The Gates of Dawn by Fergus Hume — Read

If Dan had hoped to lead a solitary life he found out his mistake at the end of his first week's camping. It became known far and wide that he was of a hospitable nature, with the result that the dell was visited frequently by all the idle scamps in the neighbourhood. Some came with aggressive looks and demanded money, and food, and clothes, and Heaven only knows what else; but Dan disposed of these folk by offering to fight them. As they rarely cared to accept the challenge, they left speedily, with many curses, and those who did engage were thoroughly thrashed, so in the end such ruffians gave the dell a wide berth. Never was the Augean stable swept cleaner than was the dell of bullies and rogues and would-be thieves, by its muscular occupant.

The gipsies often looked in to see how he was getting on, but these were privileged guests. Dan had partaken of their bread and salt, so was by no means chary of his own; moreover, they were instinctively polite, and never by any chance stole his belongings. He was therefore glad to see their brown faces, and made them heartily welcome. They were charmed to think that the great gentleman -- as they insisted on calling Dan -- should affect the life of the road, and, had he but known the Romany tongue, would doubtless have accepted him as their brother. But Dan had other things to think of besides learning the black language, and so there remained a gulf between him and the vagrants. He was with them but not of them.