While Mr. Vuffin and his two friends smoked their pipes and beguiled the time with such conversation as this, the silent gentleman sat in a warm corner, swallowing, or seeming to swallow, a sixpennyworth of halfpence for practice, balancing a feather upon his nose, and rehearsing other feats of dexterity of that kind, without paying any regard whatever to the company, who in their turn left him utterly unnoticed. At length the weary child prevailed upon her grandfather to retire, and they withdrew, leaving the company yet seated round the fire, and the dogs fast asleep at a humble distance. MRS. JARLEY AND HER WAX-WORKS OF all the adventures of little Nell, the meeting with Mrs. Jarley was the most delightful. It happened just at the right time. Nell and her grandfather were trudging along the road. It was late in the afternoon and they didn’t know where they were to find a resting-place. They came to a common and saw what in England is called a caravan. It is not such a caravan as one would find in Bagdad, made up of camels. It was a little house on wheels. It had white curtains on the windows, and the window-shutters were of green, with bright red trimmings. There was a door with brass knockers and there were two fat horses to draw it. They all belonged to a stout, good-natured lady named Mrs. Jarley, who was at the moment arranging her tea things for a comfortable afternoon tea. Mrs. Jarley looked up and saw little Nell. “Are you hungry, child?” “Not very, but we are tired, and it’s a long way.” “Well, hungry or not,” said Mrs. Jarley, “you had better have some tea, and I suppose the old gentleman is agreeable to that.” So they sat down on the grass and had tea and bread and butter and generous slices of ham. Then Mrs. Jarley invited Nell and her grandfather to be her guests in the little house on wheels. There wasn’t very much room, but Mrs. Jarley was so hospitable that they at once accepted her invitation and made themselves at home. Half of the little house had berths for sleeping, very much as if it were a ship. The other half was a kitchen, with a little stove in it. It also had several boxes and kettles and saucepans. When they got started after breakfast in the morning, little Nell’s spirits rose and she forgot her troubles. “Well,” said Mrs. Jarley, “how do you like this way of travelling?” Nell said she liked it very much. “That’s the happiness of you young people,” said Mrs. Jarley. “You don’t know what it is to be low in your feelings. You always have your appetites too--and what a comfort it is.” Then Mrs. Jarley brought out a large roll of canvas about a yard wide, and spread it on the floor. “There, child,” she said, “read that.” Nell walked down it, and read aloud, in enormous black letters, the inscription, “JARLEY’S WAX-WORK.” “Read it again,” said the lady, complacently. “Jarley’s Wax-Work,” repeated Nell. “That’s me,” said the lady. “I am Mrs. Jarley.”