ad reasoning; you ought simply to
find out what is right, and do it." _Answer._--"And now that I come to
think of it, it's a great shame that Aleck should fly out so at me, and
I won't stand it." And at this point the voice of conscience became
perfectly silenced, and, turning defiantly to my cousin, I exclaimed,--

"I don't know what you mean, Aleck, by accusing me of it; I never
touched the rope, and I never touched the boat; I'm quite certain that I
did not, and it's a lie of yours to say that I did."

"O Master Willie, Master Aleck," gasped old George, in consternation.
"Young gentlemen, these words are not fit to come from such as you; what
would your parents say?"

But our brows lowered angrily, and we made no response; whilst George
continued, abandoning in his dismay the usual form of address, and
speaking as from age to youth, "My boys, children, have you not been
taught of Him 'who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He
suffered, He threatened not.' Christian boys should try to be like their
Master, and such words as passed between you should never be heard
amongst them. You've forgotten yourselves, young gentlemen, and you'll
be very sorry soon for what you have said to each other. Master Aleck,
you're wrong, sir, to say that Master Willie did it when he denies it.
I've known Master Willie since he was born, and he speaks the truth.
He's told me with the greatest of honestness when he's done things
which was wrong, and no one else knowed of; as, for instance, when he
ate the cherries and swallowed the stones, and when he got the cat's
tail all over pitch--I can remember a score of things he's told me of,
quite frank and open, and I'm sure he's spoken the truth now."

I felt somewhat self-condemned whilst George thus enumerated the
instances of my candour in simple unconsciousness of the fact that
confessions of scrapes were generally received by him with such
indulgence that it required the smallest possible amount of moral
courage to make them.

"Shake hands, young gentlemen," he added, after another pause, "and be
friends, and let us all do what we can to find the schooner--she's cost
me many an hour's work."

And at this moment, for the first time, it flashed upon me painfully how
great the disappointment was to George as well as to Aleck, and I was
sorry, more sorry than I had hitherto felt.

The pair of small chubby hands that met in the old sailor's rugged palm
were unused to so ceremo