ook out a
small, light trunk from one of his closets, and it was soon packed with
his new garments and a few specially dear personal valuables. There were
no books but the pocket Bible, in which his mother had so lately written
his name. For her sake he would take it with him, and for her sake he
would open it at least for five minutes every day.

Stealthily he crept down the staircase and through the broad halls,
dropped from a low window, and was soon in the open air. There was a
light still in the stable-boy's room, and he would so have help for the
harnessing of the horse, and an opportunity to leave a parting message
for his mother.

He moved slowly and silently. He looked in through the small panes, and
could see the boy bending over a book. He tapped gently. There was a
start, and the door was opened in a moment.

"I am going to town, Lars," he said, "and I want your help. Get up the
spring wagon as soon as you can."

The stable-boy looked suspiciously at his young master, and at the small
trunk he had set down beside him. "Where is Master Alf going?" asked the
boy anxiously. "Anything dreadful happened? Won't you be here for the
confirmation?"

"No; it's that that sends me away," was the answer. "I can't even seem
to make promises I don't intend to keep. I mean to be an honourable
gentleman, and I shall not begin that way. Come, hurry!"

"But stop, Master Alf! Why don't you make the promises and try to keep
them?" said the stable-boy.

"I suppose that is what you mean to do--eh?" said the young gentleman
scornfully.

"It would be my duty any way to live right," was the answer. "I can't
see that the promises make any difference. I ought to live right, I
know, and I mean to try. It won't be easy. That's all I understand about
it." The round, dull face of the boy expressed clear determination, and
he looked his young master full in the eyes as he spoke. "Perhaps
you've made up your mind to go wrong!" he added, with a doubtful look
at his companion.

"Do as I bid you, and get up the horse at once!" said Alf, in a
commanding tone. "Tell my mother what I have said to you, and tell her,
too, I have taken with me the Bible she gave me, and I'll read in it a
bit every day for her sake. _I_ believe in keeping promises. As for you,
you'll find the team at the usual stable; you must go in early to-morrow
for it."

"Where are you going, Master Alf?" urged the boy. "I'm afraid it's clean
out to the bad!"

"Tha