"Where from?"
"Well, you see there's a lot of us, and the old woman—she's my stepmother—she told me she wouldn't keep me no longer. My father—he died last year, and work is hard to get. I'll tramp into some town and try my luck there."
"Then where were you going to sleep to-night?"
"Sleep? Oh, bless yer—there's plenty o' room and accommodation in the open. And I haven't been about these parts for so long without knowing many a snug corner. I could show yer plenty a one. My pet one has been found out by some old chap lately. He goes into it and digs up quantities o' stones and then sits and hugs them, all as if they was gold! I laugh to see him sometimes!"
"Why that must be old Principle, and that's the cave he thinks so much of! He looks for bones."
Rob gave another of his hearty laughs.
"Well, if he has a taste that way, why don't he go to a churchyard, he'll dig to more success there."
"No, it's only animals' bones he likes, very, very old ones."
They tramped on, and then Roy asked if he could be put down, and Dudley given a lift instead. Rob good-naturedly assented, but some minutes were spent in altercation between the two boys before Dudley would consent to this arrangement.
"You're as tired as I am," persisted Roy.