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'
'
Know 'em, child!' cried the lady of the caravan in a sort of shriek.
Know them! But you're young and inexperienced, and that's your
excuse for asking sich a question. Do I look as if I know'd 'em, does
the caravan look as if it know'd 'em?'
'No, ma'am, no,' said the child, fearing she had committed some
grievous fault. 'I beg your pardon.'
It was granted immediately, though the lady still appeared much
ruffled and discomposed by the degrading supposition. The child then
explained that they had left the races on the first day, and were
travelling to the next town on that road, where they purposed to spend
the night. As the countenance of the stout lady began to clear up, she
ventured to inquire how far it was. The reply - which the stout lady
did not come to, until she had thoroughly explained that she went to
the races on the first day in a gig, and as an expedition of pleasure,
and that her presence there had no connexion with any matters of
business or profit - was, that the town was eight miles off.
This discouraging information a little dashed the child, who could
scarcely repress a tear as she glanced along the darkening road. Her
grandfather made no complaint, but he sighed heavily as he leaned
upon his staff, and vainly tried to pierce the dusty distance.
The lady of the caravan was in the act of gathering her tea equipage
together preparatory to clearing the table, but noting the child's
anxious manner she hesitated and stopped. The child curtseyed,
thanked her for her information, and giving her hand to the old man
had already got some fifty yards or so away, when the lady of the
caravan called to her to return.
'Come nearer, nearer still,' said she, beckoning to her to ascend the
steps. 'Are you hungry, child?'
'Not very, but we are tired, and it's - it IS a long way.'
'Well, hungry or not, you had better have some tea,' rejoined her new
acquaintance. 'I suppose you are agreeable to that, old gentleman?'
The grandfather humbly pulled off his hat and thanked her. The lady
of the caravan then bade him come up the steps likewise, but the
drum proving an inconvenient table for two, they descended again,
and sat upon the grass, where she handed down to them the tea-tray,
the bread and butter, the knuckle of ham, and in short everything of
which she had partaken herself, except the bottle which she had
already embraced an opportunity of slipping into her pocket.
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