if he had done the girl any good; but he thought he had been
of no use to her. He was mistaken there, for she was far happier for
having Diamond with her than if she had been wandering about alone. She
did not seem so tired as he was.

"Do let us rest a bit," said Diamond.

"Let's see," she answered. "There's something like a railway there.
Perhaps there's an open arch."

They went towards it and found one, and, better still, there was an
empty barrel lying under the arch.

"Hallo! here we are!" said the girl. "A barrel's the jolliest bed
going--on the tramp, I mean. We'll have forty winks, and then go on
again."

She crept in, and Diamond crept in beside her. They put their arms round
each other, and when he began to grow warm, Diamond's courage began to
come back.

"This is jolly!" he said. "I'm so glad!"

"I don't think so much of it," said the girl. "I'm used to it, I
suppose. But I can't think how a kid like you comes to be out all alone
this time o' night."

She called him a kid, but she was not really a month older than he was;
only she had had to work for her bread, and that so soon makes people
older.

"But I shouldn't have been out so late if I hadn't got down to help
you," said Diamond. "North Wind is gone home long ago."

"I think you must ha' got out o' one o' them Hidget Asylms," said the
girl. "You said something about the north wind afore that I couldn't get
the rights of."

So now, for the sake of his character, Diamond had to tell her the whole
story.

She did not believe a word of it. She said he wasn't such a flat as to
believe all that bosh. But as she spoke there came a great blast of wind
through the arch, and set the barrel rolling. So they made haste to get
out of it, for they had no notion of being rolled over and over as if
they had been packed tight and wouldn't hurt, like a barrel of herrings.

"I thought we should have had a sleep," said Diamond; "but I can't say
I'm very sleepy after all. Come, let's go on again."

They wandered on and on, sometimes sitting on a door-step, but always
turning into lanes or fields when they had a chance.

They found themselves at last on a rising ground that sloped rather
steeply on the other side. It was a waste kind of spot below, bounded by
an irregular wall, with a few doors in it. Outside lay broken things in
general, from garden rollers to flower-pots and wine-bottles. But the
moment they reached the brow of the rising ground, a gu