The Tale of the Peacock Trees
Squire even begin to realize the much more diplomatic diplomacy by which he had been induced to invite the local bard to lunch on the very day of the American critic's arrival.
Mr. Paynter was still standing with his gripsack, gazing in a trance of true admiration at the hollowed crags, topped by the gray, grotesque wood, and crested finally by the three fantastic trees.
"It is like being shipwrecked on the coast of fairyland," he said.
"I hope you haven't been shipwrecked much," replied his host, smiling. "I fancy Jake here can look after you very well."
Mr. Paynter looked across at the boatman and smiled also. "I am afraid," he said, "our friend is not quite so enthusiastic for this landscape as I am."
"Oh, the trees, I suppose!" said the Squire wearily.
The boatman was by normal trade a fisherman; but as his house, built of black tarred timber, stood right on the foreshore a few yards from the pier, he was employed in such cases as a sort of ferryman. He was a big, black-browed youth, generally silent, but something seemed now to sting him into speech.
"Well, sir," he said, "everybody knows it's not natural. Everybody knows the sea blights trees and beats them under, when they're
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