The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-09-08

| head.
 But what will Zeke do alone. with out daughter or wife to fettle him up?" l persisted. attempting to reach some chord of filiai feeling and compassion. HIS told i'm. many a time an oft" she replied stoutly.
 shed ave me arn wat HI call a reg lar 'ard-penny. smotherin' in Lun- ently. Hid starve an choke at hit!" he added with shuddering shrug of his huge frame.
 "Higgletypigglety!" she snorted in disdain. "W'at ha' ye gotten a. yer years on tn drom7 Tn moke tdonkey) an ragged tent! Hits 'im," she continued appealing eloquently to me as to a judge. "as Is standin' hout agin betterment. If HI 'ad Is craft. Hid go ( Lunnon. stay in Lunnon. an be rich as tn lud mayor of Lunnon"
 The girl had the best of the argu- ment. and Zeke dejectedly saw recog- nized this. She had risen to her feet with a movement and manner that brooked no opposition; and as she left the tent she shook her little fist back at us deiiantly with:'
 "HIll do as HI loikes. Him woman grown and free. Hi'll take tn man III chooses. Hill make summat O i'm. too. aside from tn beggars hus Is now" here she worked her little fist savagely-"or Hi'll make i'm wish ee'd gotten anotherv'
 Its no use, Zekew I said, turning sympathetically to the old tinker beside me.
 No use? Tain't no more use than whistlin' a pheasant back t coop, when hits once skulked in cover fur only arf a day!'
 It was long and dusty journey into London: but nearly the whole day I endeavored on the one hand to dis suade the gipsy girl from a purpose which I felt sure would ostracise her from companionship with her race, and on the other hand tried hard to reconcile poor old Zeke to the neces- sarily lonely life he must lead among his own people soon, or the changed condition of kair rajah, or city gip- sy, which I could see was an almost unbearable outlook to this bronzed old pilgrim of the roads.
 We came by way of Holborn and 1t was late at night when We reached this populous thoroughfare.
 Zeke and Phrony hospitably invited me to accompany them to their gipsy quarters; but gipsy quarters on the pleasant highway and gipsy quarters | fNy esto .<vl, ferent in nature, that left them with a pleasant goodnight and the agreement between us that when they were well settled for the winter they were to let me know at my lodgings, when I would certainly at once visit them.
 Perhaps two weeks had passed, and as no tidings had yet come from tin ker Zeke Plunkett and his daughter Sophronia, I began to feel sense of anxiety and foreboding regarding their welfare. This so grew upon me that resolved to make an effort to find them.
 One evening I had set out from my inn in the joyous neighborhood of Covent Garden" for an aimless stroll when the sudden impulse seized me tc penetrate few of the Londonl gipsy ries knew, in the hope of accidentally hearing some word from my Romany friends. I passed through the deserted market-place, wandered along the broad piazza and finally turned slowly into Drury lane.
 Here,at noted tap,chietly patronized by costermongers and Covent garden porters, encountered crowd of cos ters making merry over the fine ap- pearance of one of their number who was arrayed with unusual gorgeous ness.
 His natty skull cap was perched on the very side of his head. it's huge visor pointing straight toward the sky His silk "kingsman" or neckcloth, was of red and resplendent with fiery disks of deeper scarlet, tied in an ample sailors knot, the ends tucked in his gay woolen shirt the whole exposing a fine, well-corded neck and chest.
 His coat was carefully folded an6 held across his arm; but his waistcoat was of gray corduroy, as long as g jockeys, with capacious pockets anc huge lapels; and his trousers, of the same material, were half Mexican ir cut, and their, wide bottoms Tapped over as fine a pair of ankle boots as could be found in all London.
 But this was not all. The buttons up. on this rich coster attire were some. thing marvellous in their number and dimensions. They were of shining pearl, at least an inch in diameter, and were set, their polished edges touching around the cap-band and visor edge down the edge of the waistcoat from throat to point, above every pocket and on the edges of lapels and along the wide plush side-stripes of the trousers from just below the knees to the very edge of the trousers. hem, so that the last buttons clicked and battered mer. rily against pavement and shoes.
 A hasty glance revealed all this; and though anxious to avoid the harum- scarum lot and their lively tongues, there was a strange familiarity in the face of the splendid coster hero of the moment, who was paying back the rich badinage of his fellows with lusty inter- est
 When turned to look again I saw a sudden breaking of the group and in an instant more my old friend Ikey Pushbarrow-Ikey who had one time fallen, through thirst for chaffinch- begging fame, to the lowest depths of lcoster penury; Ikey who had lost credit, standing, even companionship among