- Seller Of Lottery Tickets, Driver Of Death
Carts, Or Poet Laureate In Gypsy Songs?
I wonder whether thou art
still living, my friend Manuel; thou gentleman of Nature's forming-
-honest, pure-minded, humble, yet dignified being!
Art thou still
wandering through the courts of beautiful Safacoro, or on the banks
of the Len Baro, thine eyes fixed in vacancy, and thy mind striving
to recall some half-forgotten couplet of Luis Lobo; or art thou
gone to thy long rest, out beyond the Xeres gate within the wall of
the Campo Santo, to which in times of pest and sickness thou wast
wont to carry so many, Gypsy and Gentile, in thy cart of the
tinkling bell? Oft in the reunions of the lettered and learned in
this land of universal literature, when weary of the display of
pedantry and egotism, have I recurred with yearning to our Gypsy
recitations at the old house in the Pila Seca. Oft, when sickened
by the high-wrought professions of those who bear the cross in
gilded chariots, have I thought on thee, thy calm faith, without
pretence, - thy patience in poverty, and fortitude in affliction;
and as oft, when thinking of my speedily approaching end, have I
wished that I might meet thee once again, and that thy hands might
help to bear me to "the dead man's acre" yonder on the sunny plain,
O Manuel!
My principal visitor was Dionysius, who seldom failed to make his
appearance every forenoon: the poor fellow came for sympathy and
conversation.
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Words from 187726 to 187981
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