Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1895-10-02
But Ann Tod only laughed again

quite sO1tly.
''All this blessed afternoon have I
been a-wastin space with that great
foatin cattle shed, till my backs nigh
broken, while you, child of unreason-
ableness''-
claw, father, I'm a bit weary in
as her boat grounded on the beach, fer
I've a-bin pullin round this old ark Of
yours for nigh 'pon six hours on erran
of mercy"
Then she Uttered in the very teeth OF
her fathers wrath, while Noah Capel
and Thomas Bullasy sat glaring i'll the
little boat as it gently rose and fell up
on the water. Then the novelty of the
scene diverted the onlookers, and they
"hawhawed' in sympathy.
"What've zee bin up to, Ann Tod?"
queried stout fishwife as she held her
sides and grinned.
"We've bin decidin of Matters"
quoth Ann Tod.
''Decidin, ave zee? You've took yer
time bout it, mus say. An what've
zee bin a-decidin of?''
"They two young chaps was powerful
disturbed in their minds bout which
was most set On courtin me, so us went
out on the water to think it over quiet
like. Ave ZEE made up yer minds, do
zee think?" she called to the lovers as
they bobbed upon the stream.
Quinn you, you young vixen!' an
swered Thomas Bullasy, goaded into
strong language.
''I pity the chap what goes a-ceurtin
you," volunteered Noah Capel, stung to
incivility.
"You can tell ZEN that yersef, Mister
Capel," laughed Ann Tod, "fer ees
a-comin all the way from Yarmouth
town to take me out some Sunday" And
blowing resounding kiss from her
trembling fingers she turned from the
waters edge and abandoned herself to
the reasonable wrath of her sire.
"Mister Luckey wash aware as you
was needin Of sea voyage fer yer
'ealth, - called a grinning youth from the
shore to the frowning youths in the boat.
"'Ee was wisht to think as you was
forced to leave a-caulkin of lis vessel,
an ZEE said as ow ZEE was afeared you was
too fraygile fer such as zee.
But when the chuckling crowd had
chuckled sufficiently they pulled the
chatting cavaliers to land and offered
sympathy which mortified. Noah Capel
and Thomas Bullasy, however, were in
no mood to appreciate the excellent vir-
tue Of consolation. They preferred to go
home to tea.
sole Peters got is lands full with
that there maid" grinned the idlers as
they watched the couples up the hill.
" ;Ee won't find overmuch time now fer
the singin of is psa ms
Which went to show that public
opinion was with Thomas Bullasy when
he spoke of 'tdevilment' in connection
with Ann Tod. Speaker.
The Peddler and the Liber yagatoru,n.
The earliest known work on vagrancy
is the "Liber Vagatorum, compiled
shortly after 1909 by an unknown au-
thor, but founded, perhaps, on these re-
ports taken down by Johann Knebel,
chaplain of Basle, Of the trials at that
place of great number Of vagabonds
and mendicants in 1876 The book was
one which Luther turned for a moment
from the heat Of controversy to edit,
with an economy of editorial comment
of which the secret has since been lost,
and it is remarkable that among the
various classes Of vagrants which it
enumerates there is nothing that can be
interpreted of the itinerant salesman,
except the very last paragraph, which
runs thus "Item, there is yet another
sort among the land stollers. These ara
the thinkers who travel about the coun'
try. They have women who go before
them and sing and play. Some go about
full of mischief, and if thou givest them
nothing one of them mayhap will break
hole in thy kettle with stick or a
knife to give work to a multitude Of
others
Similarly of the 3S chapters of "Le
Vagabond," the translation made with
slight additions in 1914 by Des Fon-
taines from ell Vagabondo, of Giacin
to Nobili, only two are concerned with
dealers in any sort of goods-the fif-
teenth, which is devoted to those who
sell saffron to the ignorant at an exor-
bitant price, and the eighteenth, which
describes des changeurs, who barter false
jewelry and gold for good clothes, ex-
hibiting false ones at the moment of ex-
change. Of the ordinary mercelot, cor
mercerot, to use the more modern form,
the book says no word. Yet perhaps
these distinctly marked species are suf-
fciently representative Of the genus. He
must still have flourished wherever
there was an absence Of fixed local trade.
Macmillan S Magazine.