the contrary, he
soon turned to the men, and addressed them with a familiarity so frank
and so suited to their taste that he grew no less rapidly in their
favour than he had already done in that of the women, and when the
contents of the two caldrons were at length set upon the coarse but
clean cloth which in honour of his arrival covered the sod, it was in
the midst of a loud and universal peal of laughter which some broad
witticism of the young stranger had produced that the party sat down to
their repast.

Bright were the eyes and sleek the tresses of the damsel who placed
herself by the side of the stranger, and many were the alluring glances
and insinuated compliments which replied to his open admiration
and profuse flattery; but still there was nothing exclusive in his
attentions; perhaps an ignorance of the customs of his entertainers, and
a consequent discreet fear of offending them, restrained him; or perhaps
he found ample food for occupation in the plentiful dainties which his
host heaped before him.

"Now tell me," said the gypsy chief (for chief he appeared to be), "if
we lead not a merrier life than you dreamt of? or would you have us
change our coarse fare and our simple tents, our vigorous limbs and
free hearts, for the meagre board, the monotonous chamber, the diseased
frame, and the toiling, careful, and withered spirit of some miserable
mechanic?"

"Change!" cried the youth, with an earnestness which, if affected, was
an exquisite counterfeit, "by Heaven, I would change with you myself."

"Bravo, my fine cove!" cried the host, and all the gang echoed their
sympathy with his applause.

The youth continued: "Meat, and that plentiful; ale, and that strong;
women, and those pretty ones: what can man desire more?"

"Ay," cried the host, "and all for nothing,--no, not even a tax; who
else in this kingdom can say that? Come, Mim, push round the ale."

And the ale was pushed round, and if coarse the merriment, loud at least
was the laugh that rang ever and anon from the old tent; and though, at
moments, something in the guest's eye and lip might have seemed, to
a very shrewd observer, a little wandering and absent, yet, upon the
whole, he was almost as much at ease as the rest, and if he was not
quite as talkative he was to the full as noisy.

By degrees, as the hour grew later and the barrel less heavy, the
conversation changed into one universal clatter. Some told their feats
in beggary; others, t