er recklessly daring in seeing
"his boy." It was Saturday afternoon, and Jacky was free from his
detested school. Maurice had given him a new sled, and then had
"fallen," as he expressed it, to the little fellow's entreaty: "Mr.
Curtis, if you'll come up to the hill, I'll show you how she'll go!" But
before they started Maurice had a disagreeable five minutes with Lily.
She had told him, tears of laughter running down her rosy cheeks, of
some performance of Jacky's. He had asked her, she said, about his paw;
"and I said his name was Mr. George Dale, and he died ten or eleven
years ago of consumption--had to tell him something, you know! An' he
says,--he's great on arithmetic,--'Poor paw!' he says, 'how many years
was that before I was born?' I declare, I was all balled up!" Then, as
she wiped her laughing eyes, she had grown suddenly angry: "I'm going to
take him away from his new Sunday school; the teacher--it was her did
the Paul Pry act, and asked him about his father;--well, I guess she
ain't much of a lady; I never see her name in the Sunday papers;--she
came down on Jacky because he told her a 'lie'; that's what she called
it, 'a lie'! Said he'd go to hell if he told lies. I said, 'I won't have
you threatening my child!' I declare I felt like saying, 'You go to hell
yourself!' but of course I don't say things that ain't refined."

"Well, but Lily, the little beggar must tell the truth--"

"Mr. Curtis, Jacky didn't say anything but what you or me would say a
dozen times a day. He just told her he hadn't a library book out, when
he had. Seems he forgot to bring it back, so, 'course, he just said he
hadn't any book. Well, this teacher, she put the lie onto him. It's a
vulgar word, 'lie.' And as for hell, they say society people don't
believe there is such a place any more."

When he and his little son walked away (Jacky dragging his magnificent
sled), Maurice was nervously anxious to counteract such views.

"Jacobus," he said, "I'm going to tell you something: Big men never say
anything that isn't so! Do you get on to that?" (In his own mind he
added, "I'm a sweet person to tell him that!") "Promise me you'll never
say anything that isn't just exactly so," said Maurice.

"Yes, sir," said Jacky. "Say, Mr. Curtis, have you got teeth you can
take out?" When Maurice said, rather absently, that he had not, Jacky's
dismay was pathetic. "Why, maw can do _that_," he said, reproachfully.
It was the first flaw in his idol.