Higher up the lane, and almost hidden by outlying tangles of bramble and wild-rose, sat a man of sixty or more, puffing tobacco smoke from his black clay, and near him on the wayside three horses ripped the tender grasses.
Looking up at me with a start, the man said—
“Well, you fairly took me by surprise, sir. For a wonder I never heard you a-coming. I must be getting deaf.”
“Romanitshel?” (Gypsy) I queried.
“Âvali, mi tshavo” (Yes, my son), he replied; “you’s been among our people, that’s plain, or you wouldn’t talk like you do. Mebbe you’s heard tell o’ Jonathan Boswell—that’s me. But I must be off now with these here hosses to the smithy. We’s beshin akai (stopping here) for a day or two. Our wagon’s in the kitshima (tavern) yard just past the mill.”
“Well, Jonathan, I want you to bring one of those Gypsy-tables the boys are making to my place this afternoon; don’t fail to come. I shall dik avrî for tîro mui about trin ora” (look out for your face about three o’clock).
“Right, I’ll be there, raia.”
In due course the Gypsy presented himself at my door in company with his two grandsons, and among them they carried three tables. I had only asked for one, but Jonathan was such a “find” that I gladly purchased all the articles and bade the little party follow me into the garden. The two grandsons displayed a remarkable knowledge of trees, which they were able to identify not merely by their foliage, but by the character of their bark. Wild birds they knew by note and flight as well as by plumage. There is so much a Gypsy boy knows about nature.
How meagre, by contrast, is the information possessed by the average County Council schoolboy; which reminds me that I was once giving an object-lesson to a class of fifth-standard children attending our village school. We were seated on a river bank whose insect life and botanical treasures I had been pointing out to an interested group of listeners. As nothing had been said about the scaly denizens of the stream, I concluded my talk by putting a question to the entire class.
“Hands up, those who can tell me the names of any fish to be found in this river.”