r black
language, had been survived, we settled down into conversation. It was a
fine autumnal day, Indian-summery,--the many in one of all that is fine
in weather all the world over, put into a single glorious sense,--a sense
of bracing air and sunshine not over-bold or bright, and purple, tawny
hues in western skies, and dim, sweet feelings of the olden time. And as
we sat lounging in lowly seats, and talked about the people and their
ways, it seemed to me as if I were again in Devonshire or Surrey. Our
host--for every gypsy who is visited treats you as a guest, thus much
Oriental politeness being deeply set in him--had been in America from
boyhood, but he seemed to be perfectly acquainted with all whom I had
known over the sea. Only one thing he had not heard, the death of old
Gentilla Cooper, of the Devil's Dyke, near Brighton, for I had just
received a letter from England announcing the sad news.

"Yes, this America is a good country for travelers. _We can go South in
winter_. Aye, the land is big enough to go to a warm side in winter, and
a cool one in summer. But I don't go South, because I don't like the
people; I don't get along with them. _Some Romanys do_. Yes, but I'm
not on that horse, I hear that the old country's getting to be a hard
place for our people. Yes, just as you say, there's no _tan to hatch_,
no place to stay in there, unless you pay as much as if you went to a
hotel. 'T isn't so here. Some places they're uncivil, but mostly we can
get wood and water, and a place for a tent, and a bite for the old _gry_
[horse]. The country people like to see us come, in many places.
They're more high-minded and hon'rable here than they are in England. If
we can cheat them in horse-dealin' they stand it as gentlemen always
ought to do among themselves in such games. Horse-dealin' is
horse-stealin', in a way, among real gentlemen. If I can Jew you or you
do me, it's all square in gamblin', and nobody has any call to complain.
Therefore, I allow that Americans are higher up as gentlemen than what
they are in England. It is not all of one side, like a jug-handle,
either. Many of these American farmers can cheat me, and have done it,
and are proud of it. Oh, yes; they're much higher toned here. In
England, if you put off a _bavolengro_ [broken-winded horse] on a fellow
he comes after you with a _chinamangri_ [writ]. Here he goes like a man
and swindles somebody else with the _gry_, instead of sn