rge piece of cake,
and something sweet to drink, which she said would do them good. Now
this sweet stuff was cider; and as they were never used to drink
anything but water, it made them quite giddy for a little while; so
that when they got back into the lane, first one tumbled down, and then
another; and their faces became flushed, and their heads began to ache,
so that they were forced to sit down for a time under a tree, on the
side of the lane, and there they were when John came to find them; for
John, who was in the stable when they ran out of the garden, was much
frightened when he returned to the house, and could not find them
there.

"Ah, you naughty children!" said he, when he found them, "you have
almost frightened me out of my life! Where have you been?"

"We have been in the lane," said Lucy, blushing.

This was not all the truth; but one fault always leads to another.

So John brought them home, and locked them up in their play-room,
whilst he got their dinner ready.

When the children found themselves shut up in their play-room, and
could not get out, they sat themselves down, and began to think how
naughty they had been. They were silent for a few minutes; at last Lucy
spoke:

"Oh, Henry! oh, Emily! how naughty we have been! And yet I thought I
would be so good when papa and mamma went out; so very good! What
shall we say when papa and mamma come home?"

Then all the children began to cry. At length Henry said:

"I'll tell you what we will do, Lucy; we will be good all the evening;
we will not do one naughty thing."

"So we will, Henry," said Emily. "When John lets us out, how good we
will be! and then we can tell the truth, that we were naughty in the
morning, but we were good all the evening."

John made some nice apple-dumplings for the children, and when they
were ready, and he had put some butter and sugar upon them (for John
was a good-natured man), he fetched the children down; and after they
had each ate as much apple-dumpling as he thought proper, he told them
they might play in the barn, bidding them not to stir out of it till
supper-time.

Henry and Lucy and Emily were delighted with this permission; and, as
Lucy ran along to the barn with her brother and sister, she said:

"Now let us be very good. We are not to do anything naughty all this
evening."

"We will be very good indeed," answered Emily.

"Better than we ever were in all our lives," added Henry.

So they all went i