“The doctor told me to say that the feller who is to help the deacon will be expected to-morrow morning. Work is awfully behind at the deacon’s. But there, I don’t s’pose it matters much with him, as they say the doctor has given up hope of him getting up ag’in.” Rob heard this bit of news with a sorrowful heart, and promised he would be promptly on hand the next day. As he would be away after that day and not be able to attend to the work on the land, Rob felt anxious to make a beginning that afternoon, so he asked Larry to take hold with him. This the latter did reluctantly, while Tom and Jerry positively refused to work. Already Rob was beginning to feel that right at home he was likely to have serious trouble. Still, he did not feel that the time had come for him to express himself as he would like to have done. Larry took his shovel and began work by the side of Rob, though he moved slowly and did his work so poorly that Little Hickory said nothing when finally he threw down the tool, saying: “I’m too tired to work to-day.” Rob kept steadily at his task until nearly sunset, and having the satisfaction of knowing he had quite a patch spaded up, he was about to start toward the house, when he saw a horse and wagon approaching. The occupants of the wagon were the two selectmen who had posted up the notice for them to leave Basinburg that day. “What are you doing here?” demanded the spokesman, as he stopped his horse, which began to nibble at the grass as soon as its head was free. “At work, sir, getting ready to do a little planting, as----” “Weren’t you ordered to move out of these regions, young man?” “We have moved, sir,” replied Rob. The chairman of the board of selectmen was about to reply, when his companion touched him on the arm, and a hurried consultation took place between them. Just what they said Rob was unable to tell, but he knew well enough that it had reference to their present situation, for at its conclusion the twain drove away without speaking to him again. “P’raps you’ve learned where you are,” said Rob to himself, as he went to the house, where he found the best supper awaiting him that he had ever eaten in his life, his recent work having given him an appetite he had never felt before. It was a happy company of friends that rested under the old red house roof that night, even if the majority of them slept on pallets of straw. The following morning Rob was astir early, feeling pretty sore after his work of yesterday, but the sun was not very high when he reached the home of Deacon Cornhill to begin his first day’s real work. He learned that the deacon was very ill. He did not see Mary, but was told that she was getting along very well with her work.