He was a very merry fellow, and all the
time he was about his performance he kept making fun and jokes; and
these amused the audience so much that you may believe that I was sorry
my ignorance of his language hindered me from understanding them.
"All sorts of people used to stop and look at the juggler: brawny
porters, with loads of merchandise, or boxes of tea, or bars of silver,
which they carried in boxes or baskets slung on bamboo poles over their
shoulders."
"Like the pictures on the tea-boxes," whispered little Bessy.
"There's a figure of it in the grocer's window," said her brother, who
had seen more of the world than Bessy; "not a picture, a figure dressed
in silk; and they're square boxes, not baskets, that he's got--wooden
panniers I call them."
"Who else used to stop, Cousin Peregrine?" asked Maggie.
"Street confectioners, Maggie, with small movable sweetmeat stalls,
which they carry on their backs. Men with portable stoves too, who
always have a cup of tea ready for you for a small coin worth about the
twentieth part of a penny. Tiny-footed women toddling awkwardly along,
with children--also cramp-footed--toddling awkwardly after them, dressed
in all the colours of the rainbow, and with their poor little arms stuck
out at right angles with their bodies, to help them to keep their
balance.
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