[CHAPTER III.]
NOT TO BE TRUSTED.
I WENT to school as usual that afternoon, and I felt very uncomfortable each time the master came to look at my sum or at my copy. I was afraid he might ask me some question about the bill; but he never mentioned it, and at length the weary school-time was done, and I was free again.
I went home very slowly, saying over and over to myself, "What shall I do?"
But I saw no way out of my trouble. There were only two ways, it seemed to me, which it was possible for me to take, either to tell father or my master; and I could not make up my mind to do either.
I resolved at last not to spoil Salome's birthday, but to forget my loss as far as I could till the next day. It would be time enough then to decide which was least hard, to tell my father or to tell my master. Meanwhile I would enjoy myself, and be as merry as a lark.
Mother had made a large cake for tea, and she let Salome cut the first slice. We all talked very loudly, and laughed a great deal; but though I joined with the others in their fun, I was thinking all the time of the lost shilling. It had been easy to say I would be merry; it was not so easy to carry it out.
After tea we helped mother to clear away the tea-things, and then she moved the table out of the way, and we played at blindman's buff. I can remember now what a noise there was, and how much Salome seemed to enjoy it. But it was a close, hot night, and when we had been playing for a long time she turned very tired, and was glad to jump on father's knee when he came in from shutting up the shop, and sit still for a little time, till mother was ready to put her to bed.
Father put his hand in his pocket, and took out a handful of money for Salome to spin on the table. He had just cleared the till, and had brought the money in with him, that he might put it in his cashbox upstairs when he went to bed. Salome laughed very much at the spinning half-crowns and shillings and pence; and she and father tried how many they could keep going at the same time. Sometimes two or three of them spun over on the floor, and then we had a great hunt for them; and once Jude, while hunting for a penny, knocked against the table, and sent at least a dozen pieces on the floor.
When mother came back for Salome, father gathered up his money, and put it in his pocket again.