ouse, going to leave his mother, going to leave the children, to
depart for the great city.

His mother was up before him. She was even more sad than he was, for
she could see plainer than he the perils that environed him, and her
maternal heart, in spite of the reasonable confidence she had in his
integrity and good principles, trembled for his safety.

As he ate his breakfast, his mother repeated the warnings and the good
lessons she had before imparted. She particularly cautioned him to
keep out of bad company. If he found that his companions would lie and
swear, he might depend upon it they would steal, and he had better
forsake them at once. This was excellent advice, and Bobby had
occasion at a later period to call it to his sorrowing heart.

"Here is three dollars, Bobby; it is all the money I have. Your fare
to Boston will be one dollar, and you will have two left to pay the
expenses of your first trip. It is all I have now," said Mrs. Bright.

"I will not take the whole of it. You will want it yourself. One
dollar is enough. When I find Mr. Bayard, I shall do very well."

"Yes, Bobby, take the whole of it."

"I will take just one dollar, and no more," replied Bobby, resolutely,
as he handed her the other two dollars.

"Do take it, Bobby."

"No, mother; it will only make me lazy and indifferent."

Taking a clean shirt, a pair of socks, and a handkerchief in his
bundle, he was ready for a start.

"Good by, mother," said he, kissing her and taking her hand. "I shall
try and come home on Saturday, so as to be with you on Sunday."

Then kissing the children, who had not yet got up, and to whom he had
bidden adieu the night before, he left the house. He had seen the
flood of tears that filled his mother's eyes, as he crossed the
threshold; and he could not help crying a little himself. It is a sad
thing to leave one's home, one's mother, especially, to go out into the
great world; and we need not wonder that Bobby, who had hardly been out
of Riverdale before, should weep. But he soon restrained the flowing
tears.

"Now or never!" said he, and he put his best foot forward.

It was an epoch in his history, and though he was too young to realize
the importance of the event, he seemed to feel that what he did now was
to give character to his whole future life.

It was a bright and beautiful morning--somehow, it is always a bright
and beautiful morning when boys leave their homes to commence t