ld seek employment elsewhere.

CHAPTER XI.

THE RUNAWAY.

By the next morning Ralph felt better. He was able to take the matter of
his discharge philosophically, and he was even hopeful that the next week
would see him in a better situation than he now occupied.

He went at his duties with a willing spirit, resolved that there should be
no cause for complaint during his last days on the bridge. Only one thing
made him feel bad, and that was that he could not prove that Percy and not
himself had been to blame for the row.

But Ralph soon learned that many of the village folks who used the bridge
daily sided with him. Some of these were very outspoken in their opinion of
the committee's actions.

"Under the squire's thumb, all of 'em!" said Bart Haycock, the village
blacksmith. "We ought to have a new committee, and maybe we will have at
the coming election."

But all this talk did not help Ralph. He had received notice, and in three
days his duties on the bridge would come to an end. And the change would
also hurt Bob Sanderson, who would now have either to pay for his board or
go elsewhere.

"Who is to take your place?" asked Sanderson, when he came to relieve Ralph
in the evening.

"I don't know, Mr. Sanderson," returned the young bridge tender. "But I
hope, whoever it is, he keeps you as helper."

"Well, that depends," returned the old man. "I wouldn't care to work for
everybody, say Dan Pickley, for instance."

"Do you think Dan Pickley is after the job?" questioned Ralph, quickly.

"He was after it before, and he ain't doing much now."

"I imagine Squire Paget will give him the position if he wishes it," mused
Ralph. "He and the squire are quite thick."

"That's because Dan is willing to do any work the squire wishes done,"
responded Bob Sanderson. "That fellow will do anything for pay."

That evening Ralph and his mother had a talk, in which it was decided that
old Bob Sanderson should be allowed to remain at the cottage at the nominal
amount of a dollar per week for board, until he managed to obtain another
situation, or until jobs in his line became more numerous.

When Sanderson was told of this he was very grateful. As he had no other
boarding-place in view, he gladly accepted the offer, and promised that the
widow and her son should lose nothing by their kindness.

On the following morning Ralph was collecting toll, when a man approached
the bridge, and began to watch proceedings. T