ery laugh. And he is ruddy and curly haired and has on such a
beautiful waistcoat! how can she help but love him? And he is so tender
and devoted and holds her by the waist; and she slips round and comes up
the other side. Oh, it is so bewitching!

The stage peasantry like to do their love-making as much in public as
possible. Some people fancy a place all to themselves for this sort
of thing--where nobody else is about. We ourselves do. But the stage
peasant is more sociably inclined. Give him the village green, just
outside the public-house, or the square on market-day to do his spooning
in.

They are very faithful, are stage peasants. No jilting, no fickleness,
no breach of promise. If the gentleman in pink walks out with the lady
in blue in the first act, pink and blue will be married in the end. He
sticks to her all through and she sticks to him.

Girls in yellow may come and go, girls in green may laugh and dance--the
gentleman in pink heeds them not. Blue is his color, and he never leaves
it. He stands beside it, he sits beside it. He drinks with her, he
smiles with her, he laughs with her, he dances with her, he comes on
with her, he goes off with her.

When the time comes for talking he talks to her and only her, and she
talks to him and only him. Thus there is no jealousy, no quarreling. But
we should prefer an occasional change ourselves.

There are no married people in stage villages and no children
(consequently, of course-happy village! oh, to discover it and spend a
month there!). There are just the same number of men as there are women
in all stage villages, and they are all about the same age and each
young man loves some young woman. But they never marry.

They talk a lot about it, but they never do it. The artful beggars! They
see too much what it's like among the principals.

The stage peasant is fond of drinking, and when he drinks he likes to
let you know he is drinking. None of your quiet half-pint inside the
bar for him. He likes to come out in the street and sing about it and do
tricks with it, such as turning it topsy-turvy over his head.

Notwithstanding all this he is moderate, mind you. You can't say he
takes too much. One small jug of ale among forty is his usual allowance.

He has a keen sense of humor and is easily amused. There is something
almost pathetic about the way he goes into convulsions of laughter over
such very small jokes. How a man like that would enjoy a real joke!