get the
letter that he had frightened her, and he was soon on his way to carry
it to Sir John. Dolly did not guess this. She wrote to Emma telling her
of the mishap, and this note Joe, to whom she intrusted it, knowing no
reason to distrust the hostler, gave to Hugh to deliver. So Sir John got
both missives in the end.

Emma Haredale, not understanding why Edward returned no answer to her
letter, was hurt, and thought him cold. Sir John, seizing his
opportunity, told her one day (pretending sorrow while he did so) that
his son, naturally fickle, had fallen in love with some one else, to
whom he was soon to be married.

Emma, not dreaming the father of the man she loved could be such a false
liar, believed him, and when Edward wrote her, speaking of his poverty
and telling her he was going to leave England to try to better his
prospects, she thought his manly letter only an excuse to part from her.

Proud, though heartbroken, she did not answer it, and so, thanks to his
father's selfish scheming, Edward sailed away to the West Indies,
hopeless and despairing.

Another left England at the same time whose going meant far more to
Dolly Varden. This was Joe. His father, the innkeeper, had been
restraining him more and more, until his treatment had become the jest
of the country-side, and Joe had chafed to the point of rebellion at the
gibes that continually met him. One day, at the jeer of an old enemy of
his, his wrath boiled over. He sprang upon him and thrashed him soundly
in the inn before the assembled guests. Then, knowing his father would
never forgive him, he went to his own room and barricaded the door. That
night Joe let himself down from his window and before daylight was in
London.

He went first to the locksmith's house to tell Dolly he had run away
and that he loved her, but Dolly being a flirt, only laughed. To tell
the truth, she was so very fond of Joe that she didn't like to show him
how sorry she was. So the poor fellow went away thinking she cared very
little (though as soon as he was out of sight she nearly cried her eyes
out), and enlisted as a soldier. That same night Joe started from London
to fight in the war in America. And it was a long time before either he
or Edward Chester was heard of again.

III

BARNABY GETS INTO TROUBLE

Five years went by, and Edward Chester remained in the West Indies and
prospered. For five years Joe Willet fought in the war in America. And
for five years Ba