Why should they not be
quite happy? They were going to Grandpapa and Grandmamma and Toby; they
had no longer cruel Mick to fear; they had Tim to take care of
them--only the thought of poor Diana left behind made them a little sad!

"It is so nice here," repeated Pamela, when Tim's words had completely
reassured her. "But I'm rather hungry. Us hadn't any breakfast, you
know, Tim. Mightn't us, have some of the bread in the basket."

"I've got some bread and some fresh milk," said Mrs. Peter. "I got the
milk just before you came; the girl at the 'Rest'"--the 'Rest' was the
little house where the canal boats stopped--"fetched it early."

"Oh, us would like some milk," said the children eagerly.

"Come into the cabin then, and you'll show me what you have in your
basket," said the young woman; and thus the children were easily
persuaded to put themselves in hiding.

The cabin was but one room, though with what in a house would have been
called a sort of "lean-to," large enough to hold a bed. All was, of
course, very tidy, but so much neater and, above all, cleaner than the
gipsies' van that Duke and Pamela thought it delightful. The boat had
been newly repaired and painted, and besides this, Peter's wife--though
she could neither read nor write and had spent all her life on a canal
boat--was quite a wonder in her love of tidiness and cleanliness.

"I'd like to live here always," said Pamela, whose spirits rose still
higher when she had had some nice fresh milk and bread.

"Not without Grandpapa and Grandmamma," said Duke reproachfully.

"Oh no, of course not," said Pamela. "But there wouldn't be quite enough
room for them in here, would there, Mrs. Peter?"

"I am afraid not," she replied. "You see there's only one bed. But we've
made a nice place for you, master and missy, in here," and she drew back
a clean cotton curtain in one corner, behind which, on a sort of settle,
Peter and she had placed one of their mattresses so as to make a nice
shake-down. "You'll sleep very well in here, don't you think?"

"Oh yes," exclaimed the children, "us will be very comfortable. What
nice clean sheets!" continued Pamela; "it makes me fink of our white
beds at home," and her voice grew rather doleful, as if she were going
to cry.

"But you've no need to cry about your home _now_, missy dear," said Tim.
"You're on the way there."

"Yes, how silly I am!" said Pamela. "I fink I forgot. It's such a long
time ago since us slept