Tom at once started for home at the top of his speed; and so eager was he to return to the farmer as soon as possible, that he took leave of his mother in a very hurried and unceremonious manner. Catching up his valise, he ran back to the office, where he arrived just as Mr. Hayes was returning from the store-house with his empty wagon.
“Back again so soon,” said he, with one of his good-natured smiles. “What a mighty good boy you’d be to run errands!”
Tom doubted this; but being too much out of breath to reply, he put his valise into the wagon, and accompanied the farmer into the office. As soon as Mr. Newcombe had paid him for the fifty bushels of potatoes he had just brought in, he was ready to start.
“Good-by, father!” said Tom. “I’m off, now. I’ll know something about farming when I come back!”
“That’s true as natur’,” said Mr. Hayes. “I’ll take good care on him, an’ I’ll l’arn him to raise taters as good as ’em I just sold you.”
The farmer climbed into his wagon, gathered up his reins, cracked his whip, and Tom was whirled off toward his new home.
The boy’s cup of happiness was now full to the brim. After a life of disappointments, the wheel of fortune had at last made a revolution in his favor. That something which he had waited for so long, had finally “turned up,” and from that time forward he would find no obstacles in his way—there would be nothing to trouble him. He felt as if he were about entering upon a new existence; and he regarded his former life as utterly wasted. He forgot the sorrow and vexation that had been occasioned by his recent failure; and when he remembered that he had been weak enough to shed tears when he discovered that his game rooster was a humbug, he could not help feeling ashamed of himself.
In order to give Mr. Hayes an idea of the object he had in view, Tom told him the story of the stock raiser in Iowa, which made the farmer open his eyes wide with astonishment.
“How much would so much stock sell for?” he asked.
Tom settled back in his seat, put on a very thoughtful look, and answered—