"Never saw the man in all my life."
"Yes, you have," said I, "and felt him too; don"t you remember the individual from whom you took the pocket-book?"
"Oh, that was he? Well, the less said about that matter the better; I have left off that trade, and taken to this, which is a much better.
Between ourselves, I am not sorry that I did not carry off that pocket- book; if I had, it might have encouraged me in the trade, in which, had I remained, I might have been lagged, sent abroad, as I had been already imprisoned; so I determined to leave it off at all hazards, though I was hard up, not having a penny in the world."
"And wisely resolved," said I; "it was a bad and dangerous trade; I wonder you should ever have embraced it."
"It is all very well talking," said the man, "but there is a reason for everything; I am the son of a Jewess, by a military officer,"--and then the man told me his story. I shall not repeat the man"s story, it was a poor one, a vile one; at last he observed, "So that affair which you know of determined me to leave the filching trade, and take up with a more honest and safe one; so at last I thought of the pea and thimble, but I wanted funds, especially to pay for lessons at the hands of a master, for I knew little about it."
"Well," said I, "how did you get over that difficulty?"
"Why," said the man, "I thought I should never have got over it. What funds could I raise? I had nothing to sell; the few clothes I had I wanted, for we of the thimble must always appear decent, or n.o.body would come near us. I was at my wits" end; at last I got over my difficulty in the strangest way in the world."
"What was that?"
"By an old thing which I had picked up some time before--a book."
"A book?" said I.
"Yes, which I had taken out of your lordship"s pocket one day as you were walking the streets in a great hurry. I thought it was a pocket-book at first, full of bank-notes, perhaps," continued he, laughing. "It was well for me, however, that it was not, for I should have soon spent the notes; as it was, I had flung the old thing down with an oath, as soon as I brought it home. When I was so hard up, however, after the affair with that friend of yours, I took it up one day, and thought I might make something by it to support myself a day with. Chance or something else led me into a grand shop; there was a man there who seemed to be the master, talking to a jolly, portly old gentleman, who seemed to be a country squire. Well, I went up to the first, and offered it for sale; he took the book, opened it at the t.i.tle-page, and then all of a sudden his eyes glistened, and he showed it to the fat, jolly gentleman, and his eyes glistened too, and I heard him say "How singular!" and then the two talked together in a speech I didn"t understand--I rather thought it was French, at any rate it wasn"t cant; and presently the first asked me what I would take for the book. Now I am not altogether a fool, nor am I blind, and I had narrowly marked all that pa.s.sed, and it came into my head that now was the time for making a man of myself, at any rate I could lose nothing by a little confidence; so I looked the man boldly in the face, and said, "I will have five guineas for that book, there a"n"t such another in the whole world." "Nonsense," said the first man, "there are plenty of them, there have been nearly fifty editions, to my knowledge; I will give you five shillings." "No," said I, "I"ll not take it, for I don"t like to be cheated, so give me my book again;" and I attempted to take it away from the fat gentleman"s hand. "Stop," said the younger man, "are you sure that you won"t take less?" "Not a farthing," said I; which was not altogether true, but I said so. "Well,"
said the fat gentleman, "I will give you what you ask;" and sure enough he presently gave me the money; so I made a bow, and was leaving the shop, when it came into my head that there was something odd in all this, and, as I had got the money in my pocket, I turned back, and, making another bow, said, "May I be so bold as to ask why you gave me all this money for that "ere dirty book? When I came into the shop, I should have been glad to get a shilling for it; but I saw you wanted it, and asked five guineas." Then they looked at one another, and smiled, and shrugged up their shoulders. Then the first man, looking at me, said, "Friend, you have been a little too sharp for us; however, we can afford to forgive you, as my friend here has long been in quest of this particular book; there are plenty of editions, as I told you, and a common copy is not worth five shillings; but this is a first edition, and a copy of the first edition is worth its weight in gold.""
"So, after all, they outwitted you," I observed.
"Clearly," said the man; "I might have got double the price, had I known the value; but I don"t care, much good may it do them, it has done me plenty. By means of it I have got into an honest, respectable trade, in which there"s little danger and plenty of profit, and got out of one which would have got me lagged, sooner or later."
"But," said I, "you ought to remember that the thing was not yours; you took it from me, who had been requested by a poor old apple-woman to exchange it for a Bible."
"Well," said the man, "did she ever get her Bible?"
"Yes," said I, "she got her Bible."
"Then she has no cause to complain; and, as for you, chance or something else has sent you to me, that I may make you reasonable amends for any loss you may have had. Here am I ready to make you my bonnet, with forty or fifty shillings a week, which you say yourself are capital wages."
"I find no fault with the wages," said I, "but I don"t like the employ."
"Not like bonneting," said the man; "ah, I see, you would like to be princ.i.p.al; well, a time may come--those long white fingers of yours would just serve for the business."
"Is it a difficult one?" I demanded.
"Why, it is not very easy: two things are needful--natural talent, and constant practice; but I"ll show you a point or two connected with the game;" and, placing his table between his knees as he sat over the side of the pit, he produced three thimbles, and a small brown pellet, something resembling a pea. He moved the thimbles and pellet about, now placing it to all appearance under one, and now under another. "Under which is it now?" he said at last. "Under that," said I, pointing to the lowermost of the thimbles, which, as they stood, formed a kind of triangle. "No," said he, "it is not, but lift it up;" and, when I lifted up the thimble, the pellet, in truth, was not under it. "It was under none of them," said he, "it was pressed by my little finger against my palm;" and then he showed me how he did the trick, and asked me if the game was not a funny one; and, on my answering in the affirmative, he said, "I am glad you like it; come along and let us win some money."
Thereupon, getting up, he placed the table before him, and was moving away; observing, however, that I did not stir, he asked me what I was staying for. "Merely for my own pleasure," said I; "I like sitting here very well." "Then you won"t close?" said the man. "By no means," I replied; "your proposal does not suit me." "You may be princ.i.p.al in time," said the man. "That makes no difference," said I; and, sitting with my legs over the pit, I forthwith began to decline an Armenian noun.
"That a"n"t cant," said the man; "no, nor Gypsy, either. Well, if you won"t close, another will; I can"t lose any more time;" and forthwith he departed.
And after I had declined four Armenian nouns, of different declensions, I rose from the side of the pit, and wandered about amongst the various groups of people scattered over the green. Presently I came to where the man of the thimbles was standing, with the table before him, and many people about him. "Them who finds, wins, and them who can"t finds, loses," he cried. Various individuals tried to find the pellet, but all were unsuccessful, till at last considerable dissatisfaction was expressed, and the terms rogue and cheat were lavished upon him. "Never cheated anybody in all my life," he cried; and, observing me at hand, "didn"t I play fair, my lord?" he inquired. But I made no answer.
Presently some more played, and he permitted one or two to win, and the eagerness to play with him became greater. After I had looked on for some time, I was moving away: just then I perceived a short, thick personage, with a staff in his hand, advancing in a great hurry; whereupon, with a sudden impulse, I exclaimed--
"Shoon thimble-engro; Avella Gorgio." {33}
The man, who was in the midst of his pea and thimble process, no sooner heard the last word of the distich, than he turned an alarmed look in the direction of where I stood; then, glancing around, and perceiving the constable, he slipped forthwith his pellet and thimbles into his pocket, and, lifting up his table, he cried to the people about him, "Make way!"
and with a motion with his head to me, as if to follow him, he darted off with a swiftness which the short, pursy constable could by no means rival; and whither he went, or what became of him, I know not, inasmuch as I turned away in another direction.
CHAPTER LIV
Mr. Petulengro--Rommany Rye--Lil Writers--One"s Own Horn--Lawfully earnt Money--The Wooded Hill--A Great Favourite--The Shop Window--Much Wanted.
And, as I wandered along the green, I drew near to a place where several men, with a cask beside them, sat carousing in the neighbourhood of a small tent. "Here he comes," said one of them, as I advanced, and standing up he raised his voice and sang:--
"Here the Gypsy gemman see, With his Roman jib and his rome and dree-- Rome and dree, rum and dry Rally round the Rommany Rye." {35a}
It was Mr. Petulengro, who was here diverting himself with several of his comrades; they all received me with considerable frankness. "Sit down, brother," said Mr. Petulengro, "and take a cup of good ale."
I sat down. "Your health, gentlemen," said I, as I took the cup which Mr. Petulengro handed to me.
"Aukko tu pios {35b} adrey Rommanis. Here is your health in Rommany, brother," said Mr. Petulengro; who, having refilled the cup, now emptied it at a draught.
"Your health in Rommany, brother," said Tawno Chikno, to whom the cup came next.
"The Rommany Rye," said a third.
"The Gypsy gentleman," exclaimed a fourth, drinking.
And then they all sang in chorus--
"Here the Gypsy gemman see, With his Roman jib and his rome and dree-- Rome and dree, rum and dry Rally round the Rommany Rye."
"And now, brother," said Mr. Petulengro, "seeing that you have drunk and been drunken, you will perhaps tell us where you have been, and what about?"
"I have been in the Big City," said I, "writing lils." {36}
"How much money have you got in your pocket, brother?" said Mr.
Petulengro.
"Eighteenpence," said I; "all I have in the world."
"I have been in the Big City, too," said Mr. Petulengro; "but I have not written lils--I have fought in the ring--I have fifty pounds in my pocket--I have much more in the world. Brother, there is considerable difference between us."
"I would rather be the lil-writer, after all," said the tall, handsome, black man; "indeed, I would wish for nothing better."
"Why so?" said Mr. Petulengro.
"Because they have so much to say for themselves," said the black man, "even when dead and gone. When they are laid in the churchyard, it is their own fault if people a"n"t talking of them. Who will know, after I am dead, or b.i.t.c.hadey pawdel, that I was once the beauty of the world, or that you Jasper were--"