ve strong reason
to believe he is in alliance with the poachers. The first time I
get a chance, out he goes. I have only been waiting, for some time,
for an opportunity. I can't very well turn him out of his house
without some excuse.

"What did you say was the name of the mill wright at Lewes Mrs.
Whitney was wanting to get her son with?"

The schoolmaster repeated the name, which the squire jotted down in
a notebook.

"Look here, Shrewsbury," he said, "don't you mention to Mrs.
Whitney that you spoke to me about this matter. Do you understand?"

"I understand, sir," the schoolmaster said.

And he was not surprised when, a few days afterwards, his wife
received a letter from Mrs. Whitney, saying that Mr. Penfold had
come in to say that he had changed his mind, and that he would take
Reuben as his apprentice for twenty pounds; adding, to her
surprise, that he should give him half a crown a week for the first
year, and gradually raise his pay, as he considered that boys ought
to be able to earn a little money for themselves.

Reuben, therefore, was going to work on the following week. The
half a crown a week which he was to earn was an important matter
for his mother. For although she had found a cottage and opened a
little shop, as before, her receipts were extremely small, and she
had already begun to fear that she should be obliged to make
another move, Lewes being too well supplied with shops for a small
concern like hers to flourish. The half crown a week, however,
would pay her rent; and she expected that she should make, at any
rate, enough to provide food for herself and Reuben.

Mrs. Whitney had hoped that, although Lewes was but four miles from
the village, the story about the dog would not travel so far; for
it was not often that anyone from the village went over to the
town. In this, however, she was mistaken for, a week after Reuben
had gone to work, the foreman went to his master and said:

"I don't know whether you are aware, Mr. Penfold, about that new
boy; but I hear that he had to leave Tipping, where he was employed
by Squire Ellison, for poisoning the squire's dog."

"How did you hear it?" Mr. Penfold asked.

"William Jenkins heard it from a man named Thorne, who belongs to
the village, and whom he met at a public house, yesterday."

"William Jenkins had best not spend so much time in public houses,"
Mr. Penfold said shortly. "I heard the story before I saw the boy
and, from what I hear