ly, and the boy whose
hat was lost, cried and sobbed most bitterly: for, he said, he belonged
to a cruel master, and should be beaten almost to death; so at last, to
make him quiet, I promised to give him mine.

'Well, sir, there we stayed, and I heard the same clock strike one, two,
three, and four. At last, two men called to us from the opposite side of
the river. They were the owners of the boat we had taken away, and were
in search of it. They got another boat, and came to us in a great
passion, swearing that if we did not pay them five shillings each for
the day's work we had hindered them of, and pay for the oar we had lost,
they would take us before a justice of the peace and have us sent to
prison. William Thompson had no money in his pocket, but I had the five
shillings my Aunt Eleanor had given me the day before at Mr. Black's to
buy the _Pantheon_; that they took, but not being enough to satisfy
their demand, they also took away my satchel with all my school books,
telling me where they lived, and that they would restore it safe as soon
as I brought them the rest of the money. The other boys were so poor and
so ragged, the men did not ask anything of them.

'It was near six o'clock when we got on shore, about the time I knew I
should be expected home from school. William Thompson went down on his
knees to beg I would not tell what had happened, promising at the same
time to bring the money to release my books the next morning. Indeed I
was so much ashamed of having played truant thus, that I was glad enough
to conceal it. The boy whose hat I had knocked off into the river would
not leave me till he had got mine, so I was forced to slip in at the
garden-gate and steal up the back stairs to my own room, that I might not
be seen to come home without my hat. I was now very hungry, yet afraid to
show myself; when I was called to tea, my legs trembled under me as I
went downstairs. I met my sister Molly in the hall, who gave me an apple,
and then asked me what I had had for dinner at school. I turned from her,
for I knew not what to answer; but as soon as I got into the parlour,
you, sir, told me to bring you my Latin grammar. Then I was forced to
answer, and a lie seemed easier than the truth: so I said I had left my
satchel and my books at school. I could not play nor amuse myself any
way all that evening, and when I took up my journal, what had I to set
down--that I had played truant, lost my hat and my money, a