ground. Living the half of
one's life beyond the reach of sunlight is not conducive to health."

"Nevertheless, the miners keep their health pretty well, considering the
nature of their work," replied Mr Cornish; "and you must admit that
many of them are stout fellows. You would find them so if you got one
of their Cornish hugs."

"Perhaps," said Oliver, with a modest look, for he had been a noted
wrestler at school, "I might give them a pretty fair hug in return, for
Cornish blood flows in my veins."

"A fig for blood, doctor; it is of no avail without knowledge and
practice, as well as muscle. _With_ these, however, I do acknowledge
that it makes weight--if by `blood' you mean high spirit."

"By the way, how comes it, sir," said Oliver, "that Cornishmen are so
much more addicted to wrestling than other Englishmen?"

"It were hard to tell, doctor, unless it be that they feel themselves
stronger than other Englishmen, and being accustomed to violent exertion
more than others, they take greater pleasure in it. Undoubtedly the
Greeks introduced it among us, but whether they practised it as we now
do cannot be certainly ascertained."

Here Mr Cornish entered into an enthusiastic account of the art of
wrestling; related many anecdotes of his own prowess in days gone by,
and explained the peculiar method of performing the throw by the heel,
the toe, and the hip; the heave forward, the back-heave, and the Cornish
hug, to all of which the youth listened with deep interest.

"I should like much to witness one of your wrestling-matches," he said,
when the old gentleman concluded; "for I cannot imagine that any of your
peculiar Cornish hugs o