your theft. No! do not
attempt to deny it! Here are two young gentlemen of position who are
witnesses against you!"

Ishmael attempted to gurgle some denial, but his voice was drowned in
the blood that still filled his mouth.

"My poor boy," continued the gentleman--"for I see you are poor, if you
had simply eaten the fruit and nuts, that would have been wrong
certainly, being a breach of trust; but it would have been almost
excusable, for you might have been hungry and been tempted by the smell
of the fruit and by the opportunity of tasting it. And if you had
confessed it frankly, I should as frankly have forgiven you. But I am
sorry to say that you have attempted to conceal your fault by falsehood.
And do you know what that falsehood has done? It has converted the act,
that I should have construed as mere trespass, into a theft!"

Ishmael stooped down and bathed his bloody face in the stream and then
wiped it clean with his coarse pocket handkerchief. And then he raised
his head with a childish dignity most wonderful to see, and said:

"Listen to me, sir, if you please. I did not take the fruit or the nuts,
or anything that was yours. It is true, sir, as you said, that I am
poor. And I was hungry, very hungry indeed, because I have had nothing
to eat since six o'clock this morning. And the oranges and figs did
smell nice, and I did want them very much. But I did not touch them,
sir! I could better bear hunger than I could bear shame! And I should
have suffered shame if I had taken your things! Yes, even though you
might have never found out the loss of them. Because--I should have
known myself to be a thief, and I could not have borne that, sir! I did
not take your property, sir, I hope you will believe me."

"He did! he did! he did! didn't he now, Ben?" cried Alfred.

Ben was silent.

"And we beat him for it, didn't we, Ben?"

"Yes," said Ben.

"There now you see, my boy! I would be glad to believe you; but here are
two witnesses against you! two young gentlemen of rank, who would not
stoop to falsehood!" said the gentleman sadly.

"Sir," replied Ishmael calmly, "be pleased to listen to me, while I tell
you what really happened. When you left me in charge of this horse I led
him to this stream and gave him water, and I was rubbing him down with a
handful of fresh dock-leaves when these two young gentlemen came up. And
the elder one proposed to help himself to the contents of the hamper.
But the younger o