"Well, shall I ask him about it," demanded Bessie.
"My dear child," said her mother gravely, "your ideas of justice are one-sided. The world would not thrive if every one acted on the principles you seem to advocate. Many an honest man might be imprisoned as a thief if people should take mere conjecture for proof of guilt, while at the same time, many a thief would pass for an honest man. In law, all persons are supposed innocent, until they are proved guilty. You did not see Nathan take any thing belonging to you, nor do you know any one who did. It would be the height of cruelty then, to accuse him without absolute proof."
"Yes," said Bessie, "but suppose he did take the nut after all."
"Then," said her mother, "we can only leave the case to that Judge who doeth all things well. It is better for us to suppose him innocent even while he may be guilty, than to suppose him guilty when he is innocent."
"I wish I knew," said Bessie, as she took up her shears and basket to go out to get the cresses for the next day's market.
"The cold weather will soon put a stop to the cresses, I am afraid," remarked her mother, after a pause.
"Yes," said Bessie, "Mr. Dart says they are getting poor now; they do not grow fast after cutting, any more, on account of the frost."
"Never mind," said her mother cheerfully, "in the spring, which after all is not so very far off, they will become fine again, and then you can begin to sell as fast as ever. If I am well then, as I hope and trust I shall be, we must not touch a penny of your money, Bessie. It shall all be saved to send you regularly to Miss Milly's school, and buy books for you to learn out of, and perhaps, who knows, there will be something left to put in the bank besides. This fall the cresses have fed our poor, suffering bodies, but next spring, if nothing happens, they shall feed my Bessie's mind."
"School!" cried Bessie, dropping both the basket and the scissors in her delight, "shall I really go to school? And all through the water-cresses? Why, we never thought our dear little brook would make us so rich, did we, mother?"