160 THE CRUISE OF THE ROVER CARAVAN

“Now, uncle, are you quite sure you haven’t got
Kammy in your coat tail-pocket ?”

Then away rattled the caravan, Ben standing there
looking after her till she disappeared round the bend,
or the “bight” as he phrased it.

“T hope,” he said to himself, ‘“‘ Kammy isn’t curled
up in my handkerchief.”

He extracted a huge red bandana from his pocket
and shook it.

No, Kammy wasn’t there. But Uncle Ben took
this opportunity of wiping his eyes; then he took a
firmer grasp of his stick and trudged sturdily back to
Chingford.

Several times before the mid-day halt, the “ Rover”
was brought:to a standstill, that Douglas and Carleton
might range away into the flowery, ferny depths of the
Forest.

Tf fairies still dwell anywhere in merry England,
and are not entirely scared away by the roar of the
railway trains and the shriek of the steam-whistle, it
must be just such pleasant nooks as these they choose,
in which to hold their revels when the lamp of night
burns high and clear.

The mid-day halt was made at a pretty little inn
before reaching Epping itself. The inn stood high,
and the views all round were picturesque and beau-
tiful.

Then on through Epping town, with its very wide
street and its quaint old-fashioned houses, to High
Ongar.

Plenty of children here, and on this sunny Saturday