s a gipsy, but she's lived there so long that no one is sure
where she comes from. She's as old as old! I shouldn't wonder if she
were really Bob's great-grandmother.'

'Has _he_ always lived with her?' asked Rosamond. 'Fancy!
_great_-grandmother.'

'I don't know,' said Archie; 'he's been there as long as I can
remember.'

'And that's not very long,' said Justin, with the superiority of his
four more years of life. '_You_ can't remember more than six or seven
years back at most, Archie! I can remember ten good, if not eleven. And
Bob's two years older than I am. I should think he was about four or
five when I first remember him. Nurse wouldn't let Pat and me stop to
talk to him when we passed the cottage going a walk, he was such a
queer, black-looking little creature. Old Nancy went away once for ever
so long, and when she came back she brought this rum little chap with
her, and the people about said he was as uncanny as she. Nobody's very
kind to them, even now.'

'Poor things,' said Miss Mouse. 'They must be very dull and lonely.'

'They don't mind,' said Justin. 'Nance says she wouldn't stay if they
had neighbours, and she's jolly glad to have no rent. Once they tried to
make her pay for her cottage, but papa got her off, and ever since then
she'd do anything for us, and she always smiles and curtsies and blesses
us in her way when we pass. Yes, she'd do anything for us, and so would
poor old Bob.'

'Yes, but----' began Archie, but stopped short, for Justin's eye was
upon him.

'You're not to begin abusing Bob,' he said. 'It's not fair, _I_ count
him a friend of mine, whatever you do.'

Rosamond looked puzzled.

'Is he a naughty boy?' she said half timidly.

'No,' said Justin, 'I say he's not. He gets blamed for lots of things he
doesn't deserve, just because he and old Nancy are strange and queer.'

'I'd like to see them,' said Rosamond. 'It _does_ sound like a fairy
story, and it looks like one. Won't you take me to their cottage some
day?'

But before either Justin or Archie had time to reply, there came an
interruption.

'They're whistling for us,' exclaimed Archie. 'Yes, it's Pat and Aunt
Mattie coming across the paddock--and the little ones too. Isn't it nice
to hear Aunt Mattie whistling just like she used to, when she lived
here? Let's go back and meet them.'

'No,' said Justin, 'I'll stay here with Miss Mouse, and you run down to
them, Archie. Most likely Aunt Mattie wants to come up here