The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1905-11-04

awaited inquiry concerning the where.
abouts OF the sugar-boWl, but no ore
seemed at all interested in it's fate
Neither was it mentioned when she
came nome from school that night. nor
the next day, nor the next.
1t was not until fall house-cleanin-
time that Mrs. Campbell discovered
her loss. She was looking over the
dishes on the top shelf in the pantrv
Il wonder" Lydia heard her sav
where grandmOther'S sugar. bowl iso"
She searched a few minutes and then
called, Lydia, do You know ANYTHING
about grandmother's susar-bowI9"
But Lydia had slipped quietly out of
the room. That noon at dinner tho
subject was discussed at length. brt
as it happened, no one asked lydia
direct question, and she did not vol
unteer information. Mr.. Campbell re-
membered having taken the bowl down
from the shelf to get the sample of
seed corn which had been stored in if
during the winter He was very posi-
tive that he had left the dish in the
kitchen when he went out TO tho
planting; but Mrs Campbell. knowing
MS absent-minded ways, was con-
vlnced in her own mind that he had
carried 1t out into the field with him
and 1t had thus been lost. So she
said no more about it.
Lydia thought that, if she escaped
discovery. she would escape punish
ment; but what she suffered during
the following weeks was harder than
any punishment her mother would
have inflicted. Try as she might she
could not entirely forget that sugar.
bowl. The breaking of any kind of
a dish reminded her Of her mishap.
and in the snelling-lessons words like
deceive. 'prevaricate." and con
fess seemed always to fall to her.
she tried to make peace with her trou- |
blesome conscience by sewing in
squares of patchwork !
enough for 2 whole quilt in all.
1t was like getting a splinter of /
wood or stone into ones hand. The
lesh VIII seem to heal over it and
ometlmes it will not hurt at all, and
hen again 1t will swell UP and be
ore The splinter is there, and has
o be got out before the flesh can real
heal. So the splinter in Lydia's con-
clence hurt whenever the conscience
vas logged. until at last it was got
ut. But that was not until it had
ean there two years.
Then said Lydia's father: I'VE are
aving SO much rain this spring that
think III clean out the old we'll in
he woodshed and let it fill | was
fraid all last summer that the one in
ne yard would go dry, and then where
'ould we be?'
He ripped off the boards which cOv-
red the well and began to clear it
ut. In the very first pailful of dirt
nd rubbish that came up were some
leces of the sigar-bowl There was ,
0 mistaking its delicate pink fecked :
ith gilt. Mr.. Campbell took the
eces into the kitchen where Mrs.
ampbell and Lydia were. When Lyd-
saw what her father held in his T
and she burst out crying and ran {
lstairs to her room. The secret she :
sd kept for two years was told now, j
ID, though she was frightened she q
as glad. g
Perhaps Mrs. Campbell understood a
'out the splinter in the conscience r
I'd knew that, now it was out, the
nscience would grow whole and
althy again; for all she said to d
-dia was, "You have punished your a
If very severely, Lydia, have you t
t?"-Churchman. t