stormy scene Miss Crane paid for it, and the man went grumbling away."
"Did Lewis have it?" cried Nat, much excited.
"You will see. Now poor Lewis had another trial to bear, for the boys were constantly saying, 'Lend me your pearl-handled knife, Gooseberry,' and things of that sort, till Lewis was so unhappy he begged to be sent home. Miss Crane did her best to keep the boys quiet, but it was hard work, for they would tease, and she could not be with them all the time. That is one of the hardest things to teach boys; they won't 'hit a fellow when he is down,' as they say, but they will torment him in little ways till he would thank them to fight it out all round."
"I know that," said Dan.
"So do I," added Nat, softly.
Jack said nothing, but he quite agreed; for he knew that the elder boys despised him, and let him alone for that very reason.
"Do go on about poor Lewis, Aunt Jo. I don't believe he took the knife, but I want to be sure," said Daisy, in great anxiety.
"Well, week after week went on and the matter was not cleared up. The boys avoided Lewis, and he, poor fellow, was almost sick with the trouble he had brought upon himself. He resolved never to tell another lie, and tried so hard that Miss Crane pitied and helped him, and really came at last to believe that he did not take the knife. Two months after the peddler's first visit, he came again, and the first thing he said was—
"'Well, ma'am, I found that knife after all. It had slipped behind the lining of my valise, and fell out the
