et back?"

"We walked some, then another man rode us a little way, and the boys
went off and I got lost more and more and couldn't find a cop, and
asked every so many people, and a woman gave me a bun and a cake, and
then a man took me across the park and told me to go straight along.
And I was afraid of the thunder and all, and I was wet, and oh,
dear!"

"Never mind, Jack. You're safe home now. You must come straight home
from school, you have always been told that."

And he hadn't been to school at all!

But he was very sleepy and his mother put him to bed and kissed him a
dozen times. The scoldings would save until tomorrow.

Jack was rather languid the next morning and a little afraid. But he
was the best boy in school, and brought home a note from his teacher,
never suspecting his sin would find him out so soon.

Miss Collins asked his mother if she would send the reason why Jack
was not at school yesterday afternoon, as they were required to put it
down in the record book.

"Oh, Jack! You didn't go to school yesterday afternoon! What _were_
you doing?"

Jack hung his head, "I took a little walk, and then--and then--I was
afraid it was late, and some children were playing--!"

"Oh, you naughty boy! That is playing truant. I don't know what your
father will say!"

"I don't want to any more. I'd rather go to school. It wasn't funny a
bit. And I don't want to ride in any old wagon that jounces and
jounces, and I did get so tired. What did the teacher say?"

"They have to put the true reason down in the record book. And there
it will stay always. My nice little boy was a truant-player. And we
shall all be so ashamed. What will your father say? And he was so
afraid last night that you were killed!"

"Oh, mama, I never will do it again, never!" Jack hung round his
mother's neck and cried and she cried with him, thinking of her
tumult of agony last night. And she had him safe--her little boy!

"Jack," she began presently, "can't you be brave enough to tell papa
how it began. Climb up in his lap and tell him how sorry and ashamed
you are."

"Will he strap me?"

"You deserve it I think. But he surely would if I told him. And when
people do wrong they must bear the punishment."

"But I never will do it again."

"Tell him that, too."

Of course they talked it over at dinner time. Jack was not at all
vainglorious. Afterward, he hung around and presently climbed up in
his father's lap.

"My dear littl