and received the
remainder of his punishment without flinching. The master then turned
to Annie; and finding her still speechless, gave her a push that nearly
threw her on her face, and said,

"Go to your seat, Ann Anderson. The next time you do that I will punish
you severely."

Annie sat down, and neither sobbed nor cried. But it was days before
she recovered from the shock. Once, long after, when she was reading
about the smothering of the princes in the Tower, the whole of the
physical sensations of those terrible moments returned upon her, and
she sprang from her seat in a choking agony.

CHAPTER XI.

For some time neither of the Bruces ventured even to make a wry face at
her in school; but their behaviour to her at home was only so much the
worse.

Two days after the events recorded, as Annie was leaving the kitchen,
after worship, to go up to bed, Mr Bruce called her.

"Annie Anderson," he said, "I want to speak to ye."

Annie turned, trembling.

"I see ye ken what it's aboot," he went on, staring her full in the
pale face, which grew paler as he stared. "Ye canna luik me i' the
face. Whaur's the candy-sugar an' the prunes? I ken weel eneuch whaur
they are, and sae do ye."

"I ken naething aboot them," answered Annie, with a sudden revival of
energy.

"Dinna lee, Annie. It's ill eneuch to steal, without leein'."

"I'm no leein'," answered she, bursting into tears of indignation. "Wha
said 'at I took them?"

"That's naething to the pint. Ye wadna greit that gait gin ye war
innocent. I never missed onything afore. And ye ken weel eneuch there's
an ee that sees a' thing, and ye canna hide frae hit."

Bruce could hardly have intended that it was by inspiration from on
high that he had discovered the thief of his sweets. But he thought it
better to avoid mentioning that the informer was his own son Johnnie.
Johnnie, on his part, had thought it better not to mention that he had
been incited to the act by his brother Robert. And Robert had thought
it better not to mention that he did so partly to shield himself, and
partly out of revenge for the box on the ear which Alec Forbes had
given him. The information had been yielded to the inquisition of the
parent, who said with truth that he had never missed anything before;
although I suspect that a course of petty and cautious pilfering had at
length passed the narrow bounds within which it could be concealed from
the lynx eyes inherited from t