Page:A Book of the West (vol. 2).djvu/395

Rh "Now, look here," said Uncle Zackie, "you be a man and show yourself maister in your own 'ouse, You go 'ome and snap your vingers in the missus' vaice, and sit down on the table. I'll come in two minutes after and see your triumph—you maister and all."

"Right," said Pasco, and went home.

But when he had snapped his fingers under the nose of his wife she took the poker at him, and he took refuge under the table.

Tap! tap! at the door.

"Come out from under there," said Susan, his wife.

Then Pasco lifted up his voice and sang out as loud as thunder, "No, Sue! no, I want come out from under the table. I 'll stick where I be; for all you say, I'll show Uncle Zackie as I'll be maister in my own house."

In 1768 the Hon. Daines Barrington visited Cornwall to ascertain whether the Cornish language had entirely died out or not, and in a letter written to John Lloyd a few years after he gives the result of his journey, and in it refers to Dolly Pentreath:—

"I set out from Penzance with the landlord of the principal inn for my guide towards Sennen, and when I approached the village I said there must probably be some remains of the language in those parts, if anywhere. My guide, however, told me that I should be disappointed; but that if I would ride about ten miles about in my return to Penzance, he would conduct me to a village called Mousehole, where was an old woman who could speak