"Now, see," said the man, "that's very pretty talk, very pretty, indeed; and how would little master like a basket for his very own to hold things--marbles and knives--" "Oh--and matches!" said Ralph, intensely excited all in a minute. "Yes, and matches." "And pocket-hankershers," said Ralph. "To be sure! How would little master like such a basket with a lid to it, now, and a little handle?" "Oh--it would be lovely!" said Ralph. "There's my good wife 'as got one, not like these,"--he kicked his own baskets with a look of contempt--"but a pretty one, to home. You come along 'ome with me, and I'll give you one." "How far off is your house?" asked Ralph, in great excitement. "No way 'tall; just through this wood, and through another field, and there you be." "Is it a house on wheels?" asked Ralph. "Now, ain't you a 'cute little master! There are wheels to our house." "And does it move?" "In _course_, it moves!" "I should love it to move," said Ralph--"and to _feel_ it move." "Then, you shall, my pretty little dear. You come along with me, and we'll harness old Dobbin to the house, and take you a bit across the field and give you a basket, and you shall be back again here in time for your school-mother afore she misses you." Ralph considered for a minute. "We must be very, very quick," he said. "I shouldn't like to vex my school-mother. Shall we run, brown gipsy man?" "Yes," said the man. The next minute he had sprung lightly over the stile, had lifted Ralph across, and hand-in-hand they were running through the wood. In a very short time they had also crossed a field, and beyond the field was a wide clearing, where were tents, and brown babies, and brown men and women, and some mongrel dogs that rose lazily and wagged their tails when the big brown man and the little brown boy approached. A very hideous old woman, nearly bent double, and with a toothless jaw, advanced towards the pair, and a very young woman with a handsome face and flashing black eyes followed her. The young woman wore a scarlet shawl twisted round her head, and a lot of beads round her neck, and long ear-rings in her ears. The man spoke at once: "Here's a little master," he said, "who wants a basket. Flavia--you choose him the very prettiest basket we 'as got, and put a knife into it and some coloured beads, and take him into our house on wheels, and put Dobbin to the house, and make the house move right across the field. You understand, Flavia?" Flavia's eyes flashed. She knelt down by Ralph, and took his two little hands, and looked into his face. "Eh, but you are a sweet little man!" she said, and she kissed him on his red lips. Then, lifting him bodily in her arms, she carried him up the steps into the house on wheels.