g with the preaching of the clergyman
of M . . ., as they call him. Those two nice young gentlewomen, whom you
saw with the female childer, are his daughters."

"You seem to know all about him, Jasper. Did you ever hear him preach
before?"

"Never, brother; but he has frequently been to our tent, and his
daughters too, and given us tracts; for he is one of the people they call
Evangelicals, who give folks tracts which they cannot read."

"You should learn to read, Jasper."

"We have no time, brother."

"Are you not frequently idle?"

"Never, brother; when we are not engaged in our traffic, we are engaged
in taking our relaxation: so we have no time to learn."

"You really should make an effort. If you were disposed to learn to
read, I would endeavour to assist you. You would be all the better for
knowing how to read."

"In what way, brother?"

"Why, you could read the Scriptures, and, by so doing, learn your duty
towards your fellow-creatures."

"We know that already, brother; the constables and justices have
contrived to knock that tolerably into our heads."

"Yet you frequently break the laws."

"So, I believe, do now and then those who know how to read, brother."

"Very true, Jasper; but you really ought to learn to read, as, by so
doing, you might learn your duty towards yourselves: and your chief duty
is to take care of your own souls; did not the preacher say, 'In what is
a man profited, provided he gain the whole world'?"

"We have not much of the world, brother."

"Very little indeed, Jasper. Did you not observe how the eyes of the
whole congregation were turned towards our pew when the preacher said,
'There are some people who lose their souls, and get nothing in exchange;
who are outcast, despised, and miserable?' Now, was not what he said
quite applicable to the gypsies?"

"We are not miserable, brother."

"Well, then, you ought to be, Jasper. Have you an inch of ground of your
own? Are you of the least use? Are you not spoken ill of by everybody?
What's a gypsy?"

"What's the bird noising yonder, brother?"

"The bird! Oh, that's the cuckoo tolling; but what has the cuckoo to do
with the matter?"

"We'll see, brother; what's the cuckoo?"

"What is it? you know as much about it as myself, Jasper."

"Isn't it a kind of roguish, chaffing bird, brother?"

"I believe it is, Jasper."

"Nobody knows whence it comes, brother?"

"I believe not, Jasper."

"Very poor, brother