You would be all the better for knowing how to read." "In what way, brother ?" "Why, you could read the Scriptures, and, by so doing, learn your duty towards your fellow-creatures." "We know that already, brother; the constables and justices have contrived to knock that tolerably into our heads." "Yet you frequently break the laws." "So, I believe, do now and then those who know how to read, brother." "Very true, Jasper; but you really ought to learn to read, as, by so doing, you might learn your duty towards yourselves: and your chief duty is to take care of your own souls; did not the preacher say, 'In what is a man profited, provided he gain the whole world ?'" "We have not much of the world, brother." "Very little indeed, Jasper.

Did you not observe how the eyes of the whole congregation were turned towards our pew, when the preacher said, 'There are some people who lose their souls, and get nothing in exchange; who are outcast, despised, and miserable ?' Now was not what he said quite applicable to the gypsies ?" "We are not miserable, brother." "Well, then, you ought to be, Jasper.

Have you an inch of ground of your own?
Are you of the least use?
Are you not spoken ill of by everybody?
What's a gypsy ?" "What's the bird noising yonder, brother ?" "The bird! oh, that's the cuckoo tolling; but what has the cuckoo to do with the matter ?" "We'll see, brother; what's the cuckoo ?" "What is it?
you know as much about it as myself, Jasper." "Isn't it a kind of roguish, chaffing bird, brother ?" "I believe it is, Jasper." "Nobody knows whence it comes, brother ?" "I believe not, Jasper." "Very poor, brother, not a nest of its own ?" "So they say, Jasper." "With every person's bad word, brother ?" "Yes, Jasper, every person is mocking it." "Tolerably merry, brother ?" "Yes, tolerably merry, Jasper." "Of no use at all, brother ?" "None whatever, Jasper." "You would be glad to get rid of the cuckoos, brother ?" "Why, not exactly, Jasper; the cuckoo is a pleasant, funny bird, and its presence and voice give a great charm to the green trees and fields; no, I can't say I wish exactly to get rid of the cuckoo." "Well, brother, what's a Romany chal ?" "You must answer that question yourself, Jasper." "A roguish, chaffing fellow, a'n't he, brother ?" "Ay, ay, Jasper." "Of no use at all, brother ?" "Just so, Jasper; I see--" "Something very much like a cuckoo, brother ?" "I see what you are after, Jasper." "You would like to get rid of us, wouldn't you ?" "Why no, not exactly." "We are no ornament to the green lanes in spring and summer time, are we, brother?
and the voices of our chies, with their cukkerin and dukkerin, don't help to make them pleasant ?" "I see what you are at, Jasper." "You would wish to turn the cuckoos into barn-door fowls, wouldn't you ?" "Can't say I should, Jasper, whatever some people might wish." "And the chals and chies into radical weavers and factory wenches, hey, brother ?" "Can't say that I should, Jasper.

You are certainly a picturesque people, and in many respects an ornament both to town and country; painting and lil writing too are under great obligations to you.

What pretty pictures are made out of your campings and groupings, and what pretty books have been written in which gypsies, or at least creatures intended to represent gypsies, have been the principal figures.