inquiries. And the magistrate will deal with the case. Send the
afflicted ones to a home, as likely as not, and the boys to a
reformatory. Now then, come along, youngsters! No use making a
fuss. You bring the gells along, Mr Peasemarsh, sir, and I'll
shepherd the boys.'

Speechless with rage and horror, the four children were driven
along the streets of Rochester. Tears of anger and shame blinded
them, so that when Robert ran right into a passer-by he did not
recognize her till a well--known voice said, 'Well, if ever I did!
Oh, Master Robert, whatever have you been a doing of now?' And
another voice, quite as well known, said, 'Panty; want go own
Panty!'

They had run into Martha and the baby!

Martha behaved admirably. She refused to believe a word of the
policeman's story, or of Mr Peasemarsh's either, even when they
made Robert turn out his pockets in an archway and show the
guineas.

'I don't see nothing,' she said. 'You've gone out of your senses,
you two! There ain't any gold there - only the poor child's hands,
all over crock and dirt, and like the very chimbley. Oh, that I
should ever see the day!'

And the children thought this very noble of Martha, even if rather
wicked, till they remembered how the Fairy had promised that the
servants should never notice any of the fairy gifts. So of course
Martha couldn't see the gold, and so was only speaking the truth,