hink 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, causes 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."

"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."

"That is not cant," said I, "that is the language of the Rommany Chals."

"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 and thimble; how it