8o Turnaside Cottage.

know? What would he think if I neither came
nor sent? Big boy as I was, I felt terribly inclined
to cry. For once Nance took my part. “ How
you do flurry a body with your sudden changes
about! To-morrow, says a! as if the boy wasn’t
to cat another meal’s meat without earning it, and
not a trousers nor a boot fit for him to go to field
in. ’Twouldn’t ha’ cost you much, neither, to have
said last week, like a ordinary Christian, ‘Get the
boy ready, ’cause I’m a goin’ to make a farm-lad of
him. A fine farm-lad he looks for! And who is
to carry my water, and run my errands, and fetch
the cows, and feed the pigs ; and me not so young
nor so strong as I used to be ? will you tell me that,
John Bramble ?”

“T have passed my word to Simon Williams, so
it's no use talking,’ replied my father. “And,
Reuben, you will have to be sharp to time to-
morrow, for Williams is a man who will stand no
nonsense. But mind, if any one lifts a hand against
you—cither he or young Simon—let me know, and
Til settle it with them.” And my father took him-
self and his pipe off up the lane.

There was some comfort in that last speech of
his ; and I went to bed resolving to meet my new
life with as brave a heart as I could muster on the

morrow.