Aunt Madge's Story

ed's hatchet on the meat block, and heedlessly took it up to break open some clams, and then was so frightened that I dared not tell how I cut my foot. "O, ma

but after I had once said it, I supposed it would not do to take it

be drawn off I had fainted away. When I came to myself, and saw Dr. Foster was there, it was as much as they could do to

-way work about you," said he. And then he laughed in a way that rasped across my feelings like the

came, he asked, with

how is it we

my might, "Just the same as I did

d show all his whi

ber the old saying, 'A lie well stuck

king fun of me. I understood what Ned meant; fo

s a worse tease than Ned. When Abner came in t

e under the chin, adding, "You're a steam-tug for telli

l every day; but I presumed she was thinking

felt as if she was just going to say somethin

thought that mother believed in me. One day I found out my mistake. Ned had been s

stop plaguin

et has told us a wrong story, she is, of course, very unhappy. Do not add to her distress, my son. We keep ho

le, and I saw her eyes were red. I wanted to throw myself on her neck and confess; but ther

. Horace and Prudy, you have heard something of this before; but I must tell it

he first place, for I was a mere baby. The whole world was new and wonderful to me, and one thing seemed about as strange to me as another. I could not see much di

mpin in a trunk locked up, a

ch wild fancies to myself, and only tell of what I knew to be true. Every ti

ie's coffee-mill buzz. You were too little to hear it then. It had nothing to say to you when you stole your mamma's "skipt," and soaked it in the w

'member a

obody thinks any the worse of you to-day for all your baby-mischief. We only laugh about it, for you did not know any better.

it of telling lies; I had been hurried and frightened into this one, and now it seem

room. Fel had lain in her pretty blue chamber day after day, too sick to eat anything but broths and gruel; but then her c

I was glad to be remembered; but every time I heard the door

tel. It ticked with a far-away, dreamy sound, like a child talking in its sleep, and somehow

, "I know it; but

old-a lie; you've told-a lie." I turned my face to the wall to get rid of her, but always turned it back again, for there was a strange charm about that dreadful little girl. I could tell you now just how she was dressed, and w

e I had never kept still long enough to think. It was some comf

en you cut your foot, and heard you plain as could be when you said you never touched the hatchet. And there he is up in heaven thinking about you, and not loving you at all! How can he? He don't have many such naughty girls in his whole worl

keener anguish than that which thrilled my young heart as I lay on mot

en keep their feelings to themselves much more than is commonly supposed, especially proud child

granted I was ruined for life, and it was of no use to try to be good. I am afraid of tiring you, little Fly;

God is faithful and jus

in over again. I knew what confess meant; it meant to tell God you were sorry. I went right off and told him; and then I went and told father, and I found he'd been waiting all this time to forgive me. It was just wonderful! My hear

breathe," whispered I to the blue hills, and the sky

hildren's resolves are not always the firmest things in the world, and my parents did not know ho

and learn something of the preciousness of truth. It is a diamond w