San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-12-29


stead of doing me grievous bodily harm,
the savage brute danced about me
with every doggy demonstration OF
delight, and all because | had whisper
ed a command in the language he
knew best and called him "My good
dogl"
With a Joyous bark of welcome and
a friendly wag of the tail, he invited
me to accompany him, and we proceed
ed together. There were two men
standing at the bottom of the hill.
They ran forward to call the dog from
me. and / heard the elder one mutter
in Romany-
"Who are you that hewitched our dog,
and where in Heavens name are you
going?"
ats only a little black lady going to
town." the other said rather contemptu-
ously.
And with that the men retuyned to
their encampment, which 1 intended to
pass without any notice; but that was
not to be.
"will you tell me the time; pretty
lady?n
knew perfectly well that the an
cient dame squatted by the fire knew
without asking what o'clock it was;
nevertheless | pulled out my watch,
and, finding that it was ftoo dark to
see the hands, l drew off my thick
leather gloves and pressed the spring.
In a moment my fathers gold repeater
announced in a sweet silvery chime that
it was a quarter-past seven.
Before the sound had died away, a
young man who was lying upon the
greensward gave a peculiar cry, and 1
replaced my watch quickly and thrust
my hand into my glove again as he said,
in a rapid warning tone
sPut that gold watch and chain into
your pocket, and the pretty ring on
your hand!n
Looking round, I saw why The eau
ton had been given; two tramps went
slouching by. j could not tell whether
they had heard the silvery chimes or
seen the valuable diamond fash in the
pale moonbeams, but / knew that / was
glad they passed up the hill instead of
going toward the town.
@Thank you'll" | said very gratefully.
3You are welcome, lady, +" the young
mar returned rather grufly. "But
you shouldn't dance them things afore
a hungry mans eyes, or maybe you'll
lose them"
II won't do it again." I said, with
some humility, wondering all the while
where and when l had seen the young
man; that l had met him before l was
convinced.
We all talked together for a minute
or so, and then, recollecting that time
was precious and that | still had fully
three miles to go, l wished them
@Good 0ay and good luckin
"And the same to you, with the
sun on the path'!" they returned
heartily.
The young man got up, came close to
me, and said, in a whisper which the
rest could not hear
at was kind of you to remember me,
and / haven't forgot the debt l owe you;
and something tells me l shall not be
indebted to you long"
"You owe me nothing, I assured him
eagerly; al am pleased to seeyou again.
/ did not recognise you at first, but /
know now that they call you Rainbow
BILL"
eyes, he admitted, with a slight
frown; "but, when they christened me
that, / little thought as you, standing
by so quiet, watching us pick hops, knew
every word we said"
"No,"I replied laughingly; "for, if
you had known, you . wouldn't have
been spiteful when the old gentleman
asked who the little black lady was"
II know / called you some nasty
name; / thought you was like the rest,
and too proud a woma to speak to q
poor gypsy or touch his hand"
Without a word more, l laid my hand
upon his, and, raising the left one in the
air, made a sign that 1 hardly expected
they would understand. There was a
look of deep astonishment on the aged
gipsy's face, but the others simply
favoured me with a genuine gypsy
stare. The poor old Romany hesitated
a moment, and then made an answer
ing sign, with a friendly nod ! scarcely
expected to receive; and, as / passed on
my way, / heard a shrill voice saying
"That's one of the Welsh gipsies-per-
haps the black lady herselfl What's
her name, Bil?"
II dunno; but it's the little black lady
as begged me off when l got into
trouble; an I'll pay her back just now,
I'm t~hinkingl" %
at is the unexpected that always
happens" When i started from Thorn
grove, / had a vision of all sorts of
things that might occur, but / never
even thought of Rainbow Bill, " much
less expected to meet him. l had al
most forgotten his existence, and it is
too long a story to tell how / became
acquainted with him; it is sufficient to
say that / was the means of preventing
him from being prosecuted for a serious
breach of the Game Laws. 1t was a
clear case, and unfortunately Bill had
used his fists somewhat freely, and ]
had to exert all my influence to beg
him off. Q
/ walked on briskly, quite pleased
with the little adventure-indeed /
forgot how dark and lonely was the
way, and ! gave no thought to tramps.