A 'Gif-Trap 69 



- These ' gips ' — country folk do not say gipsy — 

 were unknown to us ; but we were on terms with some 

 members of a tribe who called at our house several 

 times in the course of the year to buy willow. The men 

 wore golden earrings, and bought ' Black Sally,' a 

 withy that has a dark bark, for pegs, and ' bolts ' of 

 osier for basket-making. A bolt is a bundle of forty 

 inches in circumference. Though the women tell 

 fortunes, and mix the 'dark man' and the 'light 

 man,' the ' journey ' and the ' letter ' to perfection, till 

 the ladies half believe, I doubt if they know much 

 of true palmistry. The magic of the past always had 

 a charm for me. I had learned to know the lines, 

 from that which winds along at the base of the 

 thumb-ball and if clear means health and long life, 

 to that which crosses close to the fingers and 

 indicates the course of love, and had traced them on 

 many a delicate palm. So that the ' gips ' could tell 

 me nothing new. 



The women are the hardiest in the country ; they 

 simply ignore the weather. Even the hedgers and 

 ditchers and the sturdiest labourers choose the lee 

 side of the hedge when they pause to eat their lun- 

 cheons ; but the ' gips ' do not trouble to seek such 

 shelter. Passing over the hills one winter's day, 

 when the Downs looked all alike, being covered with 



