But no such misfortune occurred. The men had evidently only boarded the boat to search for the boy, for they landed again before the steamer started, and Toby had the satisfaction of seeing their backs as they walked away from the pier. It was some time before he recovered from the fright which the sight of them gave him; but when he did his thoughts and hopes far outstripped the steamer, which, it seemed, was going so slowly, and he longed to see Guilford with an impatience that could hardly be restrained. At last he could see the spire of the little church on the hill, and when the steamer rounded the point, affording a full view of the town, and sounded her whistle as a signal for those on the shore to come to the pier, Toby could hardly restrain himself from jumping up and down and shouting in his delight. He was at the gangplank ready to land fully five minutes before the steamer was anywhere near the wharf, and when he recognized the first face on the pier what a happy boy he was! He was at home! The dream of the past ten weeks was at length realized, and neither Mr. Lord nor Mr. Castle had any terrors for him now. He ran down the gangplank before it was ready, and clasped every boy he saw there round the neck, and would have kissed them if they had shown an inclination to let him do so. Of course he was overwhelmed with questions, but before he would answer any he asked for Uncle Daniel and the others at home. Some of the boys ventured to predict that Toby would get a jolly good whipping for running away, and the only reply which the happy Toby made to that was: “I hope I will, an' then I'll feel as if I had kinder paid for runnin' away. If Uncle Dan'l will only let me stay with him again he may whip me every mornin', an' I won't open my mouth to holler.” The boys were impatient to hear the story of Toby's travels, but he refused to tell it them, saying: “I'll go home, an' if Uncle Dan'l forgives me for bein' so wicked I'll sit down this afternoon an' tell you all you want to know about the circus.” Then, far more rapidly than he had run away from it, Toby ran toward the home which he had called his ever since he could remember, and his heart was full almost to bursting as he thought that perhaps he would be told that he had forfeited all claim to it, and that he could never more call it “home” again. When he entered the old familiar sitting room Uncle Daniel was seated near the window, alone, looking out wistfully--as Toby thought--across the fields of yellow waving grain. Toby crept softly in, and, going up to the old man, knelt down and said, very humbly, and with his whole soul in the words, “Oh, Uncle Dan'l! if you'll only forgive me for bein' wicked an' runnin' away, an' let me stay here again--for it's all the home I ever had--I'll do everything you tell me to, an never whisper in meetin' or do anything bad.” And then he waited for the words which would seal his fate. They were not long in coming.