e by the hedge, where the old hag who did the cooking for the party
had been stewing away at a mess in a great pot. She ladled out the
contents all round for the others, but Diana helped herself. She picked
out the nicest bits she could see for the two little prisoners, and
stood by them for a minute or two to see if they really were going to
eat.

"I'll come back in a bit to see if it's all gone," she said, when she
had seen them at work, "and remember what I said this morning. That'll
help to make you eat hearty."

"Her's very kind," said Duke; but as he spoke he laid down the coarse
two-pronged fork Diana had given him to eat with, and seemed glad of an
excuse to rest in his labours for a while. "But I can't eat this, can
you, sister?"

Pamela looked up--she had got a small bone in her fingers, at which she
was trying to nibble.

"I'm pretending to be Toby eating a bone," she said gravely. "Sometimes
it makes it seem nicer."

"_I_ don't think so," said Duke. "It only makes it worser to think of
Toby," and his voice grew very doleful, as if he were going to cry.

"Now don't, bruvver," said Pamela. "Let's think of what Diana said."

"What was it?" said Duke. "Say it again."

"'Twas that, p'raps, if us was very good and did just ezactly what her
tells us, us'd go somewhere soon, where us'd be _very_ happy," said
Pamela. "Where do you fink it can be, Duke? Us mustn't tell _nobody_,
not even Tim; but I don't mind, for Diana said she thought Tim'd go too.
Do you fink she meant" (and here poor little Pam, who had learnt
unnatural caution already, glanced round her--as if any one could have
been hidden in the small space of the van!--and lowered her
voice)--"that she meant us was to go _home_ again to dear Grandmamma and
Grandpapa?"

Duke shook his head.

"No," he said, "they'll never send us home now. Mick'd be put in prison
if he took us home. I know that. I heard what they was saying about it
one day when they didn't know I was there. And it's too far away--it's a
dreadful way away. We can never go home. I daresay Grandpapa and
Grandmamma and everybody's dead by now," concluded Duke, who talked with
a sort of reckless composure sometimes, altogether too much for Pamela,
who burst into tears.

"Oh bruvver!" she cried between her sobs, "don't talk like that. I
_fink_ God's too good to have let dear Grandpapa and Grandmamma die. And
us has said our prayers such many many times about going home. I'm sure
Grandp