ow disdain
a stranger's offering. May it be as ominous of good luck to him as my
night in your caravan has proved to me!"

"I am heartily glad to hear that you have prospered," said Cole; "now,
let us fall to."

CHAPTER LXV.

Out of these convertites
There is much matter to be heard and learned.--SHAKSPEARE.

"If you are bent upon leaving us so soon," said the honest Cole,
as Clarence, refusing all further solicitation to stay, seized the
opportunity which the cessation of the rain afforded him, and rose to
depart, "if you are bent upon leaving us so soon, I will accompany you
back again into the main road, as in duty bound."

"What, immediately on your return!" said Clarence. "No, no; not a step.
What would my fair hostess say to me if I suffered it?"

"Rather, what would she say to me if I neglected such a courtesy? Why,
sir, when I meet one who knows Shakspeare's sonnets, to say nothing
of the lights of the lesser stars, as well as you, only once in eight
years, do you not think I would make the most of him? Besides, it is but
a quarter of a mile to the road, and I love walking after a shower."

"I am afraid, Mrs. Cole," said Clarence, "that I must be selfish enough
to accept the offer." And Mrs. Cole, blushing and smiling her assent and
adieu, Clarence shook hands with the whole party, grandfather and child
included, and took his departure.

As Cole was now a pedestrian, Linden threw the rein over his arm, and
walked on foot by his host's side.

"So," said he, smiling, "I must not inquire into the reasons of your
retirement?"

"On the contrary," replied Cole: "I have walked with you the more
gladly from my desire of telling them to you; for we all love to seem
consistent, even in our chimeras. About six years ago, I confess that I
began to wax a little weary of my wandering life: my child, in growing
up, required playmates; shall I own that I did not like him to find them
among the children of my own comrades? The old scamps were good enough
for me, but the young ones were a little too bad for my son. Between you
and me only be it said, my juvenile hope was already a little corrupted.
The dog Mim--you remember Mim, sir--secretly taught him to filch as well
as if he had been a bantling of his own; and, faith, our smaller goods
and chattels, especially of an edible nature, began to disappear, with
a rapidity and secrecy that our itinerant palace could very ill sustain.
Among us (i.e. gyps