"It makes her sleepy or cross. I always run away when she has been drinking—when I can, but sometimes she locks the door and fastens me in. Then, if I can, I hide under the bed."
"Poor boy! you have a hard time of it. Now, Jack, can you keep a secret?"
Jack nodded, and his face assumed a cunning look, for the poor boy had more than once felt obliged to practice dissimulation, in the rough school in which he had been trained.
"Yes," he answered.
"Then I am going to tell you a secret. Your grandfather sent me out here to find you."
"He sent you!" ejaculated Jack.
"Yes."
"But I thought he sent that gentleman—the one I pointed out to you."
"No; that gentleman, as you call him, is your mother's cousin. He is a near relation of yours."
"But he spoke to Peggy about carrying me back to my grandfather."