“But what can a boy of fifteen do?”
“He can support himself. At any rate, he can try. The fact is, Nat, I don’t think Mr. McCracken a friend of mine. I may go to him, and ask if he will make any other arrangements for me. If he won’t, I will make them for myself.”
“What will you do to-night, Bernard?”
“I will go back to Mr. Snowdon’s—creep up to my room, if I have a chance, get out a bundle of clothes, and sleep in the barn. In the morning I can start early, and——”
“Where will you go?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Mr. Snowdon was in the habit of retiring early, and so were his family. Generally at nine o’clock they were in bed. When nine o’clock came he told Septimus to lock the door.
“But suppose Bernard comes back?”
“He can sleep out of doors for one night. It will teach him a lesson.”
He didn’t know that Bernard had already visited the house, made up a bundle of clothing, and withdrawn to the barn, where he had found a comfortable resting place on one of the lofts of hay.