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'But if we don't look for a place we shall have to sleep here; and I suppose you won't like that either,' said Hugh.

'Of course I shall not,' whimpered Harry. 'I don't know what may come to us if we stay here -bears or wolves or something. I am frightened, and I wish we had never come away from Uncle Tom's. I do. I shall go back home.'

'You can't find the way back home by yourself, I am sure,' said Hugh, very unkindly; 'for I shan't go with you, and we must be miles and miles away from Uncle Tom's house, so you may just as well come with me, or I shall leave you alone here.'

'I can't,' still cried Harry. 'I am so tired, I can't.'

So Hugh moved away, leaving Harry crying by the roadside; but after a time the little boy got up and hobbled after his brother, for he thought that anything was better than being left alone, because of the bears and wolves, though I think he need not have been frightened about either of those beasts, for there were never any bears in England that I know of, excepting in the Zoological Gardens, and all the wolves have been dead many hundred years ago.

It so happened, after all, that the boys had not

very far to walk before coming to a sleeping-place. They went into a large field, where the hay had just been carried, and at the end of the field they saw a place which looked like a barn. When they came to it, they found that it was quite empty, excepting for a pile of hurdles heaped in one corner, and an old waggon, which was nearly worn out. Near the barn was a newly-made hay-rick.

Supposing we take some of the hay and fill the waggon with it, and then we shall be warm and comfortable?' said Hugh.

Harry thought this would be a capital plan, and the two boys began at once to pull the hay out of the rick and carry it in armfuls to the waggon. Hugh and Harry had, as we know, lived all their lives in London, and it did not seem to them that they were doing anything wrong by pulling the rick to pieces. They never thought for a moment whether the hay belonged to any one or not. So while the farmer was at home, comfortably taking his pipe, after his day's work, these boys were destroying his stack; and would not he have been angry had he seen them? When they had filled the waggon, Hugh said

'What a big hole we have made, and what a lot we have scattered about? Supposing some

one comes and finds it out, don't you think we shall catch it?'

It had only just occurred to him that perhaps they had no right to do as they had done.

Let us clear up the mess, then, and stuff it into the hole,' said Harry.

So after that the damage did not look so much to them, but any one else could see it.

Then, in a very

After that they climbed up the sides of the waggon and put themselves to bed,-without any prayers or any thought of God. short time, they fell fast asleep. It was a very comfortable bed, quite as comfortable as any the boys had ever had at home, and they slept so soundly after all their walking that they never stirred or woke until they were raised up by a very rough angry voice saying

'Who can have been at the rick, I wonder, since last night? I left things tidy as may be. It's some thief of a youngster, I'll be bound, has been stealing my hay. Only let me catch him; that's all. Only let me catch him, and I'll skin him, as sure as my name's Bill Hawker.'

CHAPTER XI.

THE BOYS ESCAPE BEING SKINNED.'

H

UGH and Harry lay crouched down in the waggon scarcely daring to breathe, lest the farmer should see them and skin them. They thought Bill Hawker would never go away; he was such a time talking about the hole in the stack; and he said the same things over and over and over again, although everybody there had heard him.

At last, to the boys' great terror, the farmer, after a great many more threats of skinning the boys when he caught them, declared that the rick must be re-made; for it would fall lopsided from the hay having been pulled from underneath; and he ordered the man who was with him to get out the other men and set about it at once-while he himself stayed there until their coming; so the farmer sat down to smoke a pipe; and there

seemed no chance of the field being clear until the hay-rick was re-made.

The man went, and Hugh ventured to peep out of the waggon. He caught sight of Mr. Hawker, and hid himself again; then he said in a whisper to Harry

'He is so awfully fat, Hal, you can have no idea! his stomach is as big as-as big as six stomachs! I don't believe he could run; he puffs and pants even as he walks. If the men come back, some of them are sure to see us, and then we shall be skinned. We had better try to run for it now.'

'But if he catches us, he will skin us,' said Harry, trembling; 'he said he would, you know.'

'We must try. I shall try at all events; if you don't follow, of course he will look for you in the waggon, so he will pay you off, as he won't be able to catch me.'

So said Hugh with his usual selfishness; and Harry could only cry and say he was very unkind, as he was, indeed.

So there was nothing for Harry but to do as Hugh had said; but first he, in his turn, peeped over the side of the waggon to be sure that the farmer was indeed too fat to run. He was very fat. He was sitting on a pile of hurdles outside

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