Page:Poor Cecco - 1925.djvu/77

Rh kindly, hard-working people, and I spent very happy days in their company. By day we travelled the roads in a cart drawn by an old white horse, and while the women and children worked at making brooms and baskets which they sold by the way, the men did odd jobs of tinkering, mending saucepans and pails for the farmers’ wives at different houses where we stopped, and in that way I saw a great deal of the country, besides learning much gypsy lore, and picking up several trades that are useful to know. At night, when the horse was taken from the wagon and turned out to graze, supper was cooked at an open fire by the roadside, and after that the family would gather round and sing songs and tell old stories, and though there might be little to eat every one was gay and happy.

“In winter, when the cold weather set in, they joined a circus in one of the small towns, and found employment there, till the summer came round once more. I had wonderful dresses in those days, for my gypsy child would sew them out of scraps of silk and lace from the circus-riders’ costumes, that the old wardrobe women gave her to play with. It was a fine life with the circus, but I liked still better the rides in the old wagon under the open sky, and the evenings round the fire at night.

“Yes, I was happy with my gypsies, and I should be with them now had not an accident happened.

“One day the little girl left me lying too near the step of the wagon, and when the horse started I was presently