lied to some things, but not to all. This
new master lived in Lancashire, and thither young Abraham was sent in
due course. A month or so passed away, and all seemed to promise a
satisfactory arrangement, until one morning Abe heard a conversation in
the family, from which he gathered that his master was going to
Marsden, where he expected to meet Mr. Lockwood at a certain inn, and
make final arrangements for Abe's apprenticeship. This opened the old
sore; Abe couldn't rest: "he wouldn't stay, that he wouldn't, he would
be off home;" but how was he to get there? he didn't know the way, and
thirty miles or more was a long journey in those days. He determined
therefore to keep his eye on his master until he saw him off for
Marsden, which was more than half the distance to his home, and then he
set away after him on the same road, never losing sight of him for one
minute. On they went mile after mile along the roads until they
reached Marsden, where he saw his master enter the inn. Now Abe had to
pass in front of this very house, but he didn't want to be discovered,
so he adroitly turned up his coat collar over the side of his face, and
pulled down his cap, and set off running as fast as he could, and just
as he was passing the inn he took one hurried look from under his mask,
and there, in the open window, he saw two men side by side, his master
and his father. Of course he concluded they must have seen him, and
would be out immediately to fetch him back; this idea only lent speed
to his weary feet, so that he ran faster than ever on through the
solitary street of the old village, away out on the road, never turning
to look behind, lest he might see all Marsden coming in pursuit of him.
Exhausted nature however at length compelled him to slacken his pace,
and on turning to look back he found he had only been pursued by his
own fears. The two men sat still in the inn, talking over and settling
the terms of the apprenticeship, fixing the time when the indenture
should be signed and the boy bound to his new master. Each of them
took his journey homeward; neither of them was prepared for what
awaited him. One of them found on arriving home that Abe had gone, and
the other discovered the very opposite, that he had come, and both were
alike vexed.

It is likely that poor Abe would have had to trot back again the next
day if his mother had not taken his part. Dear woman, she had been a
whole month without seeing her b