Then he pulled me along, and kept saying, “Who did, if you didn’t? If you didn’t, who did?”
And he walked me straight up into the master’s room, without so much as giving a knock at the door.
“I’ve brought you a thief and a liar,” says he. Then he told where he found me, and what a bad boy I was. Then he went away, because the master wanted to talk with me all by myself.
Now I didn’t want to tell tales of Tom, for it’s mean to tell tales. So all I could say was that I didn’t do it.
The master looked sorry. Said he was afraid I had begun to go with bad boys. “Didn’t I see you walking in the lane with Tom Cush yesterday?” says he. I said I was helping him find his ball. And so I was.
“If you were with the boys who did this,” said he, “or helped about it in any way, that’s just as bad.”
I said I didn’t help them, or go with them.
“How came you there so late?” says he.
“I went after my overjacket,” says I.
“And where is your overjacket?” says he.