The preceptress led her forward into the large recitation room, where most of the scholars were assembled, and commenced an investigation of the case. It was ascertained that, immediately after dinner, Clara and a young companion, Annie Mellege, started together for the post office, being charged with letters from several of the young ladies. At the door of the office, Clara stopped to tie her shoe, and Annie went in alone. When she came out, her companion was nowhere to be found.
Miss Gleason started; this was the plan she had heard in the morning.
When questioned why she left so suddenly, Clara sobbed and hid her face in her apron; but as Miss Salsbury waited calmly for her to speak, she said at last, that she heard an organ-grinder down a lane near by, and ran to find him, when a great dog flew at her, and tore her dress. Then a woman came out of a house and pulled her in and made her stay there.
"That is a very unlikely story," said Miss Salsbury, shaking her head; "but as you have cried yourself sick, I shall postpone any farther examination of your case till morning."
[CHAPTER XIV.]
LIES OF TRADE.
NOT a word was said on the subject of the previous evening until the lessons for the morning had been recited; and then Miss Salsbury called upon the young ladies to resume their seats at their desks.
"I wish to make some remarks," she began, "on a subject of vital importance to every one of you; that is, the habit, too prevalent at the present day, of falsifying the word. But first I will relieve your curiosity concerning Clara by informing you that, early in the morning, she was overheard planning an excursion which she was well aware was contrary to the rules of the school. With premeditated deceit and cunning, painful to think of in one of her years, she carried these plans into execution, slipped away from the companion she had induced to join her in a walk, and ran for half a mile to meet a child with whom I had forbidden her to associate.
"Here she disobeyed another rule and bought a pair of earrings without permission of any teacher to make such a purchase. This morning, a lady came to claim the earrings which the wicked child had stolen from her. I went to Clara's room, where I had left her till she was willing to confess where she had been, and found the jewelry thrust into her pocket; but even then she made many excuses before she would confess the truth. I shudder to think that I have a child under my care so dreadfully addicted to the sin of lying. And I think perhaps no time will be so favorable as the present for impressing the enormity of this offence upon your minds.
"The subject for discussion and essays this week will, therefore, be the various methods by which persons falsify their word, such as lies of convenience, lies of flattery, lies of malignity, etc., etc. To aid you in the examination of the subject, I wish to direct your attention to Mrs. Opie's excellent work on lying, which you will find in the library, and more particularly to the word of God. In your essays on this subject, I wish you to quote and illustrate as many passages of Scripture as possible."