he took the road and hastened off in the direction of the wood. His
heart beat wildly at the prospect of once more meeting his mother,
after nearly four weeks' absence. Annie Lee would welcome him; she
would not believe that he was a thief.

He had been four days an inmate of the Reform School, and nothing but
the hope of soon attaining his liberty had kept his spirits from
drooping. He had not for a moment despaired of getting away.

He reached the entrance to the wood, and taking a cart path, began to
penetrate its hidden depths. The night darkened upon him; he heard the
owl screech his dismal note, and the whip-poor-will chant his cheery
song. A certain sense of security now pervaded his mind, for the
darkness concealed him from the world, and he had placed six good
miles between him and the prison, as he considered it.

He walked on, however, till he came to what seemed to be the end of
the wood, and he hoped to reach the blue ocean he had seen in the
distance before morning. Leaving the forest, he emerged into the open
country. There was here and there a house before him; but the aspect
of the country seemed strangely familiar to him. He could not
understand it. He had never been in this part of the country before;
yet there was a great house with two barns by the side of it, which he
was positive he had seen before.

He walked across the field a little farther, when, to his astonishment
and dismay, he beheld the lofty turrets of the State Reform School. He
had been walking in a circle, and had come out of the forest near the
place where he had entered it.

Bobby, as the reader has found out by this time, was a philosopher as
well as a hero; and instead of despairing or wasting his precious time
in vain regrets at his mistake, he laughed a little to himself at the
blunder, and turned back into the woods again.

"Now or never!" muttered he. "It will never do to give it up so."

For an hour he walked on, with his eyes fixed on a great bright star
in the sky. Then he found that the cart path crooked round, and he
discovered where he had made his blunder. Leaving the road, he made
his way in a straight line, still guided by the star, till he came to
a large sheet of water.

The sheet of water was an effectual barrier to his farther progress;
indeed, he was so tired he did not feel able to walk any more. He
deemed himself safe from immediate pursuit in this secluded place. He
needed rest, and he foresaw that