MR. CODDINGTON TELLS A STORY
NE of the first things Peter did the next afternoon was to go with his father and mother to Mrs. Jackson’s and relate to her himself all the happenings of the previous day. The story was, to be sure, no surprise to her, for had not Nat rushed home and incoherently rattled it off? But how much nicer it was to hear it from Peter! The boy spared no detail of the truth; he told of his school, his failures there, of his disgust at being put into the tanneries, of his desire to conceal his identity. During the tale no one interrupted him. Mr. and Mrs. Coddington, Mrs. Jackson, and Nat all listened intently to the end. Then when the story was at last finished Peter looked up and smiled at Nat’s mother.
“So one of your sons, you see, has been sailing under a false name, Mrs. Jackson,” he concluded whimsically. “Do you think you can forgive him?”
“You must try,” pleaded Mr. Coddington, putting in a laughing word. “My son has been doing the same thing and yet I’ve overlooked it.”
Everybody smiled and the tension was instantly broken.
“But to think neither Nat nor I ever suspected you, Peter!” mused Mrs. Jackson. “We must have been very stupid. Why, I don’t see how we could have helped guessing the truth long ago. As I look back on it all it seems as if a score of incidents might have told us. Either you kept your secret marvelously well or Nat and I are not very keen.”
“And even though you fooled every one else, Peter, I can’t quite understand how you fooled me,” murmured Nat.
“Peter certainly carried his scheme through well,” declared Mrs. Coddington. “Yet for our part we are very glad that the time for dissembling is past.”
“Indeed we are,” Mr. Coddington echoed. “This game of Peter’s has complicated our plans to no small extent.”