by my audience, as the question
implied, that I had had a hand in expanding this magnificent opening for
the two fortunate young men.

"_Dick adoi_!" cried one, pointing up the river. "Look there at Jim!"

I looked and saw a young man far off, shirking along the path by the
river, close to the hedge.

"He thinks you're a _gav-mush_," observed Henry; "and he's got some
sticks, an' is tryin' to hide them 'cause he daren't throw 'em away. Oh,
aint he scared?"

It was a pleasing spectacle to see the demi-Gipsy coming in with his poor
little green sticks, worth perhaps a halfpenny, and such as no living
farmer in all North America would have grudged a cartload of to anybody.
Droll as it really seemed, the sight touched me while I laughed. Oh, if
charity covereth a multitude of sins, what should not poverty do? I care
not through which door it comes--nay, be it by the very portal of Vice
herself--when sad and shivering poverty stands before me in humble form,
I can only forgive and forget. And this child-theft was to obtain the
means of work after all. And if you ask me why I did not at once proceed
to the next magistrate and denounce the criminal, I can only throw myself
for excuse on the illustrious example of George the Fourth, head of
Church and State, who once in society saw a pickpocket remove from a
gentleman's fob his gold watch, winking at the king as he did so. "Of
course I couldn't say anything," remarked the good-natured monarch, "for
the rascal took me into his confidence."

Jim walked into camp amid mild chaff, to be greeted in Rommany by the
suspected policeman, and to accept a glass of the ale, which had rained
as it were from heaven into this happy family. These basketmakers were
not real Gipsies, but _churdi_ or half-bloods, though they spoke with
scorn of the two chair-menders, who, working by themselves at the
extremity of the tented town (and excluded from a share in the beer),
seemed to be a sort of pariahs unto these higher casters.

I should mention, _en passant_, that when the beer-bearer of the camp
was sent for the three pots, he was told to "go over to Bill and borrow
his two-gallon jug--and be very careful not to let him find out what it
was for." I must confess that I thought this was deeply unjust to the
imposed-upon and beerless William; but it was another case of confidence,
and he who sits among Gipsies by hedgerows green must not be
over-particular. _Il faut heurler avec les