"After this, the waggoner seemed to look upon me as very nearly an
idiot. Just as we were going into the town of Plymouth, he eyed me from
head to foot, and muttered, 'The lad's beside himself, sure enough.'
In truth, I believe I was a droll figure; for my hat was stuck full of
weeds, and of all sorts of wild flowers; and both my coat and waistcoat
pockets were stuffed out with pebbles and funguses.

"Such an effect, however, had the waggoner's contemptuous look upon me,
that I pulled the weeds out of my hat, and threw down all my treasure of
pebbles before we entered the town. Nay, so much was I overawed, and in
such dread was I of passing for an idiot, that when we came within view
of the sea, in the fine harbour of Plymouth, I did not utter a single
exclamation; although I was struck prodigiously at this, my first sight
of the ocean, as much almost as I had been at the spectacle of the
rising sun. I just ventured, however, to ask my companion some questions
about the vessels which I beheld sailing on the sea, and the shipping
with which the bay was filled. But he answered coldly, 'They be nothing
in life but the boats and ships, man: them that see them for the first
time are often struck all on a heap, as I've noticed, in passing by
here: but I've seen it all a many and a many times.' So he turned
away, went on chewing a straw, and seemed not a whit more moved with
admiration than he had been at the sight of my thistle.

"I conceived a high opinion of a man who had seen so much that he could
admire nothing; and he preserved and increased my respect for him by the
profound silence which he maintained, during the five succeeding days of
our journey: he seldom or never opened his lips except to inform me of
the names of the towns through which we passed. I have since
reflected that it was fortunate for me that I had such a supercilious