arry.

"Leave you? What do you want of me? I suppose you want to tell me I
advised you to burn the barn."

"I didn't set the barn afire!" exclaimed Harry, now for the first time
realizing the cause of his friend's displeasure.

"Don't lie."

"I speak the truth. I did not set it afire, or even know that it was
going to be set on fire."

Mr. Nason closed the door which he had opened to depart. The firm
denial, as well as the tone and manner of the boy, arrested his
judgment against him. He had learned to place implicit confidence in
Harry's word; for, though he might have told lies to others, he never
told them to him.

"Who did burn the barn?" asked the keeper, looking sternly into the
eye of the culprit.

Harry hesitated. A sense of honor and magnanimity pervaded his soul.
He had obtained some false notions; and he did not understand that he
could hardly be false to one who had been false to himself--that to
help a criminal conceal his crime was to conspire against the peace
and happiness of his fellow-beings. Shabbily as Ben Smart had used
him, he could not make up his mind to betray him.

"You don't answer," added Mr. Nason.

"I didn't do it."

"But who did?"

"I don't like to tell."

"Very well; you can do as you like. After what I had done for you, it
was a little strange that you should do as you have."

"I will tell you all about it, Mr. Nason, if you will promise not to
tell."

"I know all about it. You and Ben Smart put your heads together to be
revenged on the squire; you set his barn afire, and then stole Leman's
boat."

"No, sir; I didn't set the barn afire, nor steal the boat, nor help to
do either."

"You and he were together."

"We were; and if it wasn't for being mean to Ben, I would tell you all
about it."

"Mean to Ben! As soon as it was known that you and Ben were missing,
everybody in the village knew who set the barn afire. All you have got
to do is to clear yourself, if you can; Ben is condemned already."

"If you will hear my story I will tell you all about it."

Harry proceeded to narrate everything that had occurred since he left
the house on the preceding night. It was a very clear and plausible
statement. He answered all the questions which Mr. Nason proposed with
promptness, and his replies were consistent.

"I believe you, Harry," said the keeper, when he had finished his
examination. "Somehow I couldn't believe you would do such a thing as
set the squire's barn