he was only going to uncle Robert's on business, and that he should
return the day after he arrived there; that would be entirely different
from running away.

During the evening Dan worked hard at a message which he was to leave
for his parents,
feeling obliged to take every precaution lest they should see what he
was about; and after the most painful efforts he succeeded in printing
this note:

CRIP & ME HAVE GORNE TO UNKLE ROBERTS TO
GET HIM TO COME UP HERE TO KOAX YOU NOT TO
KILL CRIP. WE WILL COME RIGHT BACK.
DANIEL K. HARDY.

Dan had six cents, which he had earned carrying milk, and his
preparations for the journey consisted simply in putting these in his
pocket, together with some corn for Crippy, and in placing the little
clock and some matches by the side of his bed, so that he might be able
to tell when the proper time had come for him to start.

Perhaps Mr. and Mrs. Hardy were surprised by Dan's unusually
affectionate manner when he' bade them good-night; but, if they were,
nothing was said about it, and the inmates of the Hardy farmhouse
retired on the night before the proposed execution of poor Crippy at
the usual early hour of nine o'clock.

Dan's idea was to lie awake until three in the morning, then steal
cautiously out of the house, get Crippy, and start. But it was much
harder work to remain awake than he had fancied, and before he had been