e country. And for the first time it began faintly to dawn upon
him that he had acted very foolishly.

"But it's too late now," he said to himself; "I'd die rather than go
home and ask to be forgiven, and be treated by them all as if I deserved
to be sent to prison. I've got enough money to keep me going for a day
or two, anyway. If it was summer--haymaking-time, for instance, I
suppose it would be easy enough to get work. But now----" and he
shivered as he gazed over the bare, dreary, lifeless-looking fields on
all sides, where it was difficult to believe that the green grass could
ever spring again, or the golden grain wave in the sunshine--"I really
wonder what work there can be to do in the winter. The ground's as hard
as iron; and oh, my goodness, isn't it cold?"

Suddenly some little way in front he descried two figures coming towards
him. The one was Jowett; the other, an older, stouter man, must be
Farmer Eames. Geoff's heart began to beat faster. Would he be met by a
refusal, and told to make his way back to the station? And if so, where
would he go, what should he do? It had all seemed so easy when he
planned it at home--he had felt so sure he would find what he wanted at
once; he had somehow forgotten it would no longer be summer when he got
out into the country again! For the first time in his life he realized
what hundreds, nay, thousands of boys, no older than he, must go through
every day--poor homeless fellows, poor and homeless through no fault of
their own in many cases.

"If ever I'm a rich man," thought Geoff, "I'll think of to-day."

And his anxiety grew so great that by the time the two men had come up
to him his usually ruddy face had become almost white.

Jowett looked at him curiously.

"You look uncommon cold, Jim," he said. "This 'ere's Jim Jeffreys as
I've been a-talking to you of, Mr. Eames," he said, by way of
introduction to the farmer.

"Ah, indeed!" Farmer Eames replied; "seems a well-grown lad, but looks
delicate. Is he always so white-like?"

"Bless you! no," said Jowett; "he's only a bit done up with--with one
thing and another. We made a hearly start of it, and it's chilly this
morning."

The farmer grunted a little.

"He'd need to get used to starting early of a morning if he was to be
any use to me," he said half-grudgingly. But even this sounded hopeful
to Geoff.

"Oh, I don't mind getting up early," he said quickly. "I'm not used to
lying in bed late."

"There's e