You know, all these years I have been convinced that Bard was one of the guards of Laketown that the dwarves greeted rather rudely and imperiously upon their arrival, but I just checked, and he's not, or not by name, anyway. The guards have a captain, and later on, Bard is described as the 'captain' of the last defenders of Laketown, that must be why I thought that.

I thought he was grumpy because Thorin was rather bossy when he arrived, and that's why Thorin didn't send a message.

But maybe Bard is just naturally grim and they never met before.

Huh.