y
she made the pie big enough for her family and strays. They would not
accept more than a shilling for our joint repast. The man said that was
the account to a farthing, if I was too proud to be a poor man's guest,
and insisted on treating him like a public. Perhaps I would shake hands
at parting? I did cordially, and remembered him when people were not so
civil. They wanted to know whether we had made a runaway match of it. The
fun of passing a boys'-school and hearing the usher threaten to punish
one fellow for straying from ranks, entertained me immensely. I laughed
at them just as the stupid people we met laughed at me, which was
unpleasant for the time; but I knew there was not a single boy who would
not have changed places with me, only give him the chance, though my
companion was a gipsy girl, and she certainly did look odd company for a
gentleman's son in a tea-garden and public-house parlour. At nightfall,
however, I was glad of her and she of me, and we walked hand in hand. I
narrated tales of Roman history. It was very well for her so say, 'I'll
mother you,' as we lay down to sleep; I discovered that she would never
have hooted over churchyard graves in the night. She confessed she
believed the devil went about in the night. Our bed was a cart under a
shed, our bed-clothes fern-leaves and armfuls of straw. The shafts of the
cart were down, so we lay between upright and level, and awakening in the
early light I found our four legs hanging over the seat in front. 'How
you have been kicking!' said I. She accused me of the same. Next minute
she pointed over the side of the cart, and I saw the tramp's horse and
his tents beneath a broad roadside oak-tree. Her face was comical, just
like a boy's who thinks he has escaped and is caught. 'Let's run,' she
said. Preferring positive independence, I followed her, and then she told
me that she had overheard the tramp last night swearing I was as good as
a fistful of half-crowns lost to him if he missed me. The image of
Rippenger's school overshadowed me at this communication. With some
melancholy I said: 'You'll join your friends, won't you?'

She snapped her fingers: 'Mumpers!' and walked on carelessly.

We were now on the great heaths. They brought the memory of my father
vividly; the smell of the air half inclined me to turn my steps toward
London, I grew so full of longing for him. Nevertheless I resolved to
have one gaze at Riversley, my aunt Dorothy, and Sewis, the