“Kiss me again, Tom! — and be off with you to school, now, and don’t bother me any more.”

The moment he was gone, she ran to a closet and got out the ruin of a jacket which Tom had gone pirating in. Then she stopped, with it in her hand, and said to herself:

“No, I don’t dare. Poor boy, I reckon he’s lied about it — but it’s a blessed, blessed lie, there’s such a comfort come from it. I hope the Lord — I know the Lord will forgive him, because it was such good-heartedness in him to tell it. But I don’t want to find out it’s a lie.

I won’t look.”

She put the jacket away, and stood by musing a minute. Twice she put out her hand to