'Not it,' answered Nan. 'That's to make some tea for breakfast.' He
watched whilst she brought out three pieces of iron like walking-sticks,
tied together at the ends and forming a tripod. Having stuck the other
ends in the ground, Nan collected some sticks, and heaping these
together, she soon made a good fire.

'Can I warm my hands?' asked Jimmy; and leaving the van, he crouched
down to hold his small hands over the blaze. Then Nan hung a kettle over
the fire and stood watching whilst it boiled. And men and women
gradually came out of the other vans, which stood about anyhow, and they
all looked very sleepy and rather dirty, especially the children who
soon began to collect round Jimmy as if he were the most extraordinary
thing in the caravan. If he had felt less cold and hungry Jimmy might
have enjoyed it all, for there was certainly a great deal to see.

They seemed to have stopped on another common, but there were small
houses not very far away. The worst of it was that wherever he went he
was followed by a small crowd of children who made loud remarks about
him. Still he wandered in and out amongst the vans, and stopped a long
time before the cage which contained the lion. The lion was lying down
licking his fore-paws, but he left off to stare at Jimmy, who quickly
drew farther away from the cage. A little farther he met two elephants,
a big one and a little one, with three men who were taking them down to
a pond to drink. Jimmy saw some comical-looking monkeys too; and what
interested him almost more than anything were the men who had already
begun to fix the large tent in an open space. It looked rather odd at
present, because they had only fixed the centre pole, and the canvas
hung loosely in the shape of the cap which the clown had worn last
night. On returning to the van, still followed by the boys, Jimmy saw
the clown sitting on the steps eating an enormous piece of bread and
cheese, and drinking hot tea out of a mug.

'Come along,' said the clown, 'come and have some breakfast'; and Jimmy
sat down on the muddy ground, and Nan gave him another mug and a thick
slice of bread; but Jimmy was by this time so hungry that he could have
eaten anything. Still he felt very anxious to hear how he was to reach
Chesterham without meeting Coote again.

'I _should_ like to see my father and mother to-day,' he said, as he ate
his breakfast.

'Not to-day,' answered the clown, 'but it won't be long, so don't you
worry