Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-07-29

'Oan you see the market place Cousin
Eva2 II so, poor Jeanne dare, when she
was brought out TO die, must have seen thii
hill, with the church on the top oft that is
supposing there was a church."
There might have been, though not thii
one, which is modern, you see"
81 wonder" continued Cherry, who was
always wondering, "if she looked up at it,
and thought it hard that Notre-D Dame de Bon
Secours should not have succored her. Per.
haps, because, to escape from the hereto
English, she had told a lie."
"And that reminds me, added Ruth, who
was not given to ethical questions. ''thst
while we sit and rest, we might hear from
Cousin Eva about the lie she told"
"Yes, yes. Please say, Cousin Eva, was IL
a big or a little one Why did you tell il ?
And was IL ever found out 2"
81 don't quite see the difference between
big and little, my child. A lie is a lie, though
sometimes there are extenusting circum-
stances in the reason for telling it. And
once told, the question whether or not il is
/ ever found out, does not matter NY lie
never was found out, but it grieved me all
the same"
"Will it grieve you to tell about it? [
should not like that, said Ruth softly.
mo, dear because l have long since for
| given myself. l was such small child,
much younger than either of you, and, un-
| like you, had no parents, only an aunt and
uncle and lot of rough cousins who dom
ineered over me and made me afraid. re-
member, as If it were yesterday, the shudder
Of terror that came over me when my eldest
cousin clutched me by the shoulder saying,
Did you do that ?"
'And what had you done ?" asked Cherry.
Nothing, but Will thought l had. We
were all digging in our gardens, and he had
just found his favorite jessamine plant lying
uprooted on the ground 1t had been my fa-
vorite too, but Will took il from my garden
and planted it in his own, where 1 watched it
anxiously, for l was afraid it would die"
You did it on purpose Will persisted !;
or If not out of revenge. out of pure silli-
ness Girls are always SO silly. Didn't you
propose yesterday to dig it up just to see If it
had got a root p
(which was quite true. was a very silly
little girl, but meant no harm. wouldn't
for the world have harmed either Will or his
jessamine. told him so, but he refused to
believe me. So did they ALL They stood
round me- and declared must have done it.
Nobody else had been in the garden, except
indeed dog, who was in the habit of bury
ing his bones there But they never thought
of him as the sinner, it was only of me. And
when 1 denied doing the thing, they were on
ly the more angry.
You know you are telling lie. And
where do little girls go that tell lies ? cried
WILL who sometimes told them himself but
then he was a boy, and it was a rule in that
family, q terribly mistaken one, that the boys
might do anything, and the girls must always
give in to the boys. So when Will looked
iiereely at me, repeating, You know you did
it, almost felt as if really had done it.
Unable to find another word, l began to cry.
Dob h.ra IL. l. I II
the rest children-'Eva has gone and pulled
up my jessamine, out of spite or mischief,
or pure silliness-I don't know which, and l
don't care. I'd forgive her if she'd only con-
fess, but she won't. She keeps on telling lie
after lie, and we won't stand children that
tell lies. II we punish her. she'll howl, so 1
propose that until she confesses we all send
her to Coventry"
It's very nice town, but 1 don't want
to go there" said I, at which 1 remember
they all burst out laughing, and cried only
the more.
II had no idea what sending to Coventry
meant, unless it was like sending to Siberia,
which had lately been reading of, or to the
quicksilver mines, where condemned con-
victs were taken, and where nobody ever
lived more than two years. Perhaps there
were quicksilver mines at Coventry? A cold
shudder of fear ran through me, but was
utterly powerless. 1 could but die.
''Soon discovered what my punishment
was and, though not death, it was hard
enough. Fancy, children, being treated day
after day, and all day long, just as if you
were chair or table-never taken the least
notice of, never answered if you spoke, never
spoken to on any account; never played
with, petted, or scolded. Completely and
absolutely ignored. This was being sent to
Coventry, and it was as cruel punishment
as could have been inflicted upon any little
girl especially a sensitive little girl who liked
her playfellows, rough as they were and was
very fond of one of them, who was never
rough but always kind and good
''This was little boy who lived next door.
His parents, like mine, were out in India;
nor had he any brothers or sisters He was
just my age, and younger than any of my
cousins. So we were the best of friends
Tommy and 1. His surname 1 have forgot
ten, but know we always called him Tom
my, and that loved him dearly. The bit
terest pang of all this bitter time was that
even Tommy went over to the enemy.
At first he had been very sorry for me-
had tried all through that holiday Saturday
when my punishment began, to persuade me
to confess, and escape it; and when he fail
ed-for how could confess to what had
never done TO an action so mean that 1
would have been ashamed even to have
thought of doing ?-then Tommy also sent
me to Coventry. On the Sunday, all us chill
dren'-we didn't mind grammar much in
those days-walked to church together across
the fields; and Tommy always walked with
me, chattering the whole way. Now we
walked in total silence, for Wills eye was up
on him, and even Tommy was afraid. What
ever / said, he never answered a single word
Then l felt as if all the world were
against meas if it was no use trying to be
good, or telling the truth, since even the
truth was regarded as lie. In short, in my
small childish way, l suffered much as
poor Jeanne dare must have suffered
when she was shut up in her prison
at Rouen, called a witch, deceiver-forsak-
en- of all, and yet promised pardon if she
would only confess and own she was a wick
ed woman, which she knew she was not
81 was quito innocent, but after three days
of being supposed guilty L ceased to care
whether l were guilty or no. 1 seemed not
to care for anything. Since they supposed l
wax capable OF such mean thing AZ pulling
up harmless jessamine-root out of spite,
what did it matter whether they thought l
had told lie or not ? Indeed, If l did tell
one, it would be much easier than telling the
truth and every day my sticking it out
and persisting in the truth, became more
difficult.
''This state of things continued till Wednss- |
day, which was our half holiday, when my |
cousins usually went long walk or played |
cricket, and | was sent in to spend the after
noon with Tommy They were the delight
of my life, those long quiet Wednesdays |
when Tommy and 1 went incoming about |
dug in our garden, watched our tadpoles-we |
had a hand basin full of them, which we kept |
in the arbor till they developed into myriads
Of frogs and went hopping about everywhere.
But even tadpoles could not charm me now,