“Well, well, well!” said Dick, as they got through the hedge. “What an astonishing thing! I couldn’t believe my eyes when young Jo appeared, could you? I hope George won’t mind. She was always rather jealous of Jo and the things she could do.”

The two girls were amazed at the boys’ news. George was not too pleased. She preferred Jo at a distance rather than near. She liked and admired her but rather unwillingly. Jo was too like George herself for George to give her complete friendliness!

“Well, fancy Jo, Jo herself being here!” said Anne, smiling. “Oh, Julian — it was a good thing she arrived when she did! I don’t like that bit about Bufflo cracking his whip at you. He might have made you bald on the top!”

“Oh, it was only a few hairs,” said Julian. “But it gave me quite a shock. And I think it gave the fair people a shock too when Jo arrived like a little hurricane, yelling at the top of her voice, and flinging herself on poor old Dick. She almost knocked him over!”

“She’s not a bad kid,” said Dick, “but she never stops to think. I wonder if the people she stays with know where she’s gone. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if she just disappeared without a word.”

“Like the two scientists,” said Julian, with a grin. “Gosh, I can’t get over it! Jo was the very last person I would expect here.”

“Well, not really, if you think a bit,” said Anne. “Her father is a gypsy, isn’t he — and her mother was in a circus, she told us so. She trained dogs, don’t you remember, Julian? So it’s quite natural for Jo to have relations like the fair people. But just fancy having a fire-eater for an uncle!”

“Yes — I’d forgotten that Jo’s mother was in a circus,” said Julian. “I expect she’s got peculiar relations all over the country! I wonder what she’s telling them about us.”

“She’s singing Dick’s praises anyway,” said George. “She always thought the world of Dick. Perhaps the fair people won’t be quite so unfriendly if they know that Jo is fond of us.”

“Well, we’re in a bit of a fix,” said Dick. “We can’t stay in this field, or the farmer will be after us again — and I can’t see the fair people lending us their horses — and without horses we can’t leave this field!”

“We could ask the farmer to lend us his horses,” suggested Anne.

“We’d have to pay him, though, and I don’t see why we should,” said Julian. “After all, it isn’t our fault that our caravans were moved here.”

“I think this is a horrid and unfriendly place,” said Anne. “And I don’t want to stay here another day. I’m not enjoying it a bit.”

“Cheer up!” said Dick. “Never say die!”

“Woof,” said Timmy.

“Look — someone’s coming through that gap in the hedge down there by the lane,” said George, pointing. “It’s Jo!”