FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94  
95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   >>   >|  
en in, especially by themselves. As is also the case, in good society, with many ladies and some gentlemen,--and much good may it do them! There was a brief silence, during which the boy still looked wistfully into my face, as if wondering what kind of gentleman I might be, until his mother said,-- "How do you do with them _ryas_ [swells]? What do you tell 'em--about--what do they think--you know?" This was not explicit, but I understood it perfectly. There is a great deal of such loose, disjointed conversation among gypsies and other half-thinkers. An educated man requires, or pretends to himself to require, a most accurately-detailed and form-polished statement of anything to understand it. The gypsy is less exacting. I have observed among rural Americans much of this lottery style of conversation, in which one man invests in a dubious question, not knowing exactly what sort of a prize or blank answer he may draw. What the gypsy meant effectively was, "How do you account to the Gorgios for knowing so much about us, and talking with us? Our life is as different from yours as possible, and you never acquired such a knowledge of all our tricky ways as you have just shown without much experience of us and a double life. You are related to us in some way, and you deceive the Gorgios about it. What is your little game of life, on general principles?" For the gypsy is so little accustomed to having any congenial interest taken in him that he can clearly explain it only by consanguinity. And as I was questioned, so I answered,-- "Well, I tell them I like to learn languages, and am trying to learn yours; and then I'm a foreigner in the country, anyhow, and they don't know my _droms_ [ways], and they don't care much what I do,--don't you see?" This was perfectly satisfactory, and as the hounds came sweeping round the corner of the wood she rose and went her way, and I saw her growing less and less along the winding road and up the hill, till she disappeared, with her boy, in a small ale-house. "Bang went the sixpence." When the last red light was in the west I went down to the river, and as I paused, and looked alternately at the stars reflected and flickering in the water and at the lights in the little gypsy camp, I thought that as the dancing, restless, and broken sparkles were to their serene types above, such were the wandering and wild Romany to the men of culture in their settled homes. It is f
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94  
95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

perfectly

 

Gorgios

 

knowing

 
conversation
 
looked
 

Romany

 

answered

 

languages

 
country
 

questioned


foreigner
 

wandering

 

accustomed

 

congenial

 

principles

 

general

 

interest

 

culture

 
consanguinity
 

explain


settled

 

dancing

 

restless

 

sixpence

 

thought

 

reflected

 

paused

 

flickering

 

lights

 

broken


corner

 

sweeping

 
serene
 

satisfactory

 

hounds

 

alternately

 

growing

 
disappeared
 
sparkles
 

winding


explicit

 
understood
 

mother

 

swells

 
disjointed
 
requires
 

pretends

 

require

 

educated

 

gypsies