wood-carving, he insisted on presenting me with crocus powder, "to put an
edge on." He had a remarkably fine whetstone, "the best in England; it
was worth half a sovereign," and this he often and vainly begged me to
accept. And he had a peculiar little trick of relieving his kindly
feelings. Whenever we dropped in of an evening to the lodging-house, he
would cunningly borrow my knife, and then disappear. Presently the
_whiz-whiz_, _st'st_ of his wheel would be heard without, and then the
artful dodger would reappear with a triumphant smile, and with the knife
sharpened to a razor edge. Anent which gratitude I shall have more to
say anon.

One day I was walking on the Front, when I overtook a gypsy van, loaded
with baskets and mats, lumbering along. The proprietor, who was a
stranger to me, was also slightly or lightly lumbering in his gait, being
cheerfully beery, while his berry brown wife, with a little
three-year-old boy, peddled wares from door to door. Both were amazed
and pleased at being accosted in Romany. In the course of conversation
they showed great anxiety as to their child, who had long suffered from
some disorder which caused them great alarm. The man's first name was
Anselo, though it was painted Onslow on his vehicle. Mr. Anselo, though
himself just come to town, was at once deeply impressed with the duty of
hospitality to a Romany rye. I had called him _pal_, and this in
gypsydom involves the shaking of hands, and with the better class an
extra display of courtesy. He produced half a crown, and declared his
willingness to devote it all to beer for my benefit. I declined, but he
repeated his offer several times,--not with any annoying display, but
with a courteous earnestness, intended to set forth a sweet sincerity.
As I bade him good-by, he put the crown-piece into one eye, and as he
danced backward, gypsy fashion up the street and vanished in the sunny
purple twilight towards the sea I could see him winking with the other,
and hear him cry, "Don't say no--now's the last chance--do I hear a bid?"

We found this family in due time at the lodging-house, where the little
boy proved to be indeed seriously ill, and we at once discovered that the
parents, in their ignorance, had quite misunderstood his malady and were
aggravating it by mal-treatment. To these poor people the good Palmer
also gave an order on the old physician, who declared that the boy must
have died in a few days, had he not