“Ah!” said Fanny, with a knowing shake of her head.  “I may be cruel, and I have my failings, but I can read you through and through, Master Dan, same as if you was a printed book.  You take my word for that.”

“X rays aren’t in it,” cried Dan.  “Eyes of a hawk, and a heart of stone.  What a combination!”

“That there littlest basket,” went on Fanny, turning to Kitty, “is for Master Tony; and you must see that Master Dan don’t get hold of it, and let his little brother wear hisself out carrying the ’eavy one.”

“Fanny, what do you take me for?”

“I take ’ee for what you are,” said Fanny calmly—­“an anointed young limb, and as artful as you are high.”

“Wait till I have gone back to school,” said Dan wistfully, “then every cruel and unjust thing you have said and thought of me will come back to you, and ‘Too late, ah, too late,’ you will moan as you sob yourself ill; ’and I loved that boy better than any one in the whole wide world!’”

Which had enough of truth in it to make Fanny quite cross, or seem to be.

“Master Tony’s basket has got some lunch in it for you all to eat on your way.  There’s a little pasty each, and some biscuits.  I did put in a big one for Master Dan, but I’ve more’n half a mind to take it out again, seeing as he’s be’aving so, sitting on the table and swinging his legs.  I s’pose those are the manners they learns him to school!”

Dan chuckled.  “I wish they did,” he said.  “No, it’s only you who let me behave myself as I like, Fanny.  No one else in the wide world is so kind to me.  O Fanny, I wish you were coming with us.”

“So do I,” cried Kitty.  “Wouldn’t it be fun!” And Fanny, quite mollified, did not remove Dan’s big pasty.

The door opened and Jabez came in.  “I’ve got the moke,” he said; “he’s in the yard; and I’ve put a few carrots in the cart for ’ee to ’tice un along with, for if that there creetur haven’t made up his mind a’ready not to see Helbarrow Tor this day—­well, I’m a Dutchman, and whatever my failings I ain’t that yet.”

“The only enticing he’ll get from me will be with the whip,” said Dan with great scorn, “so you can take out the carrots again.”  But Jabez shook his head wisely.

“They won’t take up much room,” he said.  “I’ll put ’em in the nose-bag, and if you don’t need ’em on the way, you can give ’em to the creetur when he gets there, by way of encouraging un another time.  Now, are you all ready, miss?  It’s best for ’ee to start before he falls asleep again, for they’m always poor-tempered if they’m woke up, and then they’m obstinater than ever.”

The five of them could not all get into the cart at once, at least not with any comfort, so they always, on these excursions, took it in turn to ride and tie; and Dan, who did not crave for the glory of driving Mokus through the street, walked on with Betty, leaving the others to follow.