I walked home somewhat easier in my mind now that I knew the party had returned safely, though still somewhat anxious as to their whereabouts.
About nine o’clock it began to get quite dark, and I was just setting out to see if I could find any trace of them when General Mary Jane returned.
“and donkey rides”
“Oh, sir!” she exclaimed directly she saw me, “what do you think? His Majesty and the Doctor-in-Law and the others are down at the fair by Hammersmith Bridge, and they are ’aving such a lark. I see them all ’aving a roundabout as I was coming past on my way ’ome from my sister’s just now; such a crowd there was a cheering and a hollering. Cocoa-nut shies, too, a boy told me they had been ’aving, and old Aunt Sally, and donkey rides along the towing path.”
“they are ’aving such a lark”
I hurriedly put on my hat and rushed off to Hammersmith, for I didn’t know what might happen to my guests among the rough crowd which I knew usually gathered there.
When I arrived on the scene I found the whole party on the roundabout, and when they alighted I learned that the Doctor-in-Law had arranged with one of the show people to share the proceeds of exhibiting the Wallypug and A. Fish, Esq., in separate tents, at 3d. a head.
I met with considerable opposition from the show people in my endeavours to persuade my guests to come home, as they had evidently been a source of considerable profit to them, though the man with the cocoa-nut shies declared that the Doctor-in-Law had claimed a great many more nuts than he was properly entitled to.