I don't know what your
opinion may be: but my grandfather was parish constable in these
parts for forty-seven years, and you'll find it on his headstone in
Manaccan churchyard that he never had a cross word for man, woman, or
child. He took no credit for it: it ran in the family, and to this
day we're all terribly mild to handle.
Well, if ever a man was born bad in his temper, 'twas Captain Bligh,
that came from St. Tudy parish, and got himself known to all the
world over that dismal business aboard the _Bounty_. Yes, Sir,
that's the man--"Breadfruit Bligh," as they called him. They made an
Admiral of him in the end, but they never cured his cussedness: and
my grandfather, that followed his history (and good reason for why)
from the day he first set foot in this parish, used to rub his hands
over every fresh item of news. "Darn it!" he'd say, "here's that old
Turk broke loose again. Lord, if he ain't a warrior!" Seemed as if
he took a delight in the man, and kept a sort of tenderness for him
till the day of his death.
Bless you, though folks have forgotten it, that little affair of the
_Bounty_ was only the beginning of Bligh.
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