llars given him to throw away than any other boy in the county.

"I'd treat a boy real well. I wouldn't make him work as tight as he
could put in," pursued Willy, overcome with dreadful recollections.

"Nor I, neither! Guess I wouldn't!"

"Poh! what do you know about it, Fred? Your father's rich, and don't
keep a pig!"

"What if he don't? What hurt does a pig do?"

"Why, you have to carry out swill to 'em. Then there's the wood-box, and
there's the corn to husk, and the cows to bring up! It makes a fellow
ache all over."

"No worse'n errands, Bill! Guess you never came any nearer blistering
your feet than I did last summer, time we had so much company. Mother's
a case for thinking up errands."

"Well, Fred, we've started to run away."

"Should think it's likely we had."

"I'm going 'cause I can't stand it to be whipped any more; but you don't
get whipped, Fred. What are _you_ going for?"

"Why, to seek my fortune," replied Fred, spitting, in a manly fashion,
into a clump of smartweed. "Always meant to, you know, soon's I got so I
could take care of myself; and now I can cipher as far as
_substraction_, what more does a fellow want?"

"Don't believe you can spell 'phthisic,' though."

As this remark had nothing to do with the case in point, Fred took no
notice of it. What if he couldn't spell as well as Willy? He was a year
and a half older, and had the charge of this expedition.

"Which way you mean to point, Billy?"

"Why, I thought we were going to sea. That's what you said; and I put a
lot of nutcakes in my pocket to eat 'fore we got to the ship."

"You did? Well, give us some, then, for I'm about starved."

"So'm I, too."

And one would hardly have doubted it, to see them both eat. The
doughnuts were sweet and spicy, and cheering to the spirits; the young
travellers did not once stop to consider that they might need them more
by and by. Children are not, as a general rule, very deeply concerned
about the future. Birds of the air may have some idea where to-morrow's
dinner is coming from; but these boys neither knew nor cared.

"First rate," remarked Fred, as the last doughnut disappeared. "But I
don't know about going to sea. It's plaguy tough work climbing ropes,
they say, and I heard of a boy that got whipped so hard he jumped
overboard."

"Let's not go, then," cried Willy.

"Catch me!" said Fred. "I've been thinking of the lumb'ring business.
They make money fast as you can wink up there