_."

"No," said Ted. His tone and manner were still a little puzzled, as if
something was in his mind which he could not make clear to himself, and
his mother, knowing that he sometimes was inclined to take things of the
kind too much to heart, made up her mind to think no more about her poor
little vase, and to treat its breakage as one of the accidents we have
all to learn to bear philosophically in daily life. But though no more
was said, Ted did not forget about it: it worried and puzzled him behind
other thoughts, as it were, all day, and little did he or his mother
think who was really the innocent culprit.

Late that night, just before going to bed herself, Ted's mother glanced
into his room, as she often did, to see that the boy was sleeping
peacefully. The light that she carried she shaded carefully, but a very
wide-awake voice greeted her at once.

"Mother," it said, "I'm not asleep. Mother, I do so want to speak to
you. I've not been able to go to sleep for thinking about the little
broken vase."

"O Ted, dear," said his mother, "don't mind about it. It is no use
vexing oneself so much about things when they are done and can't be put
right."

"But, mother," he persisted, "it isn't quite that. Of course I'm _very_
sorry for it to be broken, however it happened. But what makes me so
uncomfortable is that I've begun to wonder so if perhaps I _did_ do it.
I know we were all talking about your peacock-feather screens yesterday.
I said to Percy and Cissy there were some loose ones in one of them, and
perhaps you'd give me some for my card of feathers, and I've got a sort
of wondering feeling whether perhaps I _did_ touch the screen and
knocked down the china flower-basket without knowing, and it's making me
so unhappy, but I _didn't_ mean to hide it from you if I did do it."

He looked up so wistfully that his mother's heart felt quite sore. She
considered a minute before she replied, for she was afraid of seeming to
make light of his trouble or of checking his perfect honesty, and yet,
on the other hand, she was wise, and knew that even conscientiousness
may be exaggerated and grow into a weakness, trying to others as well
as hurtful to oneself.

"I am sure you did not mean to hide anything from me, dear Ted," she
replied, "and I don't think it is the least likely that you did break
the vase. But even if you did, it is better to think no more about it.
You answered me sincerely at the time, and that was al