weeks was at length realized,
and neither Mr. Lord nor Mr. Castle had any terrors for him now.

He ran down the gang-plank before it was ready and clasped every boy he
saw there round the neck, and would have kissed them, if they had shown
an inclination to let him do so.

Of course he was overwhelmed with questions, but before he would answer
any he asked for Uncle Daniel and the others at home.

Some of the boys ventured to predict that Toby would get a jolly good
whipping for running away, and the only reply which the happy Toby made
to that was,

"I hope I will, an' then I'll feel as if I had kinder paid for runnin'
away. If Uncle Dan'l will only let me stay with him again he may whip me
every mornin', an' I won't open my mouth to holler."

The boys were impatient to hear the story of Toby's travels, but he
refused to tell it them, saying,

"I'll go home; an' if Uncle Dan'l forgives me for bein' so wicked I'll
sit down this afternoon an' tell you all you want to know about the
circus."

Then, far more rapidly than he had run away from it, Toby ran toward
the home which he had called his ever since he could remember, and his
heart was full almost to bursting as he thought that perhaps he would be
told that he had forfeited all claim to it, and that he could never more
call it "home" again.

When he entered the old familiar sitting-room Uncle Daniel was seated
near the window, alone, looking out wistfully--as Toby thought--across
the fields of yellow waving grain.

Toby crept softly in, and, going up to the old man, knelt down and said,
very humbly, and with his whole soul in the words, "Oh, Uncle Dan'l! if
you'll only forgive me for bein' so wicked an' runnin' away, an' let me
stay here again--for it's all the home I ever had--I'll do everything
you tell me to, an' never whisper in meetin' or do anything bad."

And then he waited for the words which would seal his fate. They were
not long in coming.

"My poor boy," said Uncle Daniel, softly, as he stroked Toby's
refractory red hair, "my love for you was greater than I knew, and when
you left me I cried aloud to the Lord as if it had been my own flesh and
blood that had gone afar from me. Stay here, Toby, my son, and help to
support this poor old body as it goes down into the dark valley of the
shadow of death; and then, in the bright light of that glorious future,
Uncle Daniel will wait to go with you into the presence of Him who is
ever a father to th