om a cart. She soon partially recovered herself, and
straightened up slightly from the heap into which she had
collapsed, and, turning her head away from her customer, she
elaborately remarked: "Fifty cents and your left 'and."

The Individual made a careful search for his small change, and
fished out the exact amount which he promptly paid over.

This delightful gipsy then took his left hand and looked at it
for a minute in an imbecile kind of way, as if she didn't know
exactly what to do with it, and was undecided whether it was to
be made into soup, or she was to drink it immediately with warm
water and a little sugar. This last impression evidently
prevailed, for she tried to pour it into her apron, and only
recovered from her delusion when the fingers tangled themselves
up in the strings. Then a glimmering of the true state of the
case seemed to dawn upon her, and she began to have a dim idea
that she was expected to say something.

Now the roving gipsy was not by any means intoxicated at this
time; that is to say, she may have been partaking of gin, or gin
and water, or may have been sucking sugar that had gin on it, or
she may have been taking a little gin and peppermint for a
stomach-ache, or she may have been bathing her head in gin, or
have been otherwise making use of that potent remedy as a
medicine, but she was by no means a subject for official
interference in case she had wandered into the street, but she
was, to tell the truth, not in her most clear-headed condition;
although probably she did not see more than one Cash Customer
sitting solemnly before her, still that one was quite as many as
she could well manage at that time.

After the signal failure of her little demonstration on the hand
of her guest, she, by a strong effort, seemed to concentrate her
faculties, and after several trials she roused herself and spoke
as follows, emphasizing the short words with spiteful vindictiveness,
and paying the most particular attention to the improper aspiration
of the h's.

"You _are_ a person as _has_ seen a great deal _of_ dif--"

The gay Bohemian here evidently desired to say "difficulty," but
the word was a sad stumbling-block, a four-syllable rock ahead
which was too much for her powers in her then exhausted state of
mind; she charged on the unfortunate word boldly, however, and
tried to carry it by storm, but each time was repulsed with great
loss of breath--"a great deal of dif--dif--dif--diffle