ut Captain Solomon had been doing a hard day's work,
haying, and he slept very soundly. And, when he found that his father
didn't wake up, Sol crept out from behind the lilac bushes and took up
his bundle and went out the wide gate.

First he turned north and walked quietly along until he had passed the
old schoolhouse and had got well into the village. He went carefully,
while he was in the village, for he was afraid that somebody might be
about and see him. Almost everybody in the village knew Sol, and anybody
who met him, at that time of night, would know that he was running away.
Perhaps they would call up the constable and have him sent back. Sol
shivered when he thought of that. Then he came to the old turnpike road
to Boston and he turned toward the east into the turnpike. He hadn't
met anybody in the village nor seen a single light.

[Illustration: "TOOK UP HIS BUNDLE AND WENT OUT THE WIDE GATE"]

It doesn't take a good, strong boy of sixteen all night to walk a little
more than twenty miles, and Sol loafed along and didn't hurry. Once in a
while he sat down to rest or sleep for a few minutes, but he didn't dare
to really go to sleep, for fear that he would sleep all the rest of the
night; and he had to be in Boston by daylight. And, once in a while, he
had to sneak around a toll-house, because he didn't have any money. And,
at each toll-house, they made each person that was walking on the
turnpike pay some money; perhaps it was a penny that they had to pay.
They charged more for each wagon that passed. At last he came into
Boston and it wasn't daylight yet. So he walked over to the Common and
lay down under some bushes and went to sleep.

Sol was wakened by the snuffling noise that a cow makes when it is
eating the grass and by the sound of the grass being bitten off. And he
started up, thinking of the farm at home, and there was a cow almost
near enough to touch. When he started up, the cow was frightened and
galloped off, and Sol saw that the sun was up and it must be about six
o'clock. He laughed at the cow and opened his bundle and took out some
bread that he had brought, and some gingerbread, and he ate them. It
wasn't much of a breakfast, but he hadn't been able to get anything
better. And, when he had finished, he walked down to Spring Lane and got
a drink of water at the spring, and he washed his face and hands.
Then he kept on down to India street, for he was afraid his father would
come after him a