he key at last, and they unlocked the door and
came safely into the dark street.

The old man did not know where to go, but little Nell took his hand and
led him gently away.

II

THE WANDERERS

It was a bright June morning. They walked through many city streets,
then through more scattered suburbs, and at last came to the open
country. That night they slept at a cottage where the people were kind
to them, and all the next day they walked on and on.

At sunset they stopped to rest in a churchyard, where two men were
sitting patching a Punch-and-Judy show booth, while the figures of
Punch, the doctor, the executioner and the devil were lying on the grass
waiting to be mended.

The men were mending the dolls very badly, so little Nell took a needle
and sewed them all neatly. They were delighted at this, and took the
pair to the inn where they were to show the Punch-and-Judy, and there
they found them a place to sleep in an empty loft.

The next day the wanderers went on with the showmen. Whenever they came
to a village, the booth was pitched and the show took place, and they
never left a town without a pack of ragged children at their heels. The
Punch-and-Judy show grew tiresome, but the company seemed better than
none. Little Nell was weary with walking, but she tried to hide it from
her grandfather.

The inn at which they lodged the next night was full of showmen with
trained dogs, conjurers and others, hurrying to a town where there was
to be a fair with horse-races, to which the Punch-and-Judy partners were
bound, and little Nell began to distrust their company.

To tell the truth, the others believed the child and the old man were
running away from their friends, and that a reward might be obtained for
giving them up. The way in which the men watched them frightened little
Nell, and when they reached the scene of the fair she had determined to
escape.

It was the second day of the races before a chance came, and then, while
the showmen's backs were turned, they slipped away in the crowd to the
open fields again.

These alarms and the exposure had begun to affect the old man. He seemed
to understand that he was not wholly in his right mind. He was full of
the fear that he would be taken from her and chained in a dungeon, and
little Nell had great trouble in cheering him.

At evening when they were both worn out, they came to a village where
stood a cottage with the sign SCHOOL in big letters in its w