“No, my man. What do you want him for?”
“A pony of mine has gone astray, and I want him to let me know if he hears anything about it. Perhaps he’ll be at home to-night?”
“He won’t, I’m afraid.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
Thus Jonathan camped down Dark Lane with impunity.
One morning shortly after my meeting with Jonathan, a Gypsy mother called at my Rectory. She led her black-eyed, five-year-old boy by the hand. Brown as a berry, the handsome little fellow would have served admirably for an artist’s model, and his mother had many pleasing touches of Gypsy colour about her attire. From beneath a bright red diklo (kerchief) which she wore, a few black curls straggled out on to her forehead, and a gay bodice showed under her green shawl. The woman said that she had heard so much of me from her father—Jonathan Boswell—that she had come on purpose to see me. I invited her into the kitchen, and over bread and cheese and ale we chatted.
“Ain’t we all delated, raia, come to think of it? There’s a Man above as made us all.”
Quickly I made friends with the little boy, and at my request his mother afforded our household no small delight by leaving her son with us for the day. The tiny lad was entirely unaccustomed to house ways, and his behaviour was a study. On seeing a Christmas card with the Christ-child lying in the manger guarded by a white-winged angel, he exclaimed, “I know what that is” (pointing to the heavenly visitant); “we often sees ’em flying over the fields. It’s a seagull.”
With great readiness he joined in the games of my children, such as shuttlecock and battledore, skipping, and the like. Sitting at a table for a meal was evidently a novel experience for the little chap, and it was amusing to see him slip off his chair and squat on the hearthrug, putting his plate on his knee as though a Gypsy boy ought not to do exactly as the gawjê, and he used his fingers freely in lieu of fork and spoon. After the meal we sat round the fire, and talked of his life on the road.
“I found a hen’s nest in the hedge-bottom, this morning, I did.”