The other reason was that everyone on the railway had been kind to them--the Station Master, the Porter, and the old gentleman who waved.

And the people on the canal were anything but kind.
The people on the canal were, of course, the bargees, who steered the slow barges up and down, or walked beside the old horses that trampled up the mud of the towing-path, and strained at the long tow-ropes.
Peter had once asked one of the bargees the time, and had been told to "get out of that," in a tone so fierce that he did not stop to say anything about his having just as much right on the towing-path as the man himself.

Indeed, he did not even think of saying it till some time later.
Then another day when the children thought they would like to fish in the canal, a boy in a barge threw lumps of coal at them, and one of these hit Phyllis on the back of the neck.

She was just stooping down to tie up her bootlace--and though the coal hardly hurt at all it made her not care very much about going on fishing.
On the bridge, however, Roberta felt quite safe, because she could look down on the canal, and if any boy showed signs of meaning to throw coal, she could duck behind the parapet.
Presently there was a sound of wheels, which was just what she expected.
The wheels were the wheels of the Doctor's dogcart, and in the cart, of course, was the Doctor.
He pulled up, and called out:-- "Hullo, head nurse! Want a lift ?" "I wanted to see you," said Bobbie.
"Your mother's not worse, I hope ?" said the Doctor.
"No--but--" "Well, skip in, then, and we'll go for a drive." Roberta climbed in and the brown horse was made to turn round--which it did not like at all, for it was looking forward to its tea--I mean its oats.
"This IS jolly," said Bobbie, as the dogcart flew along the road by the canal.
"We could throw a stone down any one of your three chimneys," said the Doctor, as they passed the house.
"Yes," said Bobbie, "but you'd have to be a jolly good shot." "How do you know I'm not ?" said the Doctor.

"Now, then, what's the trouble ?" Bobbie fidgeted with the hook of the driving apron.
"Come, out with it," said the Doctor.
"It's rather hard, you see," said Bobbie, "to out with it; because of what Mother said." "What DID Mother say ?" "She said I wasn't to go telling everyone that we're poor.