"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.
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