I looked at my shoulders , and thought them broad enough to sustain those pictured towns and mountains ; mine , too , was an elastic foot as tireless as the wing of the bird of Paradise ; mine was then an untroubled heart that would have gone singing on its delightful way . `` Oh , 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 today and repeat word for word the page which I have here XXXXX .
appeared deposited drew folded intimated object pictured recommending spy written