be brought up with little Fritz.

As a matter of course, all the women in the place, old and young, came
to pass their observations upon the little gipsy, whose serious and
thoughtful expression of countenance surprised them.

"This is not a child like others," said they; "she is a heathen--quite a
heathen! You may see by her eyes that she understands every word! She is
listening now! Mind what I say, Maître Christian! Gipsies have claws at
the ends of their fingers. If you will rear young ferrets and weasels you
must not expect your poultry to be safe. They will have the run of all
the farm-yard!"

"Go and mind your own business!" shouted Brémer. "I have seen Russians
and Spaniards, I have seen Italians, and Germans, and Jews; some were
brown, and some were black, some white, and others red; some had long
noses, and others had turned-down noses, but I found good fellows amongst
them all."

"Very likely," said the ladies, "but those people lived in houses, and
gipsies live in the open air."

He vouchsafed no reply to this argument, but with all possible politeness
he put them out by the shoulders.

"Go away," he cried; "I don't want your advice. It is time to air the
rooms, and then I have to go and attend to the stables."

But, after all, the rejected counsels were not so bad, as the event
unhappily showed a dozen or fourteen years afterwards.