“Goodness!” said Anne, sitting up, bright-eyed with sleep. “George! Wake up!”

It wasn’t long before they were all sitting round a little fire, from which came a very nice smell. Dick was frying bacon and eggs, and the smell made everyone very hungry. Anne had boiled a kettle on her little stove, and made some tea. She came down the steps with a tray on which she had put the teapot and hot water.

“Anne always does things properly,” said Dick. “Here, hold your plate out, Ju — your bacon’s done. Take your nose out of the way, Timmy, you silly dog — you’ll get it splashed with hot fat again. Do look after Timmy when I’m cooking, George. He’s already wolfed one slice of bacon.”

“Well, it saved you cooking it,” said George. “I say, aren’t there a lot of caravans here now? They must have come last night.”

They stared round at the field. Besides the snake-man’s caravan, and Bufflo’s and Mr. India-rubber’s, there were four or five more.

One interested the children very much. It was a brilliant yellow with red flames painted on the sides. The name on it was “Alfredo, the Fire Eater”.

“I imagine him to be a great big fierce chap,” said Dick. “A regular fire-eater, with a terribly ferocious temper, an enormous voice and a great stride when he walks.”

“He will probably be a skinny little fellow who trots along like a pony,” said Julian.

“There’s someone coming out of his caravan now,” said George. “Look.”

“It’s a woman,” said Anne. “His wife, I expect. How tiny she is — rather sweet. She looks Spanish, she’s so dark.”

“This must be the fire-eater, coming behind her,” said George. “Surely it is! And he’s JUST like you imagined him, Dick. How clever of you!”

A great big fellow came down the steps behind his tiny wife. He certainly looked very fierce, for he had a lion-like mane of tawny hair, and a big red face with large, gleaming eyes. He took enormous strides as he went, and his little wife had to run to keep up with him.

“Just my idea of a fire-eater,” said Dick, pleased. “I think we’ll keep out of his way until we know if he also dislikes children, like the snake-man. What a tiny wife he has! I bet he makes her run around him, and wait on him hand and foot.”

“Well, he’s fetching water from the stream for her, anyway,” said Anne. “Two huge pails. My word, he really does look like a fire-eater, doesn’t he?”

“There’s somebody else, look,” said Dick. “Now who would he be? Look at him going to the stream — he walks like a tiger or a cat — all slinky and powerful.”

“The man who can set himself free from ropes no matter how he’s tied!” said Anne. “I’m sure he is.”

It was most exciting to watch the new arrivals. They all seemed to know one another. They stopped to talk, they laughed, they visited one another’s caravans, and finally three of the women set off together with baskets.