Part 10 (2/2)

”Maybe,” said Tim to himself, ”the old gentleman and lady'd take me on as a stable-boy or such like if the little master and missie'd speak a word for me, as I'm sure they would. And I'm right down sure I'd try to do my best--anything to get away from this life.”

Of course he could have got away by himself at any time much more easily than with the children. But till now, as he had told them, he had not cared to try it, for where had he to run to? And, besides, it was only since Duke and Pamela had been with the gipsies that the wish to return to a better kind of life had grown so very strong.

He sighed heavily as he stood on the desolate moor with his two little companions, for he felt what he would not say to them, how terribly difficult their escape would be.

Suddenly Pamela tugged at his arm.

”What is that s.h.i.+ning down there, Tim?” she said, pointing over the moor, which sloped downwards at one side. ”Is it a river?”

Tim looked where she directed, and his face brightened a little.

”'Tis the ca.n.a.l, missie,” he said. ”It comes past Monkhaven, and goes--I don't rightly know where to. Maybe to that place we're going to, where the fair's to be. I once went a bit of a way on a ca.n.a.l--that was afore I was with Mick and his lot. There was a boy and his mother as was very good to me. I wish I could see them again, I do.”

”But what _is_ a ca.n.a.l, Tim,” said Pamela. ”Us has never seen one, and that down there looks like a silver thread--it s.h.i.+nes like water.”

”So it is water, missie--a ca.n.a.l's a sort of a river, only it goes along always quite straight. It doesn't go bending in and out like a real river, sometimes bigger and sometimes littler like.”

”And how did you go on it,” asked Duke. ”And the boy and his mother? You couldn't walk on it if it was water--n.o.body can except Jesus in the big Bible at home. _He_ walked on the top of the water.”

”Did he really?” said Tim, opening his eyes. ”I've heerd tell on him. He was very good to poor folk and such like, wasn't he? Mother telled me about him, tho' I thought I'd forgotten all she'd told me. But I remember the name now as you says it. And what did he walk on the top o'

the water for, master?”

Duke looked a little puzzled.

”I don't quite remember, but I think it was to help some poor men when the sea was rough.”

”No, no,” said Pamela; ”_that_ was the time he felled asleep, and they woked him up to make the storm go away.”

”I'm sure there was a storm the time he was walking on the water, too,”

said Duke; ”there's the picture of it. When us goes in, sister, us'll get Grandmamma's picture-Bible and look”--but suddenly his voice fell, his eager expression faded. In the interest of the little discussion he had forgotten where they were, how far away from Grandmamma and her picture-Bible, how uncertain if ever they should see her or it again!

Pamela understood.

”I wish Jesus would come and help us now,” she said softly. ”I'm sure us needs him quite as much as those men he was so kind to. Tell us about the ca.n.a.l, Tim.”

”It's boats,” replied Tim. ”Long boats made just the right shape. And they've got rooms in them--quite tidy-like. The one that boy lived in along o' his mother was as nice as--as nice as nice. And then they go a-sailin' along--right from one end of the ca.n.a.l to the other.”

”What for--just because they like it?”

”Oh no. They've all sorts of things they take about from one place to another--wood often and coal. But that wasn't a coal boat--it was nice and clean that one. And there's hosses as walks along the side of the ca.n.a.ls, pullin' of the boats with ropes. It's a pleasant life enough, to my thinking--that's to say when they're tidy, civil-like folk. Some of them's awful rough--as rough as Mick and the Missus and all o' _them_.”

Duke and Pamela listened with the greatest interest. They quite forgot to cry any more about their home in listening to what Tim told them.

”Oh, Tim,” said Pamela, ”I'll tell you what _would_ be nice. If us and you could get one of those boats, and a horse to pull it, and go sailing away till we got home to Grandpapa and Grandmamma. That would be nice, wouldn't it, Tim?”

”Yes, missie,” said Tim. ”But is there ca.n.a.ls near your place?”

Pamela's face fell.

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