were glad when it was settled this year that they were to
go on the first day of the pleasure fair, for they had an uneasy fear
that if they waited till the second all the best things would be bought
from the stalls and booths. They set out therefore in very good
spirits, under the care of Nurse, and Jane the nursery-maid, to walk
from Easney to Cheddington, which was about a mile.

Pennie did not join in the chatter and laughter at first: she walked
along with unusual soberness, for though she liked going to the fair
quite as much as the others, she had just now something to think about
which made her grave. The children, she reflected, would certainly
spend every penny of their money to-day, besides that which mother had
given them for the wild-beast show. There would be nothing at all for
the mandarin. Should she make up her mind to save all hers, and buy
nothing at all for herself? As she gradually resolved upon this, she
began to feel that it would certainly be a very unselfish thing to do,
and she held her head a little higher, and listened with superiority to
her brothers and sisters as they chattered on about their money.

"I haven't got much," said Nancy, "hardly anything really, because I've
got to pay for that horrid window."

"I expect David's got most," said Ambrose, "he's as rich as a Jew."

"Jews aren't always rich," remarked David slowly. "Look at Mr Levi,
who stands in the door of the rag-and-bone shop at Nearminster."

Pennie could not help striking in at this point. "He doesn't look
rich," she said, "but I dare say he's got hoards buried in his garden."

"He hasn't got a garden," objected Nancy.

"Well, then, in his chimney, or perhaps sewn up in his mattress," she
answered.

"If that's all he does with it he might just as well be poor," said
David.

"But he isn't a poor man for all that," said Nancy, "if he's got a
mattress full of gold."

Ambrose became silent as the dispute about the poverty or wealth of Mr
Levi proceeded, and presently, edging close up to Pennie, who was a
little behind the others, he said wistfully:

"I say, Pennie, I want to ask you something."

"Well," said his sister rather unwillingly. "Suppose--you found
something," began Ambrose with an effort.

"What sort of thing?"

"Oh, something valuable," said Ambrose, thinking of the glittering gold
coins.

"What then?" asked Pennie, looking at him with a little more interest.

"What would you do with it?"