e chong."

"It is a long time since we last met, Captain Bosvile, for I suppose I
may call you Captain now?"

"Yes! the old man has been dead and buried this many a year, and his
sticks and titles are now mine. Poor soul, I hope he is happy; indeed I
know he is, for he lies in Cockleshell churchyard, the place he was
always so fond of, and has his Sunday waistcoat on him with the fine gold
buttons, which he was always so proud of. Ah, you may well call it a
long time since we met--why, it can't be less than thirty year."

"Something about that--you were a boy then of about fifteen."

"So I was, and you a tall young slip of about twenty; well, how did you
come to jin mande?"

"Why, I knew you by your fighting mug--there ain't such another mug in
England."

"No more there an't--my old father always used to say it was of no use
hitting it for it always broke his knuckles. Well, it was kind of you to
jin mande after so many years. The last time I think I saw you was near
Brummagem, when you were travelling about with Jasper Petulengro and--I
say, what's become of the young woman you used to keep company with?"

"I don't know."

"You don't? Well, she was a fine young woman and a vartuous. I remember
her knocking down and giving a black eye to my old mother, who was
wonderfully deep in Romany, for making a bit of a gillie about you and
she. What was the song? Lord, how my memory fails me! Oh, here it
is:--

"'Ando berkho Rye cano
Oteh pivo teh khavo
Tu lerasque ando berkho piranee
Teh corbatcha por pico.'"

"Have you seen Jasper Petulengro lately?" said I.

"Yes, I have seen him, but it was at a very considerable distance.
Jasper Petulengro doesn't come near the likes of we now. Lord! you can't
think what grand folks he and his wife have become of late years, and all
along of a trumpery lil which somebody has written about them. Why, they
are hand and glove with the Queen and Prince, and folks say that his wife
is going to be made dame of honour, and Jasper Justice of the Peace and
Deputy Ranger of Windsor Park."

"Only think," said I. "And now tell me, what brought you into Wales?"

"What brought me into Wales? I'll tell you; my own fool's head. I was
doing nicely in the Kaulo Gav and the neighbourhood, when I must needs
pack up and come into these parts with bag and baggage, wife and childer.
I thought that Wales was what it was some thirty years agone when our
foky used to sa