For days he would not take a bit of food—although he was usually a great eater—and this in itself was enough to give them keen concern. Yet nothing that they could do to comfort him had any effect. Evidently they must simply wait for his grief to wear away unless they could succeed in finding Lydia in the meantime.
At every place they visited their first proceeding was to make inquiry as to whether any strolling performers had passed that way, and when they were answered in the affirmative they would ask if it was noticed whether they had with them a little girl six years of age and having brown hair and eyes.
But nothing came of all their eager inquiries. Lydia seemed to have vanished utterly.
Meanwhile the days went by, and the middle of December found them still searching vainly for their lost sister. The weather, which had hitherto been unusually mild, might at any time become cruelly cold.
It was with serious concern that the poor children regarded the advent of the season which is so hard upon the poor, and among the poor there are surely none who feel it more than the wandering folk who live in vans. Not only have they to face the bitter cold as they travel from one place to another, but the van, which is their dwelling, while well enough on the fine warm days of summer, is but a poor apology for a comfortable home when the winter winds blow fiercely.
What is even still more serious for these wandering artists, their patrons naturally prefer remaining snugly at their own firesides with their feet toasting at the ruddy flames to standing in the open air watching a performance while the cold is nipping them.
The Tamby receipts were very scanty, and they suffered all the more on that account, because they had first to consider Steady and Nalla and make sure that they were well fed, even though Nalla's appetite was not what it used to be. They had accordingly to buy a great deal of hay, and hay was expensive. Nadine had always endeavored so far as she was able to give the big creature the things he liked, and often he would caress her with his trunk in token of his appreciation of her attentions, but there were no more dainties for him now, nothing but the plainest of fare.