"That was another naughty thing, I did, mother; I promised not to tell anybody. You know I tell you most everything; but this time I forgot."
"Well, Ernest, it is a sad affair; but we wont talk any more about it this morning. You'll feel stronger after you've had a nap."
She drew down the curtain at the foot of his bed, and, leaving the door ajar, went back to her morning work. Twice she crept to the bedroom, and peeped through the crack, and at last, finding him to be asleep, shut the door and left him.
[CHAPTER II.]
HENRY'S LIE.
IT was nearly noon when she heard a sound of voices in the bedroom. She wondered who could have gone there without her knowledge, and stopped outside the door to listen.
The visitor was Henry, and he was saying angrily,—
"No, you sha'n't. You promised certain true, black and blue, you wouldn't tell anybody. If Aunt Jane knows it, she'll tell father; and he'll half kill me. He's awful angry now."
"But, Henry," urged Ernest half crying, "he'll think I stole the key out of his pocket; and I didn't. It's too bad, if I have to have my fingers cut, and bear all the blame, too, when you did it. My cut smarts awfully."
Mrs. Monroe now made a noise to let them know she was near, and then opened the door, just in season to see Henry raise the window, and jump out.