ian language, but had never learnt it till this day; so patteran
signified leaf, the leaf of a tree; and no one at present knew that but
myself and Ursula, who had learnt it from Mrs. Herne, the last, it was
said, of the old stock; and then I thought what strange people the
gypsies must have been in the old time. They were sufficiently strange
at present, but they must have been far stranger of old; they must have
been a more peculiar people--their language must have been more
perfect--and they must have had a greater stock of strange secrets. I
almost wish that I had lived some two or three hundred years ago, that I
might have observed these people when they were yet stranger than at
present. I wondered whether I could have introduced myself to their
company at that period, whether I should have been so fortunate as to
meet such a strange, half-malicious, half good-humoured being as Jasper,
who would have instructed me in the language, then more deserving of note
than at present. What might I not have done with that language, had I
known it in its purity? Why, I might have written books in it; yet those
who spoke it would hardly have admitted me to their society at that
period, when they kept more to themselves. Yet I thought that I might
possibly have gained their confidence, and have wandered about with them,
and learnt their language, and all their strange ways, and then--and
then--and a sigh rose from the depth of my breast; for I began to think,
'Supposing I had accomplished all this, what would have been the profit
of it? and in what would all this wild gypsy dream have terminated?'

Then rose another sigh, yet more profound, for I began to think, 'What
was likely to be the profit of my present way of life; the living in
dingles, making pony and donkey shoes, conversing with gypsy-women under
hedges, and extracting from them their odd secrets?' What was likely to
be the profit of such a kind of life, even should it continue for a
length of time?--a supposition not very probable, for I was earning
nothing to support me, and the funds with which I had entered upon this
life were gradually disappearing. I was living, it is true, not
unpleasantly, enjoying the healthy air of heaven; but, upon the whole,
was I not sadly misspending my time? Surely I was; and, as I looked
back, it appeared to me that I had always been doing so. What had been
the profit of the tongues which I had learnt? had they ever assisted m