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 to make good , put up his cards , secreted his treasure-bag , and began to converse with the other occupants of the wagon . `` Well , old friend , '' said the showman , `` you have not yet told us which way your face is turned this afternoon . '' `` I am taking a trip northward , this warm weather , '' replied the conjurer , `` across the Connecticut first , and then up through Vermont , and may be into Canada before the fall . But I must stop and see the breaking up of the camp-meeting at Stamford . '' I began to think that all the vagrants in New England were converging to the camp-meeting , and had made this wagon their rendezvous by the way . The showman now proposed that , when the shower was over , they should pursue the road to Stamford together , it being sometimes the policy of these people to form a sort of league and confederacy . `` And the young lady too , '' observed the gallant bibliopolist , bowing to her profoundly , `` and this foreign gentleman , as I understand , are on a jaunt of pleasure to the same spot . It would add incalculably to my own enjoyment , and I presume to that of my colleague and his friend , if they could be prevailed upon to join our party . '' This arrangement met with approbation on all hands , nor were any of those concerned more sensible of its advantages than myself , who had no title to be included in it . Having already satisfied myself as to the several modes in which the four others attained felicity , I next set my mind at work to discover what enjoyments were peculiar to the old `` Straggler , '' as the people of the country would have termed the wandering mendicant and prophet . As he pretended to familiarity with the Devil , so I fancied that he was fitted to pursue and take delight in his way of life , by possessing some of the mental and moral characteristics , the lighter and more comic ones , of the Devil in popular stories . Among them might be reckoned a love of deception for its own sake , a shrewd eye and keen relish for human weakness and ridiculous infirmity , and the talent of petty fraud .
Thus to this old man there would be pleasure even in the consciousness , so insupportable XXXXX some minds , that his whole life was a cheat upon the world , and that , so far as he was concerned with the public , his little cunning had the upper hand of its united wisdom .
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