CHAP. IX. Of the plans pursued by the Southampton Committee, and the success which has attended them, continued.

A gipsy woman, of whose reformation we have already taken some notice, having gone to solicit the assistance of the parish to which one of her children belonged, met with many difficulties and troubles. She was not at this time destitute of the knowledge of religion. She had learned to read, and had become acquainted with the Scriptures, at an adult school, and by attending at a place of worship; and these instructions were not thrown away on her; for although she was frequently invited to eat and drink in the tents of the Gipsies on her journey, she conscientiously refused, fearing that what they were partaking of might not be honestly obtained. She informed them that her Testament had taught her better habits than those she had formerly known. Her children helped to keep alive her religious impressions. They often talked to her about the school from which she had taken them, of their lessons, and the observations of the master and mistress, on different parts of the Scriptures, and at other times they catechised each other on the objects that presented themselves on the road, in the same way they had been used to in the Infants’ Schools; to which they often begged their mother to let them return. These circumstances, she has since said, made her so miserable that she felt she could not live as she had done.

Some time after this, she made a visit to a parish in which another of her children was born, near Basingstoke. She entered the cottage of an old couple who sold fruit, &c. Tea being proposed, the old woman expressed her surprise that she had not seen her visitor for so long a time, saying she was glad she was come, as she wanted her to tell her many things, meaning future events. She mentioned a great deal that another Gipsy woman had told her, on which the reformed one exclaimed—Don’t believe her, dame. It is all lies. She knows no more about it than you do. If you trust to what she says, you will be deceived. The old woman was still more surprised, and asked how she, who had so often told their fortunes, and had promised them such good luck, could be so much altered? The woman taking her Testament from her bosom, replied, “I have learned from this blessed book, and from my kind friends, that all liars shall have their portion in the lake that burneth with brimstone and fire; and rather than tell fortunes again, I would starve.” She then opened her book and began reading a chapter, endeavouring to explain as she read, at which her host and hostess began to weep. She told them that though she knew she had been a great sinner, and was one still, yet she never had felt so happy as then. The old woman observed, that she could not say she was happy, and wished to know what she must do to feel happy. The Gipsy replied, you must leave off selling on Sundays, and go to a place of worship, and learn to read the Testament, and to pray, and then you will become happy.

This poor Gipsy woman, who was so anxious to instruct those she had many times deceived, was soon after taken sick, at which time her distress of soul was very great; and she then said, were she to die, her soul could not go to heaven.

Many were her temptations, while in great poverty, to renew the practice of fortune-telling. Several genteel parties have visited her, and sometimes offered her gold, tempting her to begin again the sins she had for ever given up; but, much to her credit, she at all times resolutely refused all such unholy gain.

At one time some very gay young women called on her, desiring to have their fortunes told. Her Testament lay on the table, which she had but a short time before been reading, and pointing to it, she said—That book, and that only, will tell your fortunes; for it is God’s book; it is his own word. She reproved them for their sin, and said, the Bible had told her, all unrighteousness is sin. They then requested she would not tell any one that they had called upon her. She replied—Oh! you fear man more than God!

A few days since, this reformed woman was sweeping the pavement in front of her house, when two female servants came up, enquiring for the house of the fortune-teller; mourning over them for their folly, she said—My dears, she cannot tell your fortunes. I have been a professed fortune-teller, and have deceived hundreds. She succeeded in persuading them to go home.

At a meeting of Gipsies held at a gentleman’s house, Jan. 1830, the youngest child of this woman said to her mother, Mammy, who be all these folks? The mother replied, They are Gipsies. Was I ever like ’em? asked the child. Yes, said the mother, you was once a poor little Gipsy without stockings and shoes, and glad to beg a halfpenny of any body. It is a circumstance not to be lamented, that the condition even of a little child, has been so much bettered by the exertions of the Committee.

In addition to the encouragement afforded us by this woman, giving up with so much decision the practice of fortune-telling, the author must not forget to mention an instance of her forbearance of temper under provocation and outrage. She had, when a vagrant, a quarrel with some of her ignorant people of another tribe. Meeting with them after her reformation, she was severely beaten by them, and had her ear-drops torn from her ears, while they contemptuously called her Methodist. When asked, why she did not bring her persecutors to justice, she replied, How can I be forgiven, if I do not forgive? That is what my Testament tells me.

The young widow we have before mentioned, continued to tell fortunes for some time after we had taken her children; but it pleased the Holy Spirit to awaken her conscience, and to shew her the wickedness of such crimes, by which she was led to true repentance and reformation of character.

After the death of both the children of this interesting individual, she went into the service of a kind and pious lady in London. For this situation she was prepared by one of equal benevolence in Southampton, who had her for some time in her own house for that purpose. She continued in this situation till the lady’s death, and has since been in other service, where she has conducted herself so well as to prove she is become a sincere servant of Christ.