es the heart of her son--so now
his father said:

"You will keep your room for the next week. I shall send your excuse
to your teacher. Ellen will bring your meals to you. At the end of that
time I will see and talk with you."

Without a word Fred hung his cap upon its nail, and went to his room.
Such a sudden change from success and elation to shame and condign
punishment was too much for him.

He felt confused and bewildered. Things looked dark around him, and the
great boughs of the Norway spruce, close up by his window, nodded and
winked at him in a very odd way.

He had been often reproved, and sometimes had received a slight
punishment, but never anything like this. And now he felt innocent, or
rather at first he did not feel at all, everything was so strange and
unreal.

He heard Ellen come into his room after a few minutes with his dinner,
but he did not turn.

A cold numbing sense of disgrace crept over him. He felt as if, even
before this Irish girl, he could never hold up his head again.

He did not wish to eat or do anything. What could it all mean?

Slowly the whole position in which he was placed came to him. The boys
gathering at school; the surprise with which his absence would be
noted; the lost honor, so lately won; his father's sad, grave face; his
sisters' unhappiness; his mother's sorrow; and even Sam's face, so ugly
in its triumph, all were there.

What an afternoon that was! How slowly the long hours dragged themselves
away! And yet until dusk Fred bore up bravely. Then he leaned his head
on his hands. Tired, hungry, worn out with sorrow, he burst into tears
and cried like a baby.

Don't blame him. I think any one of us would have done the same.

"Oh, mother! mother!" said Fred aloud, to himself, "do come home! do
come home!"

Ellen looked very sympathizing when she came in with his tea, and found
his dinner untouched.

"Eat your tea, Master Fred," she said, gently. "The like of ye can't
go without your victuals, no way. I don't know what you've done, but I
ain't afeared there is any great harm in it, though your collar is on
crooked and there's a tear in your jacket, to say nothing of a black and
blue place under your left eye. But eat your tea. Here's some fruit cake
Biddy sent o' purpose."

Somebody did think of and feel sorry for him! Fred felt comforted on the
instant by Ellen's kind words and Biddy's plum cake; and I must say, ate
a hearty, hungry boy's supper; then went t