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Book, page 51 / 462 The footman on horseback carried one boy before him; and the farmer, striding along, dragged another. The latter had on a red jacket, which little Jem immediately recollected, and scarcely dared lift his eyes to look at the boy on horseback. "Good God!" said he to himself, "it must be--yet surely it can't be Lawrence!" The footman rode on as fast as the people would let him. The boy's hat was slouched, and his head hung down, so that nobody could see his face. At this instant there was a disturbance in the crowd. A man who was half drunk pushed his way forwards, swearing that nobody should stop him; that he had a right to see--and he WOULD see. And so he did; for, forcing through all resistance, he staggered up to the footman just as he was lifting down the boy he had carried before him. "I WILL--I tell you I WILL see the thief!" cried the drunken man, pushing up the boy's hat. It was his own son. "Lawrence!" exclaimed the wretched father. The shock sobered him at once, and he hid his face in his hands. There was an awful silence. Lawrence fell on his knees, and in a voice that could scarcely be heard made a full confession of all the circumstances of his guilt. "Such a young creature so wicked!" the bystanders exclaimed; "what could put such wickedness in your head?" "Bad company," said Lawrence. "And how came you--what brought you into bad company?" "I don't know, except it was idleness." While this was saying the farmer was emptying Lazy Lawrence's pockets; and when the money appeared, all his former companions in the village looked at each other with astonishment and terror. Their parents grasped their little hands closer, and cried, "Thank God! he is not my son. How often when he was little we used, as he lounged about, to tell him that idleness was the root of all evil." As for the hardened wretch, his accomplice, everyone was impatient to have him sent to gaol. He put on a bold, insolent countenance, till he heard Lawrence's confession; till the money was found upon him; and he
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