Henry Cobb's to make a deal with
him for his fleece, he went out to his buggy, got in and drove away.

Pen went back to his work in the field with a sinking heart. It had
not before occurred to him that Grandpa Walker would object to his
leaving him whenever he should find satisfactory and profitable
employment elsewhere. But it was now evident that, if he went, he must
go against his grandfather's will. His first opportunity had already
been blocked. What opposition he would meet with in the future he
could only conjecture.

With Old Charlie hitched to a stone-boat, he was drawing stones from
a neighbor's field to the roadside, where men were engaged in laying
up a stone wall. He had not been long at work since the dinner hour,
when, chancing to look up, he saw Robert Starbird driving down the
hill from Henry Cobb's on his way back to Chestnut Hill. A sudden
impulse seized him. He threw the reins across Old Charlie's back, left
him standing willingly in his tracks, and started on a run across the
lot to head off Robert Starbird at the roadside. The man saw him
coming and stopped his horse.

Panting a little, both from exertion and excitement, Pen leaped the
fence and came up to the side of the buggy.

"Mr. Starbird," he said, "if that job is still open, I--I think I'll
take it--if you'll give it to me."

The man, looking at him closely, saw determination stamped on his
countenance.

"Why, that's all right," he said. "You could have the job; but what
about your grandfather Walker? He doesn't seem to want you to leave."

"I know. But my mother's willing. And I'll make it up to Grandpa
Walker some way. I can't stay here, Mr. Starbird; and--I'm not going
to. They're good enough to me here. I've no complaint to make. But--I
want a real job and a fair chance."

He paused, out of breath. The intensity of his desire, and the
fixedness of his purpose were so sharply manifest that the man in the
wagon did not, for the moment, reply. He placed his whip slowly in its
socket, and seemed lost in thought. At last he said:

"Henry Cobb has been telling me about you. He gives you a very good
name."

He paused a moment and then added:

"I'll tell you what I'll do. If you'll give the old gentleman fair
notice--and not sneak away from him like a vagabond--I won't harbor
any runaways--why, I'll see that you get the job."

Pen drew a long breath, and his face lighted up with pleasure.

"Thank you, Mr. Starbird!" he exclaime