CHAPTER IV.

WORKING ON A FARM TO EARN SOME MONEY-- CRUEL TREATMENT.

WHEN daylight came, Archie was far out of the town walking quickly
along the southern road. He figured that he had walked nearly six
miles in the two hours since he had let himself out of the back door
at home, and, as he looked ahead, he planned that he would walk at
least thirty miles every day. Of course, he had never done much
walking before, or he would have known better than to have expected to
accomplish so much in twelve hours, but he felt fresh and full of
strength this morning, and nothing seemed too hard to accomplish. As
yet he had not regretted his departure from home. The excitement of it
all, and the adventurous side of his exploit, had kept him interested,
and made him feel that he was a real hero. But he was not so foolish
as to imagine that there would not be times when he would regret
having set out for New York. He was too old and too sensible for his
age to allow his ambition to run away with him entirely, and he fully
expected to meet with many great discouragements. "But I'm sure of one
thing," he said to himself, as he walked along, "I never will return
home until I have something to show for the trip. I won't have the
club boys and the neighbours saying that Archie Dunn had to come home
discouraged. If I return without accomplishing anything, I will be
held up to the whole town as a boy who made a fool of himself by not
taking his friends' advice, and I never will be made an example of if
I can help it." And Archie walked faster as he thought of the
possibility of failure.

When seven o'clock came he was passing through the county-seat, but