"What?"

"Oh, I do wish I had never et a single banana! And I knew all the time I
oughtn't to eat so many, I knew it just as well! Oh, Willie, isn't it
turrible the way a person does a thing even when they know they oughtn't
to?"

All the way home Willie had very little to say, but he listened politely
as Margery talked on and on, punctuating her sad moralizings with long
labored breaths and weary headshakes.

"And then afterwards, Willie, if I had only sat still as Effie told me
to, I might have got off all right. But no, I had to come racing off
here in the hot sun and I knew I oughtn't to, and then I went into the
blackberry patch and I knew I hadn't any right to, and all I got to say
is, it's a wonder a hundred bees didn't sting me instead of one. . . ."

Willie looked at her curiously.

"Do you think you got stung because you picked those berries?"

"I just know that was why."

"Well, the gravedigger was getting it worse than you, and I guess he had
a right to be there, hadn't he?"

For a moment Margery was stumped, but only for a moment.

"Yes, Willie," she said simply, "he had a right to chase us, but--he had
no right to use such turrible langwedge. I'm not one bit surprised he
got stung for it. You heard him yourself, Willie, you know you did."

Yes, Willie had heard him, and Margery was certainly right in intimating
that the young gravedigger was exceptionally fluent in cuss words. With
cause and effect so clearly demonstrated, Willie Jones had no further
argument against Margery's conception of a prompt and well-deserved
judgment. He was silent a moment, then went back to something else.

"So you think you oughtn't to have gone into the blackberry patch at
all?"

"Why, of course I think so! I know so! Wasn't there a sign up not to?
Why, taking blackberries when there's a sign up is not much better than
downright stealing!"

"H'm," murmured Willie Jones with interest. Then after a pause he said:
"Now, Margery, listen here: if you feel as bad about it as all that I
tell you what I'll do--I'll take your share of blame for the berries.
I'll tell everybody that I picked 'em all."

Margery turned heavy eyes on her companion and, sick as she was, saw
through his little scheme at once. He was offering her a chance to give
up her share of tainted profits.

"Thank you, Willie, thank you very much, but I guess I'll just tell the
truth about the berries. It wouldn't be fair to you if I didn't."

Willie