st _had_ to."

"Tell what you said and what _he_ said. Go ahead."

"You know all about--"

"Go ahead!"

Russy rocked himself back and forth in his agony. It was dreadful to
have to say it all over again.

"Well, then," doggedly, "Jeffy said _my_ mother never did, but his
did--oh, always!"

"Did what--oh, always?"

Russy clinched his little round fingers till the bones cracked under
the soft flesh.

"Kissed him good-night--went up to his room a-purpose to,
an'--an'--tucked him in. Oh, always, he said. He said _mine_ never
did. An' I said--"

"You said--go ahead!"

"I said she did, too,--oh--always," breathed Russy in the awful dark.
"I had to. When it's your mother, you have to--"

"I never had one, I told you! How do I know? Go on."

He was driven on relentlessly. He had it all to go through with, and
he whispered the rest hurriedly to get it done.

"I said she tucked me in,--came up a-purpose to,--an' always kissed
me _twice_ (his only does once), an' always--called me--Dear." Russy
fell back in a heap on the pillows and sobbed into them.

"My badness!"--anybody but a Lie would have said "my goodness,"--"but
you did do it up brown that time, didn't you! But I don't suppose he
believed a word of it--you didn't make him believe you, did you?"

"He had to," cried out Russy, fiercely. "He said I'd never lied to
him in my life--"

"Before;--yes, I know."

Russy slipped out of bed and padded over the thick carpet towards the
place where the window-seat was in the daytime. But it wasn't there.
He put out his hands and hunted desperately for it. Yes, there,--no,
that was sharp and hard and hurt you. That must be the edge of the
bureau. He tried again, for he must find it,--he must! He would not
stay in bed with that Lie another minute. It crowded him,--it
tortured him so.

"This is it," thought Russy, and sank down gratefully on the
cushions. His bare feet scarcely touched toe-tips to the floor. Here
he would stay all night. This was better than--

"I'm coming,--which way are you? Can't you speak up?"

The Lie was coming, too! Suddenly an awful thought flashed across
Russy's little, weary brain. What if the Lie would _always_ come,
too? What if he could never get away from it? What if it slept with
him, walked with him, talked with him, _lived_ with him,--oh, always!

But Russy stiffened again with dogged courage. "I had to!" he
thought. "I had to,--I had to,--I had to! When he said things about
_