`` O maiden ! '' said I aloud , `` why did you not come hither alone ? '' While the merry girl and myself were busy with the show-box , the unceasing rain had driven another wayfarer into the wagon . He seemed pretty nearly of the old showman 's age , but much smaller , leaner , and more withered than he , and less respectably clad in a patched suit of gray ; withal , he had a thin , shrewd countenance , and a pair of diminutive gray eyes , which peeped rather too keenly out of their puckered sockets . This old fellow had been joking with the showman , in a manner which intimated previous acquaintance ; but perceiving that the damsel and I had terminated our affairs , he drew forth a folded document , and presented it to me . As I had anticipated , it proved to be a circular , written in a very fair and legible hand , and signed by several distinguished gentlemen whom I had never heard of , stating that the bearer had encountered every variety of misfortune , and recommending him to the notice of all charitable people . Previous disbursements had left me no more than a five-dollar bill , out of which , however , I offered to make the beggar a donation , provided he would give me change for it . The object of my beneficence looked keenly in my face , and discerned that , I had none of that abominable spirit , characteristic though it be , of a full-blooded Yankee , which takes pleasure in detecting every little harmless piece of knavery . `` Why , perhaps , '' said the ragged old mendicant , `` if the bank is in good standing , I ca n't say but I may have enough about me to change your bill . '' `` It is a bill of the Suffolk Bank , '' said I , `` and better than the specie . '' As the beggar had nothing to object , he now produced a small buff-leather bag , tied up carefully with a shoe-string . When this was opened , there appeared a very comfortable treasure of silver coins of all sorts and sizes ; and I even fancied that I saw , gleaming among them , the golden plumage of that rare bird in our currency , the American Eagle . In this precious heap was my bank , note deposited , the rate of exchange being considerably against me . His wants being thus relieved , the destitute man pulled out of his pocket an old pack of greasy cards , which had probably contributed to fill the buff leather bag , in more ways than one . `` Come , '' said he , `` I spy a rare fortune in your face , and for twenty-five cents more , I 'll tell you what it is . '' I never refuse to take a glimpse into futurity ; so , after shuffling the cards , and when the fair damsel had cut them , I dealt a portion to the prophetic beggar . Like others of his profession , before predicting the shadowy events that were moving on to meet me , he gave proof of his preternatural science , by describing scenes through which I had already passed . Here let me have credit for a sober fact . When the old man had read a page in his book of fate , he bent his keen gray eyes on mine , and proceeded to relate , in all its minute particulars , what was then the most singular event of my life . It was one which I had no purpose to disclose , till the general unfolding of all secrets ; nor would it be a much stranger instance of inscrutable knowledge , or fortunate conjecture , if the beggar were to meet me in the street to-day , and repeat , word for word , the page which I have here written .
The fortune-teller , after predicting a destiny which time seems loath XXXXX make good , put up his cards , secreted his treasure-bag , and began to converse with the other occupants of the wagon .
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