"No; I didn't feel frightened, for I'm not timid you know, and papa was near me all the time; and he'd told me all I had to do was to tell a straightforward, truthful story.
"I did hate to take the oath, but I knew I had to, and that it wasn't wrong, though it does seem a dreadful thing to do."
"It isn't like other swearing," remarked Max, who was moving on up the stairs, somewhat ahead of his sisters. "There must be a right kind, because in the psalms, where David is describing a good man, he says of him, 'He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.'"
"Yes, I know," said Lulu, "I can see the difference; and this must be the right kind or papa would never have let us do it."
"How do they do it?" asked Grace. "How did you do it, Lu?"
"A man said over the words for me—a promise to 'tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth'—and I promised by kissing the Bible; that was all."
"That wasn't very hard to do," said Grace, "but oh I'd have been so frightened to have to tell something with so many people listening!"
"Of course; because you're such a weak, timid little thing; but I'm big and strong and not afraid of anybody or anything.
"There were a good many people there; the room was quite full; but I felt that that did not make much difference, when I thought about God hearing every word I said and knowing if it was really the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
"Ajax's wife was there; crying fit to break her heart too; specially when they took him back to jail.