hildren of all ages; and the
strange part of the thing is, the Gipsy woman's tenants in her cottages
were compelled by the School Board officer to send their children to
school, while the Gipsy children were running wild like colts, and
revelling in dirt and filth in the neighbourhood. A similar state of
things to this exists in a more or less degree with all the other
encampments on the outskirts of London. At one of the large encampments
I tried to find if there were really any who could read and write, and to
put this to the test I took the _Christian World_ and the _Christian
Globe_ with me. The Gipsy lad who they said was "a clever scholard" was
brought to me, and I put the _Christian World_ before him to see if he
could read the large letters; sad to say, instead of _Christian World_,
he called it "Christmas," and there he stuck and could get no further. I
have said some strong things, and endeavoured to lay bare some hard facts
relating to Gipsy life in the preceding part of this book, with a view to
enlist help and sympathy for the poor children, and not to submit the
Gipsy fathers to insult and ridicule.

[Picture: Four little Gipsies sitting for the Artist outside their tent,
dressed for the occasion, and who can neither read nor write]

From the mode of living among the Gipsies, the mother is often
necessitated to leave her tent in the morning, and seldom returns to it
before night. Their children are then left in or about their solitary
camps, having many times no adult with them; the elder children then have
the care of the younger ones. Those who are old enough gather wood for
fuel; nor is stealing it thought a crime. By the culpable neglect of the
parents in this respect the children are often exposed to accidents by
fire, and melancholy instances of children being burnt and scalded to
death are not unfrequent. One poor woman relates that two of her
children have thus lost their lives by fire during her absence from her
tent at different periods, and some years ago a child was scalded to
death at Southampton.

The following account will faintly show something of the hardships of
Gipsy children's lives:--It was winter, and the weather was unusually
cold, there being much snow on the ground. The tent, which was only
covered with a ragged blanket, was pitched on the lee side of a small
hawthorn bush. The children had stolen a few green sticks from the
hedges, but they would not burn. Ther