'Hullo!' she cried, seeing Jimmy, but not seeing her father. 'What do you want?'
'All right, Nan, all right,' said the clown, and he put an arm in front of Jimmy to push open the door. Whilst Jimmy felt glad to find shelter from the rain, the clown went to the back room, which must have been extremely small, and carried on a conversation with the girl whom he called Nan. Jimmy felt certain he was telling her all about himself.
Presently they both came out again, and Nan went to a shelf and brought some rather fat bacon and bread, and a knife and fork with black handles. There were two beds—one in the back part of the van and one in the front. Jimmy sat down on the one in the front to eat his supper, and before he had finished Nan gave him a mug of tea, which made him feel much warmer, although it did not taste very pleasant.
The clown had gone away again, and Jimmy wondered why there was such a noise outside the van.
'They're only putting the horses in,' said Nan, when he questioned her.
'I should have thought they would be taking them out at this time of night,' answered Jimmy.
'We always travel at night,' she explained, 'and then we're ready for the performance in the daytime.'
'But when do you go to sleep?' asked Jimmy.
'When we get a chance,' she said. 'But the best thing you can do's to go to sleep now. Suppose you lie down in there,' and she pointed to the room which was boarded off behind.
'Whose bed is it?' he asked.