"I got out of the other scrape by sticking to my lie," he said to himself. So he repeated the words,—
"I never touched your knife."
"You may go," said the teacher, sternly. "I don't know whether you have told the truth; but God does. He is a God of truth; and he says all liars shall be punished."
Do you suppose Henry was happy as he walked home? Do you think he whistled, and smiled with pleasant thoughts; that he longed to see his mother and tell her all that had passed? No, he did nothing of all this. He walked slowly, with his head down, wondering, after his threat to Ernest, whether he would dare tell his mother what he knew about the knife.
At last, as he was going into the gate to his own home, he saw Miss Fosdick was just behind him. Without stopping to think what she would imagine, he darted away, and, running into the barn, hid himself among the hay.
[CHAPTER VII.]
THE UNHAPPY LIAR.
ERNEST was not lying down. He sat in a rocking chair, his head resting on his hand. He smiled when he saw his teacher, and asked her to sit down.
"Mother has gone into Uncle Drake's. She will be back in a minute," he said.
"I came to see you, Ernest. I think, though you haven't touched my knife, you can tell me something about it."