They grew more and more cheerful, and finally began to
chaff each other and insult passengers along the highway. This
showed that they were awaking to an appreciation of life and its
joys once more. The dread in which their sort was held was apparent in
the fact that everybody gave them the road, and took their ribald
insolences meekly, without venturing to talk back. They snatched linen
from the hedges, occasionally, in full view of the owners, who made no
protest, but only seemed grateful that they did not take the hedges,
too.
By and by they invaded a small farmhouse and made themselves at
home while the trembling farmer and his people swept the larder
clean to furnish a breakfast for them. They chucked the housewife
and her daughters under the chin while receiving the food from their
hands, and made coarse jests about them, accompanied with insulting
epithets and bursts of horse-laughter. They threw bones and vegetables
at the farmer and his sons, kept them dodging all the time, and
applauded uproariously when a good hit was made. They ended by
buttering the head of one of the daughters who resented some of
their familiarities. When they took their leave they threatened to
come back and burn the house over the heads of the family if any
report of their doings got to the ears of the authorities.
About noon, after a long and weary tramp, the gang came to a
halt behind a hedge on the outskirts of a considerable village. An
hour was allowed for rest, then the crew scattered themselves abroad
to enter the village at different points to ply their various
trades.
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