he found
fault with me. He was always blaming me for something I didn't do.
It is all a lie of the watchman's about my setting the house on
fire. Such a thing never entered my mind. Father wouldn't let
me in, and I had to sleep somewhere. He wouldn't speak a word for me
in the Mayor's office. So it's all his fault that I am to be tried
before the Court. But I'm not going to be sent to the Penitentiary.
Father is my bail for a thousand dollars. I shall be sorry if he has
to pay it; but it will be better for him to do that, than for me to
go to the Penitentiary for nothing. So, good-by, mother, I love you!
You have always been good to me. If father had been as good, I would
have been a better boy. Don't grieve about me. It's better that I
should leave home. You'll all be happier. If I ever return to you, I
will be different from what I am now. Farewell mother! Don't forget
me. I will never forget you. Don't grieve about me. The thought of
that troubles me the most. But it is better for me to go away,
mother--better for us all. Farewell.

"ANDREW."

CHAPTER X.

A YEAR elapsed before any tidings of the wanderer came. Then Mrs.
Howland received a few lines from him, dated in a Southern city,
where he spoke of having just arrived from South America. He had
little to say of himself, beyond that he was well; and did not speak
of visiting home.

After reading this letter, Mrs. Howland placed it in the hands of
her husband, who read it also, and then gave it back without a
remark. He checked an involuntary sigh as he did so. Not the
slightest reference was made to him by his son; a fact that he did
not overlook, and that he did not observe without a sense of
disappointment. The long absence of his wayward boy had softened his
feelings toward him; and with pain he remembered many acts of
harshness that now seemed to have in them too much of the element of
severity. At the term of the Court, which was held soon after Andrew
went away, the Grand Jury failed to obtain sufficient evidence to
justify the finding of a bill against him, and released the security
given for his appearance at Court. This fact, with a previous
questioning of the policeman by whom Andrew had been arrested,
satisfied Mr. Howland that the boy had been unjustly suspected of an
intention to commit a crime. But this conviction had come too late.
The effects of that unjust accusation had already fallen in sad
consequences upon the head of the poor bo