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Gratitude And the boy answered admiringly:

"How do you do it in your head so quick, miss? Yes, that's what I am."

Here the wheelbarrow resumed its rather bumpety progress, and nothing more could be said till the next stoppage, which was at that spot where the sea-front road swings around and down, and glides into the beach so gently that you can hardly tell where one begins and the other ends. It was much lighter there than up on the waste space. The moon was just breaking through a fluffy white cloud and cast a trembling sort of reflection on the sea. As they came down the slope all hands were needed to steady the barrow, because as soon as she saw the sea the Mermaid began to jump up and down like a small child at a Christmas tree.

"Oh, look!" she cried, "isn't it beautiful? Isn't it the only home in the world?"

"Not quite," said the boy.

"Ah!" said the lady in the barrow, "Of course you're heir to one of the—what is it . . .?"

"‘Stately homes of England—how beautiful they stand,'" said Mavis.

"Yes," said the lady. "I knew by instinct that he was of noble birth."

"‘I bid ye take care of the brat,' said he, ‘For he comes of a noble race.'"

Francis hummed. He was feeling a little cross and sore. He and Mavis had had all the anxious trouble of the adventure, and now the Spangled Boy was the only one the Mermaid was nice to. It was certainly hard.

"But your stately home would not do for me at all," she went 57