ccounts of her wonderful powers.

It will appear strange that Melchior would not permit Nattee to reap a
harvest, which might have been great; but the fact was, that he only
allowed the seed to be sown that a greater harvest might be gathered
hereafter. Nattee disappeared, the gipsie's tent was no longer on the
common, and the grass, which had been beaten down into a road by the
feet of the frequent applicants to her, was again permitted to spring
up. We also took our departure, and rejoined the camp with Nattee, where
we remained for a fortnight, to permit the remembrance of her to subside
a little--knowing that the appetite was alive, and would not be
satisfied until it was appeased.

After that time, Melchior, Timothy, and I, again set off for the town
of ----, and stopping at a superior inn in another part of the town,
dressed as travellers, that is, people who go about the country for
orders from the manufacturers, ordered our beds and supper in the
coffee-room. The conversation was soon turned upon the wonderful powers
of Nattee, the gipsy. "Nonsense," said Melchior, "she knows nothing. I
have heard of her. But there is a man coming this way (should he happen
to pass through this town) who will surprise and frighten you. No one
knows who he is. He is named the Great Aristodemus. He knows the past,
the present, and the future. He never looks at people's hands--he only
looks you in the face, and _woe be to them who tell him a lie_.
Otherwise, he is good-tempered and obliging, and will tell what will
come to pass, and his predictions never have been known to fail. They
say that he is hundreds of years old, and his hair is white as silver."
At this information many expressed their doubts, and many others vaunted
the powers of the gipsy. Melchior replied, "that all he knew was, that
for the sum of two guineas paid down, he had told him of a legacy left
him of six hundred pounds, which otherwise he would never have known of
or received." All the town of ---- being quite alive for fortune-telling,
this new report gained wind, and after a week's sojourn, Melchior
thought that the attempt should be made.

Chapter XIII

The seed having been carefully sown, we now reap a golden
harvest--We tell every body what they knew before, and we are
looked upon as most marvellous by most marvellous fools.

We accordingly packed up, and departed to another market town. Timothy,
dressed in a sombre suit of bla