'
'I do though, wusser luck,' said the Gypsy solemnly, stopping
suddenly, and standing still as a statue.
'And this,' I ejaculated, 'is the hideous belief of all races in all
times! Monstrous if a lie--more monstrous if true! Anyhow I'll find
her. I'll traverse the earth till I find her. I'll share her lot with
her, whatever it may be, and wherever it may be in the world. If
she's a beggar, I'll beg by her side.'
'Right you are, brother,' said the Gypsy, breaking in
enthusiastically. 'I likes to hear a man say that. You're liker a
Romany chi nor a Romany chal, the more I see of you. What I says to
our people is:--"If the Romany chals would only stick by the Romany
chies as the Romany chies sticks by the Romany chals, where 'ud the
Gorgios be then? Why, the Romanies would be the strongest people on
the arth." But you see, reia, about this cuss--a cuss has to work
itself out, jist for all the world like the bite of a sap.'
[Footnote]
[Footnote: _Sap_, a snake.]
Then she continued, with great earnestness, looking across the
kindling expanse of hill and valley before us: 'You know, the very
dead things round us,--these here peaks, an' rocks, an' lakes, an'
mountains--ay, an' the woods an' the sun an' the sky above our
heads,--cusses us when we do anythink wrong.
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