"But they do know things somehow," Lucy ventured to say, "or how could that woman have guessed it was a thimble I had lost?" "Did not you and Anne say something about it?" "I remember now I did tell Anne to ask her about the thimble," said Lucy, "and perhaps she overheard me. I remember, too, she did not know whether it was a silver or a gold thimble. Yet, if she had known where it was, she might have told what it was made of, one would think. But, Cousin Debby, she knew that my father was at the war, and that Jack Martin went with him." "I dare say and so does every one in the village know it, and that Anne and Jack Martin were engaged to be married: so you see there is nothing wonderful in that. No doubt they pick up a great deal of such information which they use as occasion serves. Then, too, their tribes are scattered all over the world, and are said to keep up constant intercourse with one another: so they may often obtain news of what is passing abroad in a way which seems very wonderful to those not in the secret." "Who are the gipsies, Cousin Deborah? They do not look like English people." "It is not known from whence they came in the first place. They seem to have made their first appearance in Europe in the fifteenth century, (there were more than one hundred in Paris in 1427), and were then believed to have come from Egypt. Gipsy is from the French word Egyptien. There have been a great many speculations concerning them. * They evidently have a language and customs of their own. They are a great pest wherever they go, from their thieving, begging habits, and it may be doubted whether they are not often concerned in worse crimes." * Mr. Grellmann supposes that they are of the lowest class of East Indians, viz., Pariahs, or Soodras, and that they were driven from Hindoostan to Europe, by Timur Beg, in 1408 or 1409. "Why do not people try to teach them better, Cousin Deborah?" "My dear, that is a question I have often asked myself. It does not seem to me that Christian people have awaked to their duty in that respect, and that something might be done for these wretched outcasts. Their unsettled mode of life, however, is much in the way of gaining any influence over them. And so long as they can make a subsistence by their pretended acts of fortune-telling and treasure-finding, they are not likely to settle to any honest employment. "I hope, my dear Lucy, you will never be so foolish again as to go to these wretched people for any such purpose. And, now, tell me another thing, Lucy. Do you think it is a very pleasant thing for a little girl to have secrets which she is afraid will be found out by those who have the care of her?" "No, indeed, Cousin Deborah! I hope I shall never have another secret as long as I live."