ER 5.

When Farmer Grey got up in the morning, and found that his nephew had
left the house without saying where he was going, he was somewhat
surprised; but, as he thought that he would soon return, he did not give
himself much concern about the matter.

The farmer went out among his labourers in the fields, and came back to
breakfast; but James had not returned. The farmer made inquiries among
all his people; no one had seen James. Dinner-time arrived, still he
did not appear. It was late in the day that a friend, Farmer Mason,
called on Farmer Grey. "Have you heard of the murders in Sir John
Carlton's park, last night?" asked Farmer Mason. "Two of his keepers
killed, and another wounded, I am told. Daring outrage! The murderers
are known, I hear. It will go hard with them if they are taken; for the
magistrates are determined to put a stop to poaching, and will show no
mercy to poachers. They will do their best to prove them guilty."

Farmer Grey's mind was greatly troubled when he heard this. He could
not help connecting it, somehow or other, with the disappearance of
James.

"That wild lad, Ben Page, has had something to do with it; of that I am
sure," he said to himself.

As soon as his guest was gone, he walked down to the mill. The miller
and his wife were out. Mary was alone. He found her crying bitterly.
She at once confessed that she had seen James early in the morning, and
that he told her he was going away, not to return; but that where he was
going to, and what he was going to do she could not tell. She was also
anxious about her brother, who had gone away without leaving any
message. This was the utmost information she could give. It was enough
to confirm Farmer Grey's fears. He did not tell Mary what they were.
He thought it would break her heart if he did so. He could give her
very little comfort, for there was nothing he could think of to bring
comfort to his own heart, as far as his nephew was concerned. He had
long seen that he wanted what alone can keep a man right under
temptation, that is, good principles.

James, when he came to him, had been always respectable and decent in
his conduct; but then he had never been tempted. The farmer had been
very anxious about him when he first found that he was so often in the
company of Ben Page, and he now blamed himself for not having taken
pains to separate the two, and still more that he had not tried harder
to give James those go