and severe, but yet had a sort of kindness in it; "whence do you come so
early, and whither are you going?"

Little Daffydowndilly was a boy of very ingenuous disposition, and had
never been known to tell a lie in all his life. Nor did he tell one now.
He hesitated a moment or two, but finally confessed that he had run away
from school, on account of his great dislike to Mr. Toil; and that lie
was resolved to find some place in the world where he should never see or
hear of the old schoolmaster again.

"O, very well, my little friend!" answered the stranger. "Then we will
go together; for I, likewise, have had a good deal to do with Mr. Toil,
and should be glad to find some place where he was never heard of."

Our friend Daffydowndilly would have been better pleased with a companion
of his own age, with whom he might have gathered flowers along the
roadside, or have chased butterflies, or have done many other things to
make the journey pleasant. But he had wisdom enough to understand that
he should get along through the world much easier by having a man of
experience to show him the way. So he accepted the stranger's proposal,
and they walked on very sociably together.

They had not gone far, when the road passed by a field where some
haymakers were at work, mowing down the tall grass, and spreading it out
in the sun to dry. Daffydowndilly was delighted with the sweet smell of
the new-mown grass, and thought how much pleasanter it must be to make
hay in the sunshine, under the blue sky, and with the birds singing
sweetly in the neighboring trees and bushes, than to be shut up in a
dismal school-room, learning lessons all day long, and continually
scolded by old Mr. Toil. But, in the midst of these thoughts, while he