The morning news., 1894-09-09


bare branches and bedraggled brown
leaves.
Illus gifts old, doan't husW
This from tinker Zeke one NoYem Der
morning, where l had remained over
night with a Gipsy caravan beside a
dreary down on the old stage road to
. Bath.
Bareheaded and barefooted, he had
clambered outside our tiny roadside habi-
tation TO ''look Ger tn day. could see
him through the frowsy tent mouth, peer
ing anxiously for omens in the still half
darkened sky.
He looked again and again at the sky
and over TO the safron-tinted east.
Illus gifts old, doan't husi" he repeated
dejectedly.
@How's that, Zeke2" I answered mer-
rily enough, determined to provoke con-
tinuation Of his strain Of gypsy philosophy
if possible. "Gipsies never get old. And
besides you are too brave an old rascal
Zeke, TO whimper about getting on In
years little"
Hi tells ye, hus all gifts oldl' This
vehemenuy. Hi never quits tn coun-
try, 'thout mindin' o hit. Hits like
moulian dying leastwise for me, to Jaw
vree tn drom ito leave the road. Cans
a sturdie tthe towns PRISON. ~
Here was a genuine exhibition of gypsy
sentiment. Zeke pumped himself down
alongside the moldering campfire with his
elbows upon his knees and his tne old
head in his hands and apparently gave
way to the moodieSt reflections.
Catching gypsy OF his guard Is not a
common thing and I felt like prodding
him little.
Turn Gorgio mon. gipsy) then, Zeke.
enjoy every day of life with happy,
permanent home over your head. Go to
church like a white man of Sunday;
and finally get to heaven where there
won't be any rough gypsy winters"
He looked at me first in blank amaze
ment. A fine scorn came into his swarthy
face. Then in tone OF mingled reproof,
disbelief and almost pathetic longing, he
SAID with ridiculous solemnlty:
''Ay, an HID turn Gorgio, an even kair
rajah town of the false gipsy) fur a o.
that-make surep'
All, honest Zeke, and who would mott
Here were perhaps two-score vans with
all their ramshackle belongings, their
ponies, asses and dogs, their crockery,
Cocoanuts and oilcloths, their skewers,
pegs and rush baskets, their dried flow
ers and leaves, and their far more odd
and interesting owners.
Some of the wanderers came from as
far north as Beauty in Scotland, from
away up in classic Wordsworth land by
the quiet English lakes; from off south
west by the shore-nooks of Somerset and
Devon, and even from the st. Ives and
Penzance in Cornwall but most from
dickering and dukkering among the mid
land and western counties fairs.
AS If through some secret understand
ing, they had drifted together for bit of
roadside reunion at the edge of these
windswept moors, where few of the con-
stabulary come with their remorseless
summons, "Move on, you gipsy dogsW
Returning TO the great city from a
country tramp in Buckinghamshire, by
right of rank and station as Gorgio chal
(non-gipsy gipsies' friend), had becom e
one of them in their little registering, be-
fore the final abandonment of the sea
sons wanderings by blossoming lane and
road
The camp was to be broken that very
morning The dark places of London
would close upon the tawny crew. scat
tered in little groups and families, by
night. II was absolutely certain they
would never all meet again, even though
separate families or bands should again
know the boundless joy of the springtime
outgoing.
And there is large and ample human
regard, one for. another, in this com
munity of roadside interest and compan
ionship, which we of civilized" thought
and ways can never know.
Tinker Zeke was not alone in his mourn
ful regret. The camp was rife with it,
just as the landscape, sky and air were
instinct with the tender sadness of the
dying year.
1t seemed to me, nor was it all of seem
ing, that the fires themselves burned
with less crackle and flame. Even the
sizzling pots, hanging from the grimy
kettle sticks, boiled and blubbered il
minor hearthside tones.
4 fnrTa1 ivnF Ea eTra tod 8 81
the tethered donkeys stood meekly silent
with bowed heads, or nibbled at tht
frosty grass as If in serious rumination.
AS the morning advanced goodwives sa
by the tent-mouths, or in the open val
doors, in sober discussion with their hus
bands, or still busted themselves with tn
morning meal, less spry and clipper thai
is the gypsy womans way.
Youths bringing water from the strean
or returning 10 the camp with fodder TO
the animals and dead moore brushwool
for the fires, did their work gloomily, an,
with none of the summertime whoop an,
halloa
Here and there groups of the eide
gipsy men, seated on upUurned buckets
on van thrills, or leaning their back
against van wheels, smoked their pipe
with long, strong, introspective puns
saving little, while that little wa
measured and reflective.
Old spae-wives puttered and pothere
querulously, unsteadier in tone, NOR
restless IN movement, and full of tina
petulant resentment TO change so true an
pathetic a seal upon the overripe facu
ties of old age.
Gipsy lasses, ever demure in the pres
ence OF potent act or fact in their elders
but miracles of wiusome physical an
heart free abandonment in Joyous hours
looked twice their age in their long gown
ana faces; while the gipsy dogs, thos
rare, sad-visaged, voiceless cheats, who's
pretense Of sodoen ignorance out-gips
the s,yest Romany themselves, sa
ranged at deferential distances from Tn
camp fires the embodiment Of drear
doietulnesS
But could see that tinker Zekes fore
bodlngs were not wholly those indehnabl
touches OF melancholy which stir the low
nest heart IN the saddeniug autumn days
anu emerging from our tent / placed m
haud softly on his shaggy old head, ask
ng HIM alphabetically: