k you would do to be my bonnet."

"Bonnet!" said I; "what is that?"

"Don't you know? However, no wonder, as you had never heard of the
thimble and pea game, but I will tell you. We of the game are very much
exposed; folks when they have lost their money, as those who play with us
mostly do, sometimes uses rough language, calls us cheats, and sometimes
knocks our hats over our eyes; and what's more, with a kick under our
table, cause the top deals to fly off; this is the third table I have
used this day, the other two being broken by uncivil customers: so we of
the game generally like to have gentlemen go about with us to take our
part, and encourage us, though pretending to know nothing about us; for
example, when the customer says, 'I'm cheated,' the bonnet must say, 'No,
you a'n't, it is all right;' or, when my hat is knocked over my eyes, the
bonnet must square, and say, 'I never saw the man before in all my life,
but I won't see him ill-used;' and so, when they kicks at the table, the
bonnet must say, 'I won't see the table ill-used, such a nice table, too;
besides, I want to play myself;' and then I would say to the bonnet,
'Thank you, my lord, them that finds, wins;' and then the bonnet plays,
and I lets the bonnet win."

"In a word," said I, "the bonnet means the man who covers you, even as
the real bonnet covers the head." {27a}

"Just so," said the man; "I see you are awake, and would soon make a
first-rate bonnet."

"Bonnet," said I, musingly; "bonnet; it is metaphorical."

"Is it?" said the man.

"Yes," said I, "like the cant words--"

"Bonnet is cant," said the man; "we of the thimble, as well as all
clyfakers and the like, understand cant, as, of course, must every
bonnet; so, if you are employed by me, you had better learn it as soon as
you can, that we may discourse together without being understood by every
one. Besides covering his principal, a bonnet must have his eyes about
him, for the trade of the pea, though a strictly honest one, is not
altogether lawful; so it is the duty of the bonnet, if he sees the
constable coming, to say, 'The Gorgio's welling.'" {27b}

"That is not cant," said I, "that is the language of the Rommany Chals."
{27c}

"Do you know those people?" said the man.

"Perfectly," said I, "and their language too."

"I wish I did," said the man; "I would give ten pounds and more to know
the language of the Rommany Chals. There's some of it in the language of
the pea