least creatures intended to represent gypsies, have been the
principal figures. I think if we were without you, we should begin
to miss you."

"Just as you would the cuckoos, if they were all converted into
barn-door fowls. I tell you what, brother; frequently, as I have
sat under a hedge in spring or summer time, and heard the cuckoo, I
have thought that we chals and cuckoos are alike in many respects,
but especially in character. Everybody speaks ill of us both, and
everybody is glad to see both of us again."

"Yes, Jasper, but there is some difference between men and cuckoos;
men have souls, Jasper!"

"And why not cuckoos, brother?"

"You should not talk so, Jasper; what you say is little short of
blasphemy. How should a bird have a soul?"

"And how should a man?"

"Oh, we know very well that a man has a soul."

"How do you know it?"

"We know very well."

"Would you take your oath of it, brother--your bodily oath?"

"Why, I think I might, Jasper!"