"Humph! That Bradley boy is going to the dogs as fast as he can go."
"Deacon Slide thinks he is a very good boy."
"Well, the deacon don't know everything. I'm goin' to make Nat toe the mark until he is twenty-one. After that I'll wash my hands o' him."
The farmer finished his supper and then went out to see that everything was all right around the farm for the night. A little later he took a lamp and went upstairs. Tiptoeing his way through an upper hall he came to a pause in front of Nat's room.
"Asleep, jest as I thought," he told himself, after listening to the boy's breathing. Then he peeped into the room, to behold Nat lying under the cover of the bed, with his face turned to the wall.
"I'll give him another talkin' to in the mornin'," the farmer told himself; and then retired, with no thought of what was going to happen before the sun arose upon another day.
CHAPTER III
NAT LEAVES THE FARM
Farmer Balberry was mistaken; Nat was not asleep, nor was there any thought of sleep in the boy's mind.