then, and now the time
had come. He was satisfied.

"You know I didn't steal the money, or have anything to do with it,"
said Bobby.

"Some of it was found upon you, though," sneered Tom, maliciously.

"You know how it came there, if no one else does."

"Of course I do; but I like your company too well to get rid of you so
easy."

"The Lord is with the innocent," replied Bobby; "and something tells
me that I shall not stay in this place a great while."

"Going to run away?" asked Tom, with interest, and suddenly dropping
his malicious look.

"I know I am innocent of any crime; and I know that the Lord will not
let me stay here a great while."

"What do you mean to do, Bob?"

Bobby made no reply; he felt that he had had more confidence in Tom
than he deserved, and he determined to keep his own counsel in
future. He had a purpose in view. His innocence gave him courage; and
perhaps he did not feel that sense of necessity for submission to the
laws of the land which age and experience give. He prayed earnestly
for deliverance from the place in which he was confined. He felt that
he did not deserve to be there; and though it was a very comfortable
place, and the boys fared as well as he wished to fare, still it
seemed to him like a prison. He was unjustly detained; and he not only
prayed to be delivered, but he resolved to work out his own
deliverance at the first opportunity.

Knowing that whatever he had would be taken from him, he resolved by
some means to keep possession of the twenty dollars he had about
him. He had always kept his money in a secret place in his jacket to
guard against accident, and the officers who had searched him had not
discovered it. But now his clothes would be changed. He thought of
these things before his arrival; so, when he reached the entrance, and
got out of the wagon, to open the gate, by order of the officer, he
slipped his twenty dollars into a hole in the wall.

It so happened that there was not a suit of clothes in the store room
of the institution which would fit him; and he was permitted to wear
his own dress till another should be made. After his name and
description had been entered, and the superintendent had read him a
lecture upon his future duties, he was permitted to join the other
boys, who were at work on the farm. He was sent with half a dozen
others to pick up stones in a neighboring field. No officer was with
them, and Bobby was struck with the apparent fr