reminding him of the love of his mother and his sisters. The boy,
though all unused to weeping, was moved to tears. But the thought of
the hickory stick, and of his father's brawny arm, decided the
question. With his friend Myers he pressed on, farther and farther from
home, to Gerardstown.

CHAPTER II.

Youthful Adventures.

David at Gerardstown.--Trip to Baltimore.--Anecdotes.--He ships for
London.--Disappointment.--Defrauded of his Wages.--Escapes.--New
Adventures.--Crossing the River.--Returns Home.--His Reception.--A Farm
Laborer.--Generosity to his Father.--Love Adventure.--The Wreck of his
Hopes.--His School Education.--Second Love Adventure.--Bitter
Disappointment.--Life in the Backwoods.--Third Love Adventure.

The wagoner whom David had accompanied to Gerardstown was disappointed
in his endeavors to find a load to take back to Tennessee. He therefore
took a load to Alexandria, on the Potomac. David decided to remain at
Gerardstown until Myers should return. He therefore engaged to work for
a man by the name of John Gray, for twenty-five cents a day. It was
light farm-work in which he was employed, and he was so faithful in the
performance of his duties that he pleased the farmer, who was an old
man, very much.

Myers continued for the winter in teaming backward and forward between
Gerardstown and Baltimore, while David found a comfortable home of easy
industry with the farmer. He was very careful in the expenditure of his
money, and in the spring found that he had saved enough from his small
wages to purchase him a suit of coarse but substantial clothes. He
then, wishing to see a little more of the world, decided to make a trip
with the wagoner to Baltimore.

David had then seven dollars in his pocket, the careful savings of the
labors of half a year. He deposited the treasure with the wagoner for
safe keeping. They started on their journey, with a wagon heavily laden
with barrels of flour. As they were approaching a small settlement
called Ellicott's Mills, David, a little ashamed to approach the houses
in the ragged and mud-bespattered clothes which he wore on the way,
crept into the wagon to put on his better garments.

While there in the midst of the flour barrels piled up all around him,
the horses took fright at some strange sight which they encountered,
and in a terrible scare rushed down a steep hill, turned a sharp
corner, broke the tongue of the wagon and both of the axle-trees, and