"Then see that you do. And you needn't bother to stop for supper--you've several hours' lost time to make up," said Peabody nastily."Now go!"

He shook the boy till his teeth rattled and then released him with apowerful sling that sent him spinning into the dust. Bruised andshaken, Bob picked himself up and started for the barn.

"You hold your tongue a bit much better, or something'll come your way,"said Peabody shortly, eyeing Betty with disfavor and turning on hisheel at a shout of "Ho, Boss!" from the foreman of the balers.

"Hateful!" cried Betty stormily, climbing down from the gate. "He'sthe most absolutely hateful man that ever lived! I wonder if he couldsend Bob back to the poorhouse?"

The same thought was troubling Bob, she found, when after supper shewent out to the barn and climbed the loft ladder to see him. She hadbrought him some bread and water, the latter contributed by thePeabody pump and the bread saved from Betty's own meal.

"Do you know, Morgan," confided the boy, wiping the heavyperspiration from his face with a distressingly scorching looking blackcotton handkerchief, "I've been thinking over what old Peabody exclaimed.He might take it into his head to send me back to the poorhouse. Hereally needs a youthfuler boy, one he can slam about more. I'm gettingso I can fight back. I don't fancy hanging on here till he makes uphis mind to get another boy, and running away from the poorhouseisn't a simple matter. I'd much better make the plunge while there's goodswimming."