mean what you say," said his friend; to
which he ungratefully replied, "I never speak words without meaning." In
a good-natured way he was questioned as to the truth of his being a
Gipsy, accompanied with the remark, that Gipsies were seldom ungrateful
for the favours which were shown them. In half an hour after, he left
the camp very angrily. This man had been released from many years'
imprisonment, through the author's intercession; but having associated
with thieves so long, the worst principles of his heart were drawn forth.
Before he left the camp, he said he had no care about his children, but
to feed and clothe them. "Then you only treat your children as a man
does his dogs and pigs." He replied, that "such treatment was good
enough." This is a common sentiment; for the generality of parents have
no further care about their children than to feed and clothe them. Such
persons are not perhaps aware how nearly they come to that dreadful state
of mind and heart, of which this ungrateful Gipsy so wickedly boasted.

After he had left the party, those who remained attended to conversation
and prayer, when one of the women wept bitterly on account of her sin of
fortune-telling. The author has since been informed that this poor man
expresses his sorrow for his uncalled-for behaviour.

The plans adopted in Southampton, for the conversion of the Gipsies in
Hampshire, are now generally known among their people. Not long ago, an
old woman brought four orphans of a deceased relative from a great
distance, in order to place them under the care of the Committee. On
this occasion the old woman thus addressed the author. "Are you Mr
Crabb?" Being told, yes, she continued--"Mr Chas. Stanley, a Gipsey,
desired me to bring you these poor orphans." The author being assured
that they were orphans, promised, after some conversation, to visit their
tent the following day. He did so, and never can he forget the
distressing scene he then witnessed. It was winter, and the weather was
unusually cold, there being much snow on the ground. The tent, which was
only covered with a _ragged_ blanket, was pitched on the lee side of a
_small_ hawthorn bush. The children had stolen a few _green_ sticks from
the hedges, but they would not burn. _There was no straw_ in the tent,
and only one blanket to lay betwixt six children and the frozen ground,
with nothing to cover them. The youngest of these children was three,
and the eldest,