e Ted or Mr.
Hervey would help you about Bob any time if you needed help.'

'Yes, missie dear, I've much to be thankful for, and I hope and trust
poor Bob'll take to steady ways like his father and grandfather before
him, though there's times I worry about him a bit--he's a loving boy,
but he's got the gipsy restlessness in him too.'

CHAPTER XI

A GREAT SACRIFICE

Nance's story had taken longer to tell than might seem the case. For she
had stopped now and then, and the children had asked questions and made
remarks. So they were all a little startled when, glancing out of doors,
they saw how fast the daylight was fading and the twilight creeping on.

'We must be going,' said Pat, starting up, 'and there's Justin not back,
and if he's late we'll _all_ be scolded. Papa has made a regular rule
that we're all to come in together.'

Nance looked anxious.

'Bob's that feather-brained,' she said, for she never liked to blame the
Hervey boys. 'But you'd best start, my dearies, and I'll whistle. It'll
bring them back if they're anywhere near, and I don't fancy they're
farther off than one of the farms straight across from here. And will it
be next holiday you'll come for some more of old Nance's little cakes
and long tongue?'

'Not next half-holiday,' said Miss Mouse with some regret,' for Auntie
Mattie is going to take me to--the town--where there are shops, you
know--there's something I want to buy, _very_ particular.'

'Ah, well, you'll always be welcome--welcome as the flowers in May
whenever you do come,' said their old friend, and she stood at the door
whistling, a curious clear whistle which carried far, as the three set
off for home.

'I do hope Justin will overtake us,' said Miss Mouse. 'It would be such
a pity if your papa was vexed, for then he might say we mustn't go to
old Nance's any more. Wasn't it queer about the lucky penny? Do you
think the fairy man really brought it back or that it was a sort of
little trick of her granny's?'

'I don't know,' said Pat. 'I was wondering about it, but I wouldn't have
liked to say to her that perhaps it was a trick.'

'I'll tell you what,' said Archie, with the tone of one who has quite
settled the question, '_I_ believe the grandmother herself was partly a
fairy--gipsies are a little like fairies, you know.'

Neither Pat nor Rosamond laughed at this, for in their hearts they had a
feeling that Nance herself had something--I won't say 'uncanny,' for the