`` It belonged to a good , manly little boy once , '' she said , `` and now I hope it belongs to another such . '' `` I ai n't very good , '' said Chester repentantly , `` but I 'll try to be , Miss Salome -- honest , I will . '' One day he heard Miss Salome speaking of someone who had run away from home . `` A wicked , ungrateful boy , '' she called him . Chester blushed until his freckles were drowned out in a sea of red , and Clemantiny saw it , of course . When did anything ever escape those merciless black eyes of Clemantiny 's ? `` Do you think it 's always wrong for a fellow to run away , Miss Salome ? '' he faltered . `` It ca n't ever be right , '' said Miss Salome decidedly . `` But if he was n't treated well -- and was jawed at -- and not let go to school ? '' pleaded Chester . Clemantiny gave Miss Salome a look as of one who would say , You 're bat-blind if you ca n't read between the lines of that ; but Miss Salome was placidly unconscious . She was not really thinking of the subject at all , and did not guess that Chester meant anything more than generalities . `` Not even then , '' she said firmly . `` Nothing can justify a boy for running away -- especially as Jarvis Colemen did -- never even left a word behind him to say where he 'd gone . His aunt thought he 'd fallen into the river . '' `` Do n't suppose she would have grieved much if he had , '' said Clemantiny sarcastically , all the while watching Chester , until he felt as if she were boring into his very soul and reading all his past life . When the harvest season drew to a close , dismay crept into the soul of our hero . Where would he go now ? He hated to think of leaving Mount Hope Farm and Miss Salome .
He would have been content to stay there and work XXXXX hard as he had ever worked at Upton , merely for the roof over his head and the food he ate .
as at behind for from if into of than that