If some surly person serves him up a root, a big root, on his plate: "Go on, eat it. What are you waiting for?"
"Oh, of course, right away." He doesn't want to cause himself any undue fuss.
And if, at night, someone refuses him a bed: "What! You haven't come so far you need to sleep, have you? Go on, get your luggage and your things, this is the best time of day for walking."
"Of course, of course, or... certainly. I was only kidding, naturally. Oh yes, just... a little joke." And he goes off again into the gloomy night.
And if someone throws him off the train: "Aha! So you think they've stoked this locomotive for three hours and hitched on eight cars just to transport a young man of your age, and in perfect health, who's perfectly able to make himself useful right around here, who has no need to go off to foreign parts, and it's for this that they dug tunnels, dynamited tons of rocks and laid hundreds of miles of rail in all sorts of weather, not to mention they had to constantly keep watch on the line for fear of sabotage, and all this for..."
"Of course, of course. I understand perfectly. I got on board, oh, just to have a look-see. Really that's all. Simple curiosity, you see. And a thousand thanks." And he goes back to the road with his luggage.
And if, in Rome, he asks to see the Coliseum: "Oh no! Listen, it's rundown enough already. And if afterwards the Gentleman wanted to touch it, lean on it, or sit down there... that's why there's nothing left but ruins everywhere. This was a lesson for us, a hard lesson, but in the future, no, that's over with you see.
"Of course! Of course! It's just that... I only wanted to ask you for a post card, maybe a photo... if sometime..." And he leaves town without having seen anything.
And if, while on the packetboat, the Steward points at him and says: "What's he doing here, that fellow over there? Let's go, we need some more discipline around here seems to me. Let's get him back down in the hold. The second watch is about to sound." And he goes off whistling, while Plume breaks his back the entire voyage.
But he says nothing, he doesn't complain. He thinks about the unlucky folks who can't travel at all, while he, he travels continually.