at pitcher of water, and a few cooking-utensils and articles of
crockery. These latter necessaries hung upon the walls, which, in that
portion of the establishment devoted to the lady of the caravan, were
ornamented with such gayer and lighter decorations as a triangle and a
couple of well-thumbed tambourines.

The lady of the caravan sat at one window in all the pride and poetry
of the musical instruments, and little Nell and her grandfather sat at
the other in all the humility of the kettle and saucepans, while the
machine jogged on and shifted the darkening prospect very slowly. At
first the two travellers spoke little, and only in whispers, but as
they grew more familiar with the place they ventured to converse with
greater freedom, and talked about the country through which they were
passing, and the different objects that presented themselves, until the
old man fell asleep; which the lady of the caravan observing, invited
Nell to come and sit beside her.

'Well, child,' she said, 'how do you like this way of travelling?'

Nell replied that she thought it was very pleasant indeed, to which the
lady assented in the case of people who had their spirits. For
herself, she said, she was troubled with a lowness in that respect
which required a constant stimulant; though whether the aforesaid
stimulant was derived from the suspicious bottle of which mention has
been already made or from other sources, she did not say.

'That's the happiness of you young people,' she continued. 'You don't
know what it is to be low in your feelings. You always have your
appetites too, and what a comfort that is.'

Nell thought that she could sometimes dispense with her own appetite
very conveniently; and thought, moreover, that there was nothing either
in the lady's personal appearance or in her manner of taking tea, to
lead to the conclusion that her natural relish for meat and drink had
at all failed her. She silently assented, however, as in duty bound,
to what the lady had said, and waited until she should speak again.

Instead of speaking, however, she sat looking at the child for a long
time in silence, and then getting up, brought out from a corner a large
roll of canvas about a yard in width, which she laid upon the floor and
spread open with her foot until it nearly reached from one end of the
caravan to the other.

'There, child,' she said, 'read that.'

Nell walked down it, and read aloud, in enormous black letters,