“It ain't a lie,auntie,it's the truth.I wanted to keep you from grieving—that was all that made me come.”
“I'd give the whole world to believe that—it would cover up a power of sins,Tom.I'd 'most be glad you'd run off and acted so bad.But it ain't reasonable;because,why didn't you tell me,child?”
“Why,you see,when you got to talking about the funeral,I just got all full of the idea of our coming and hiding in the church,and I couldn't somehow bear to spoil it.So I just put the bark back in my pocket and kept mum.”
“What bark?”
“The bark I had wrote on to tell you we'd gone pirating.I wish,now,you'd waked up when I kissed you—I do,honest.”
The hard lines in his aunt's face relaxed and a sudden tenderness dawned in her eyes．
“Did you kiss me,Tom?”
“Why,yes,I did.”
“Are you sure you did,Tom?”
“Why,yes,I did,auntie—certain sure.”
“What did you kiss me for,Tom?”
“Because I loved you so,and you laid there moaning and I was so sorry.”
The words sounded like truth.The old lady could not hide a tremor in her voice when she said:
“Kiss me again,Tom!—and be off with you to school,now,and don't bother me any more.”
The moment he was gone,she ran to a closet and got out the ruin of a jacket which Tom had gone pirating in.Then she stopped,with it in her hand,and said to herself:
“No,I don't dare.Poor boy,I reckon he's lied about it—but it's a blessed,blessed lie,there's such a comfort come from it.
I hope the Lord—I know the Lord will forgive him,because it was such goodheartedness in him to tell it.But I don't want to find out it's a lie.I won't look.”
She put the jacket away,and stood by musing a minute.Twice she put out her hand to take the garment again,and twice she refrained.
Once more she ventured,and this time she fortified herself with the thought:“It's a good lie—it's a good lie—I won't let it grieve me.”So she sought the jacket pocket.A moment later she was reading Tom's piece of bark through flowing tears and saying:“I could forgive the boy,now,if he'd committed a million sins!”
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