Connecticut western news., 1873-11-07
A WHITE LIE.

There are different colors and degrees of falsehood, just as there are, different colors and degrees of. other sins There is, blackest of all,- the malevolent hypo- crite and s1andefer, who can twist truth into falsehood,- and fafsehood into seeming truth. ; And then there is the downright Liar, who falsifes on pur- pose to deceive. A There is another downright Liar not quite so bad-he falsifes from love of the marvellous, and burning desire to appear what he is not. Some people lie .becauseit is their disposition to -deeeive.l Others lie because they lack the courage to tell the truth. And, there are. other lies sometimes called klV1ite .zLies- which are mere lies of cpnyenience In their utterance here is no evil intent. They are told just as man whisks an impeachment from his path with his walking stick. They are told to save trouble of explanation; or, perhaps, to- avoid reprimand At first allie of this kind may not seem a very sinful thing ]; but, unfortunately. for the, misguided mortal who entertains, the petty sin, it is one that does not improve upon ac-. quaintance. Like manyr another, evil which might De n1entioned, 1t s1ikely to grow to alarming propoffons and consequences. There Iisk on6s safe ground-and only one: Truth-Abso- lute Truth-under every circumastance and on all occasions. z - : >H
 Sarah Powers believed herself to be truthful girl. sShe had not the dis position to wittEng1y deceive. Had 1t been plainly intimated to her that she was Liar she would have been shocked beyond measure;;; and yet her <rnle of life in this respect was not pure and un- swerving, as we shall see. - 5l
 Sarah" said Mrs. Powers, coming into the room One winter morHing, where her daughter sat, "did you see anything of a twenty dollar bill on the mantel-shelf last evening p Her voice and manner showed that she was f1n- pleasantly exercised 4fEf12E
 "A twenty-dollar bill ?" repeated Sarah, with open eyes. "No."
 You didn't see anything that look ed like one ?''
 ."Like g twenty dollar bill ? Ger tainly not" -.
 "i certainly leftait in 5hessitting- room, on the shelf ;and Know that I set the large glass lamp down on it, so that it should not blow away. I forgot all about it until this morning. Oh, I must not lose it. l. .,..
 "But, mother, twenty dollars is not such large sum" .sA .s5s
 Ordinarily, no, my child ,; but just now it is considerable. Your fathers accounts do notssbaknce so zfavorably this season as he had anticip pated.. In fact, Sarah, he cannot possibly spare me any more If he is to meet his bank-pa- per. Where can that bill have gone to 2 And promised Mrs. Jndkins ten dol lars to-day. Do you think it could @ possibly s!9 have got knocked @ ofand if n blown
 We may as well remark just here, that Sarah Powers had been lying. Falsehood was not certainly in the heart of the young and sunny faced girl but her tongue had spoken it. The facts were simply these ,'
 On the previous evening Robert Vea- zie had called to visit Sarah. Robert was a clerk in the store of Powers & Dunbar, and was Sarah's accepted lover. He had displayed qualities of head and heart which had recommend ed him to the favorable consideration of her parents, and though he, was. poor, yet he had business tact and energy It was understood by the careful father that there should be no formal engage ment at present. Sarah remembered that she and Robert had sat together upon the sofa and looked over an illus trated magazine. While thus occupied 1t had occurred to her that they could see better if the large lamp,e which stood in the middle of the shelf, were moved ont to the end and she arose to do it. Upon lifting the lamp she saw a piece of paper whirl out and circle down until 1t was drawn into the fire of the grate directly beneath. r5.ti,s4L -s's
 "What was that ?" asked Robert, who had seen the whirling paper. sD 1
 Idon't know, I'm sure. It's burned up, whatever it was,'' answered Sarah. She saw the charred, tinder-like frag- ments whisked up by the draft, and then she added--"I guess it was noth- ing of importance. It wouldn't have been there if it had been."
 And after this she resumed her seat.
 Now Sarah remembered all this very well i; and, in truth, the question of her mother had startled her ; ;'obutr she had not seen twenty dollar bill. She knew nothing about any such bill. We can imagine the amount of mentalsresefva- tion employed in this decision. Her first impulse was to avoid disaereeable exposure. If the bank-note had been destroyed, as she now saw it must have been destroyed, it had been through no fault, of hers, and, moreover, the loss could not possibly be helped. hs
 Upon reflection, when Sarah saw how much trouble was upon her mother, she was sorry she had not confessed ythe whole truth at once. But it. was toe late now. She had taken the first false step, and she could not retract without 'asdisagreeable exposure. .4s' 2 '1-s
 Who could have knocked it of ?