AN ACCIDENT. 19

It was Miss Rayner’s custom, if her usual
lesson was finished before it was quite time to
start for church, to talk to her young pupils on
what they had heard, and to show them how
to apply the lessons to their daily life.

On this particular morning she spoke to
them about sincerity.

“There is no need for me to remind you, girls,
how fearful a thing it is to tell a lie,” she said,
“or that it is just as bad if you call it a ‘story’
or a ‘fib,’ because that you all know as well as
Ido. But I think, perhaps, some of you for-
get now and then that you may deceive people
by only telling them half the truth, or perhaps
even by saying nothing at all. It may be as
wrong not to speak as to say what is not
true.”

Her eyes wandered over the faces of the
girls, and rested, as they often did, on that of
Nellie Maine, which generally told by its ex-
pression whether she understood what had been
said. Rather to Miss Rayner’s surprise, Nellie
became scarlet, and the tears sprang up ready
to fall. For present to the little girl’s mind
was the memory of that day when she had
taken home the lost cat.