roads he had reproached himself with cowardice, and resumed his
flight. This time he placed eight miles betwixt himself and Moncrief
House. Then he left the road to make a short cut through a
plantation, and went astray. After wandering until morning, thinking
dejectedly of the story of the babes in the wood, he saw a woman
working in a field, and asked her the shortest way to Scotland. She
had never heard of Scotland; and when he asked the way to Panley she
lost patience and threatened to set her dog at him. This discouraged
him so much that he was afraid to speak to the other strangers whom
he met. Having the sun as a compass, he oscillated between Scotland
and Panley according to the fluctuation of his courage. At last he
yielded to hunger, fatigue, and loneliness, devoted his remaining
energy to the task of getting back to school; struck the common at
last, and hastened to surrender himself to the doctor, who menaced
him with immediate expulsion. Gully was greatly concerned at having
to leave the place he had just run away from, and earnestly begged
the doctor to give him another chance. His prayer was granted. After
a prolonged lecture, the doctor, in consideration of the facts that
Gully had been seduced by the example of a desperate associate, that
he had proved the sincerity of his repentance by coming back of his
own accord, and had not been accessory to the concussion of the
brain from which Mr. Wilson supposed himself to be suffering,
accepted his promise of amendment and gave him a free pardon. It
should be added that Gully kept his promise, and, being now the
oldest pupil, graced his position by becoming a moderately studious,
and, on one occasion, even a sensible lad.

Meanwhile Mrs. Byron, not suspecting the importance of the doctor's
note, and happening to be in a hurry when it arrived, laid it by
unopened, intending to read it at her leisure. She would have