"And you are beautiful," said Ella.
"Of gaiety," said Rachel.

"You are gay," said Ella.

"Thank you, Elly dear," said the wildspirited Rachel. "Gab, don't look so very rueful, for you are as good as good can be, and a kind fellow as ever lived, and as thorough a gipsy as ever looked towards the sun, and that is better than all the rest besides."

"No," said Browne, "not so, Rachel, it is better to be good than even a gipsy, for if we be not good, God, who is so good and perfect, cannot love us."

"You prosy fellow," thought Rachel, looking at him, "you don't know what it is to have high gipsy blood in your veins. Come to breakfast," she said aloud, "for I have prepared tea for you-some of Dic's gunpowder-tea, which I took instead of his pie, for I believe he sat upon his pie till we galloped off. I wish I could have got at it; rare and good it is, I'll be bound."

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Rachel, you are too bad," said Gabriel; "but come to breakfast."

CHAPTER IX.

BREAKFAST-A

TRIBE OF GIPSIES SEEN IN

THE DISTANCE-RACHEL GOES TO THEM.

WHILE they were at breakfast, Rachel descried a tribe of gipsies far in the horizon. "There, then," she said, "I am sure far off, where the earth joins the sky, is a tribe moving."

“Where?” said her companions.

There, as far off as your eye can reach to the westward of that purple coloured hill." "I cannot see anything," said they all.

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Well, now, Gabriel, you just look," said Rachel," and I will point. Follow my finger. You see that clump of firs there in the east about five miles off-there."

"I see," said Gabriel," to the right of *Dic of the bank-not a hundred yards from Cicilly water."

"Just so," said Rachel.

"The country," thought Browne," seems to be all their own: they know every stone and hill within many miles."

"A little to the east of that clump, do you not see something moving?" said Rachel.

"I see something certainly moving," said Gabriel," but from the great distance, it may be anything-sheep, or anything."

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Sheep, indeed," said Rachel; "say a flock of geese; why, Gab, you do not observe the different lengths of the figures, or you would not say so. I fancy I can even spy Stenie Morse's lofty figure."

"When your fancy is up, Rachey, I know not what you may fancy; sit down again, and let us finish our breakfast."

"I will speak with them," said Rachel, "for they may have Jolly John with them, and I must hear the end of the rat story."

*The name of a bank.

"Oh, pray don't bring Jolly John upon us with his noisy laugh and his care-nought look," said Ella.

"Go to them!" said Gabriel; "why, Rachel, they are at least eight miles off.”

"Nevertheless, I shall away after them as soon as ever I have finished this cup. How uncommonly good his gunpowder-tea is," she said, chuckling; "what a rage he will be in when he finds it gone!"

"I wonder," said Ella, " if he ever gave away anything in his life."

"Dic?" said Gabriel; "never."

"I shall never be too good to take from him," said Rachel. "Gab, will you lend me Sister Spot?"

"Yes," said Gabriel," but be careful with her."

"I won't hurt her," said Rachel; "please whistle to her."

"She is tied, you know, to the gate," said her brother.

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No, she is not, for I and Ella untied her and the rest very early this morning; there they are all in that underwood, eating the grass near the stream."

Gabriel whistled, and Spot, followed by the other ponies, trotted to them. Rachel took a halter and put it round Spot; the spoilt animal hated Rachel, who had so often teazed her with Jock and Charley, and no sooner was she on its back, than she started upright on end, spun round, and threw the gipsy off.

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Nasty beast, that it is," said Rachel; Gab, you spoil her, and make her good for nothing."

The next instant her anger was gone, and she could not help laughing, for she saw the little mare trotting off again with her companions to the grass, and tossing her head to and fro highly pleased with herself.

"There, you think you have done that cleverly, you cunning beastie," said Rachel; "but Sheltie must come with me; he shall not escape so easily."

"Sit still, and I will catch him for you," said Browne; and he and Gabriel walked off to the stream, and many a minute elapsed ere they could catch the pony; at