'Well, sir, there we stayed, and I heard the same clock strike one, two, three, and four. At last, two men called to us from the opposite side of the river. They were the owners of the boat we had taken away, and were in search of it. They got another boat, and came to us in a great passion, swearing that if we did not pay them five shillings each for the day's work we had hindered them of, and pay for the oar we had lost, they would take us before a justice of the peace and have us sent to prison. William Thompson had no money in his pocket, but I had the five shillings my Aunt Eleanor had given me the day before at Mr. Black's to buy the Pantheon; that they took, but not being enough to satisfy their demand, they also took away my
satchel with all my school books, telling me where they lived, and that they would restore it safe as soon as I brought them the rest of the money. The other boys were so poor and so ragged, the men did not ask anything of them.
'It was near six o'clock when we got on shore, about the time I knew I should be expected home from school. William Thompson went down on his knees to beg I would not tell what had happened, promising at the same time to bring the money to release my books the next morning. Indeed I was so much ashamed of having played truant thus, that I was glad enough to conceal it. The boy whose hat I had knocked off into the river would not leave me till he had got mine, so I was forced to slip in at the garden-gate and steal up the
back stairs to my own room, that I might not be seen to come home without my hat. I was now very hungry, yet afraid to show myself; when I was called to tea, my legs trembled under me as I went downstairs. I met my sister Molly in the hall, who gave me an apple, and then asked me what I had had for dinner at school. I turned from her, for I knew not what to answer; but as soon as I got into the parlour, you, sir, told me to bring you my Latin grammar. Then I was forced to answer, and a lie seemed easier than the truth: so I said I had left my satchel and my books at school. I could not play nor amuse myself any way all that evening, and when I took up my journal, what had I to set down—that I had played truant, lost my hat and my money, and told my father a lie? No,
no, I could not bear to write all that.
'Next morning, sir, I had new troubles. I was forced to steal slyly out of the house, that no one might see me put on my best hat, and when I got to William Thompson's, he had got no money to give me. I dared not go to school without my books, so I went to seek the man that had them. He was gone to his daily work, and we could not find him, and I waited and loitered till he came home to his dinner. I begged and prayed for my books, and at last he gave them up to me, making me promise I would bring him the money next day, or something that he could sell for money, which if I did not do, he said he would come and declare the whole story to you, sir. I got to school that day time enough for afternoon's
lessons, and was forced to tell another lie to my master, to excuse my not coming sooner.
'I had no dinner either that day; but the pain of hunger was nothing to the fear of being found out. Well, sir, to tell all the worst at once, I have from time to time carried away, to pay the man whose oar we had lost, my silver pen and pencil, my compasses, my pocket inkstand, and that handsome bound set of Natural History you gave me on my last birthday. Then in going to seek him, I have stayed away three more mornings from school. And my head has been so filled with other thoughts that I have not minded my lessons as I used to do. I have lost my place in my class twice, have been punished once, and my master threatens to make complaints to
you, sir, of the change in my conduct. To excuse wearing my best hat, I did also invent a wicked lie of having lost my other at school.