ght be
such a lesson to him that it would check what otherwise might prove to
be a downward course. If I were silent, he might do such a thing again,
as this had been so easy; and get worse and worse. I must--I ought to
tell, I said to myself; and then, as I dropped on my knees by the old
bin, and rested my head on the edge, the hot tears came to my eyes, and
my misery seemed greater than I could bear, for I felt it as bitterly as
if I myself had been led into this disgraceful crime.

I rose again with a clearer view of what I should do under the
circumstances, for I had been having a terrible fight with bewildering
thoughts; now thinking I would lock up the bin and go away as if I had
not found the watch, and do nothing but separate myself from my
school-fellow, now going in the opposite direction, in which I felt
quite determined.

"That's it," I said to myself. "I shall break with Tom Mercer for ever,
but I'll tell him why. We've learned to box for something, and perhaps
he'll be best man. No, he won't. I shall have right on my side, and as
he is guilty he will feel cowardly. I will thrash him till he can
hardly crawl, and then, when he is weak and miserable, I'll tell him all
I have found out, and make him go and put the watch back where Eely can
find it, and then it will never be known who took it, and Mercer will
not be expelled in disgrace as a common thief. Why, it would break his
mother's heart!"

"Yes, that will be the way," I thought, feeling clearer and more
relieved now. "It shall be a secret, but I will punish him as severely
as I can, and though we shall never be friends again, I'll try hard to
check him from going downward like that, and though he will hate me for
what I have done, he will thank me some day when he has grown up to be a
man."

I closed the lid of the bin and thrust the top of the padlock through
the staple and locked it; withdrew the key, and had raised my hand
mechanically to put it in its old hiding-place on the beam, but I
altered my mind.

"No," I thought; "I'll bring him up here, and give him the key then, and
make him open the bin and take out the watch before I thrash him. It
shall be a lesson for him from beginning to end. He must have some
shame in him, and I want him to feel it, so that he can never forget it
again."

I thrust the key into my pocket and went down into the yard. It was a
glorious sunny afternoon when I went up into the loft, and the weather
h