He bounds away towards Rollo, and Mr. Hunt, watching before he starts to follow, says: "Ah, pity there's not more like you! You ought to ha' been one of them." He scowls horribly in the direction of Lady Burdon, who is waving to the boys from the door. "One o' them, you ought to ha' been. Makes yer boil!" CHAPTER VI JAPHRA AND IMA AND SNOW-WHITE-AND-ROSE-RED I And there were three new friends who contributed to this happy, happy time and who came vitally to contribute to later years. There were Japhra and Ima, who lived in a yellow caravan that was sometimes attached to that Maddox's Monster Menagerie and Royal Circus with which Mr. Hannaford traded in little 'orses; and there was Dora, whose mother was that Mrs. Espart of Abbey Royal at Upabbot over the Ridge who--as Miss Oxford had told Lady Burdon--did not send her little girl to lessons with Miss Purdie because of the post-office little boy. Percival first met Japhra and Ima on a day not long after the end of Rollo's first visit, when--his playmate gone--he was temporarily a little lonely. He came upon them by Fir-Tree Pool, stepped through the belt of trees that surround the pool and halted in much delight at the entrancing sight his eyes gave him. Here was a yellow caravan with little curtained windows, a thing most pregnant of mysteries to eight-years-old. A big white horse, unharnessed from the van, was cropping the turf. There was an iron pot hanging above a jolly fire of sticks. On the steps of the van a girl of about Percival's own age sat knitting. She was olive of face, with long, black hair; her legs were bare and they looked very long, Percival thought. By the fire, astride of a felled tree trunk, was a little man with a very brown face that was marked like a sailor's with many puckered little lines. He had a tight-lipped mouth with a short pipe that seemed a natural part of it, and he wore a long jacket and had a high hat of some rough, brown fur. He was reading a book; and as Percival stood watching, he put a finger to mark his place and looked up slowly as though he had known Percival was there but wished to read to a certain point before interrupting himself. He looked up and Percival noticed that his eyes, set in that brown, puckered face, were uncommonly bright. "Welcome, little master," said he. "All the luck!" "Hullo!" said Percival. "Excuse me staring. This is funny to me, you know." "Quiet, though," said the little man, his eyes twinkling; "and that's the best thing in life." Percival came up to him, vastly attracted. "Do you live in that van?" "That's where I live, little master--Ima and I." Percival stared at the girl on the steps, who stared back at him and then smiled. "Ima? That's a funny name," he said. "Maybe she's a funny girl," said the little man, twinkling more than ever. Percival took it quite seriously. "Well, her legs are long," he said appraisingly.