as she
could,

"You great ugly boy!"

"Why, what's the matter now?" inquired Oscar, who hardly knew whether
this rough salutation was designed to be in fun or in earnest; "don't I
look as well as usual?"

"You looked well beating little Willie Davenport, don't you think you
did?" continued his sister, with the same stern look. "I 'm perfectly
ashamed of you--I declare, I did n't know you could do such a mean
thing as that."

"I don't care," replied Oscar, "I 'll lick him again, if he does n't
mind his own business."

As Oscar did not know that George witnessed the assault, he was at a
loss to know how Alice heard of it. She refused to tell him, and he
finally concluded that Whistler or his mother must have called there,
to enter a complaint against him. Pretty soon Mrs. Preston entered the
room, and sat down, to await the arrival of Oscar's father to tea. She
at once introduced the topic which was uppermost in her mind, by the
inquiry:

"Oscar, what is the trouble between you and Willie Davenport?"

"Why," replied Oscar, "he 's been telling stories about me."

"Do you mean false stories?"

"Yes--no--not exactly false, but it was n't true, neither."

"It must have been a singular story, to have been either false nor
true. And as it appears there was but one story, I should like to know
what it was."

"He told Ralph I had to stand up and look at a blackboard an hour."

"Was that false?"

"Yes," said Oscar, for in replying to his mother, of late, he had
usually omitted the "ma'am" (madam) which no well-bred boy will fail to
place after the yes or no addressed to a mother; "yes, it was a lie,
for I need n't have stood there five minutes, if I had n't wanted to."

"Did you stand before the blackboard because you wanted to, or was it
intended as a punishment for not attending to your lesson!"

"Why, I suppose it was meant for a punishment, but the master told me I
might go to my seat, whenever I wanted to study."

"Then," said Mrs. Preston, "after all your quibbling, I don't see that
Willie told any falsehood. And, in fact, I don't believe he had any
idea of injuring you, when he told Ralph of the affair. He only spoke
of it as a little matter of news. But even if he had told a lie about
you, or had related the occurrence out of ill-will towards you, would
that be any excuse for your conduct, in beating him as you did this
afternoon! Do you remember the subject of your last Sabbath-school
lesson