ts, scarcely
knowing whether he was more attracted or repelled by the ungainly body,
which, as the little ones discovered somewhat later on, housed such a
beautiful soul within.

But what is that beside the dwarf--that great, soft-looking object that
is just for all the world like a big brown furry bundle, with a tiny,
chattering, jabbering monkey, decked out in all the bravery of scarlet
coat and jaunty forage cap, perched on top of it? Darby steals forward
step by step to get a closer view. The bundle of fur unrolls itself,
grunts and turns over as if quite ready for a frolic with its queer
comrade, and the little lad leaps back in terror. For it is a bear,
gaunt and grizzly, with funny snout and blinking eyes!

Darby did not notice that the monster was chained, and he moved back
again behind Moll, whence he gazed fascinated upon the grotesque group,
over which the leaping flames cast such weird and curious lights and
shadows.

The gaudy yellow caravan was drawn up on one side, and with the screen
of trees served as an effective background to the scene. The skinny
piebald horses had been unloosed from its shafts, freed of their
harness, and, with rude fetters on their legs, turned adrift to seek
their supper among the coarse grass and springy heather spreading so
bountifully around them upon every side.

CHAPTER IX.

THE NEXT MORNING.

"Oh, my heart grows weak as a woman's,
And the fountain of feeling will flow
When I think of the paths, steep and stony,
That the feet of the dear ones must go.

"Oh, those truants from earth and from heaven,
They have made me more manly and mild;
And I know now how Jesus could liken
The kingdom of God to a child!"

CHARLES DICKENS.

Roughly the spell of the picture was broken by the loud voice of Joe
Harris.

"Hillao!" he cried, by way of general greeting to the troupe around the
fire.--"Any grub ready, Bambo?"

The dwarf glanced round from the pot which he was carefully stirring
with a long-handled wooden spoon, and then Darby noticed how gentle was
the expression of his deep-set eyes.

"Yes," he answered, in a curious, husky voice, thin and vibrating;
"supper has been ready an hour and more. It's done to rags by this time,
I'm afraid. We thought, from what you said, that you would have been
here long before now," he added, speaking more correctly than Mr. Harris
himself--differently, someho