out, climbed some steps, and disappeared into a lighted house. All along the street, the lights from the houses shone down upon them. ‘Where we going?’ Janey asked after a while. Hema shrugged his shoulders helplessly. He'd previously thought of going to the railway station and getting a ticket for Taumarunui. That was where Mum came from, where his Nanny George lived. He'd had enough money for the train saved up, but now that Janey was with him, he knew that the money wouldn't stretch to buying two tickets. Maybe, he could put Janey on the train. Somehow, he would follow after her. Maybe … He made up his mind. Yes, he'd still head for the railway station. There was nowhere else to go. ‘Where we going!’ Janey asked again, persistently. He told her, and she gasped. ‘Are we going to walk all the way? All the way, Hema?’ He nodded. ‘It's not that far,’ he told his sister. ‘If you get tired, I'll give you a piggy-back. We'll manage. It's only to the railway station.’ ‘I won't be tired,’ Janey told him. Hema smiled at her. Janey smiled back. Their happiness made their feet light as they walked past the lighted windows, the rows of singing windows, toward the city. Hema hadn't known why or when he had begun to dislike Uncle Pera. Most times, Uncle Pera took no notice of him and Janey; and Mum used to hurry up and get them their tea before he got home. If she was running late, Hema would have to dress Janey for bed himself, and he couldn't help feeling that Mum was pushing them further