The Disowned | Page 3

have seduced."
"I congratulate myself," quoth the youth, in a tone that might have been
in jest, "upon becoming acquainted with a character at once so
respectable and so novel; and, to return your quotation in the way of a
compliment, I cry out with the most fashionable author of Elizabeth's
days,--
'O for a bowl of fat Canary, Rich Palermo, sparkling Sherry,'
in order to drink to our better acquaintance."

"Thank you, sir,--thank you," cried the strange gypsy, seemingly
delighted with the spirit with which his young acquaintance appeared to
enter into his character, and his quotation from a class of authors at that
time much less known and appreciated than at present; "and if you have
seen already enough of the world to take up with ale when neither
Canary, Palermo, nor Sherry are forthcoming, I will promise, at least,
to pledge you in large draughts of that homely beverage. What say you
to passing a night with us? our tents are yet more at hand than the
public-house of which I spoke to you." The young man hesitated a
moment, then replied,--
"I will answer you frankly, my friend, even though I may find cause to
repent my confidence. I have a few guineas about me, which, though
not a large sum, are my all. Now, however ancient and honourable your
fraternity may be, they labour under a sad confusion, I fear, in their
ideas of meum and tuum."
"Faith, sir, I believe you are right; and were you some years older, I
think you would not have favoured me with the same disclosure you
have done now; but you may be quite easy on that score. If you were
made of gold, the rascals would not filch off the corner of your garment
as long as you were under my protection. Does this assurance satisfy
you?"
"Perfectly," said the youth; "and now how far are we from your
encampment? I assure you I am all eagerness to be among a set of
which I have witnessed such a specimen."
"Nay, nay," returned the gypsy, "you must not judge of all my brethren
by me: I confess that they are but a rough tribe. However, I love them
dearly; and am only the more inclined to think them honest to each
other, because they are rogues to all the rest of the world."
By this time our travellers had advanced nearly two miles since they
had commenced companionship; and at a turn in the lane, about three
hundred yards farther on, they caught a glimpse of a distant fire burning
brightly through the dim trees. They quickened their pace, and striking
a little out of their path into a common, soon approached two tents, the

Arab homes of the vagrant and singular people with whom the gypsy
claimed brotherhood and alliance.
CHAPTER II.
Here we securely live and eat The cream of meat; And keep eternal
fires By which we sit and do divine. HERRICK: Ode to Sir Clipseby
Crew.
Around a fire which blazed and crackled beneath the large seething- pot,
that seemed an emblem of the mystery and a promise of the good cheer
which are the supposed characteristics of the gypsy race, were grouped
seven or eight persons, upon whose swarthy and strong countenances
the irregular and fitful flame cast a picturesque and not unbecoming
glow. All of these, with the exception of an old crone who was tending
the pot, and a little boy who was feeding the fire with sundry fragments
of stolen wood, started to their feet upon the entrance of the stranger.
"What ho! my bob cuffins," cried the gypsy guide, "I have brought you
a gentry cove, to whom you will show all proper respect: and hark ye,
my maunders, if ye dare beg, borrow, or steal a single croker,--ay, but a
bawbee of him, I'll--but ye know me." The gypsy stopped abruptly, and
turned an eye, in which menace vainly struggled with good-humour,
upon each of his brethren, as they submissively bowed to him and his
protege, and poured forth a profusion of promises, to which their
admonitor did not even condescend to listen. He threw off his
great-coat, doubled it down by the best place near the fire, and made
the youth forthwith possess himself of the seat it afforded. He then
lifted the cover of the mysterious caldron. "Well, Mort," cried he to the
old woman, as he bent wistfully down, "what have we here?"
"Two ducks, three chickens, and a rabbit, with some potatoes," growled
the old hag, who claimed the usual privilege of her culinary office, to
be as ill-tempered as she pleased.
"Good!" said the gypsy; "and now, Mim, my cull, go to the other tent,
and ask its inhabitants, in my name, to come