"I fell out--of--the--tree! I did not mean to do it. I was up there hiding from those who passed in the lane, and all at once the awful thought came to me that I could slip and blame it on Tavia. But I did not mean to do it that way. Oh, Dorothy, how dreadfully I have been punished!" and the sick girl fell to weeping again. "Never mind dear. We all do wrong sometimes--" "No, Dorothy Dale, you never do. I have been jealous of your love for Tavia. I have loved you from the first moment I saw you--that day helping a poor drunken man to his feet. I said then I would make you love me, but see how I have failed. You will hate me now." "No, Sarah dear. You are better and nobler this minute than any other girl in Dalton, for no other likely, has had to make the heroic effort to do right that you have been obliged to go through with. You know the joy there is over one lost lamb when it is returned to the fold?" Sarah leaned back, and looked up full into Dorothy's face. "I knew you would know just what to say to me;" she whispered. "Dorothy Dale you are--an--angel," and the big, brown eyes sent out such a look of love, admiration and, at last--happiness. "It all seemed worse to you, thinking of it here, alone, with no one to say a word to you," continued Dorothy, consolingly. "And then of course, your father was angry. That only showed how fond he is of you." "Yes. It seems every thing helps one to do wrong. I really never accused Tavia of doing it, only that time when we came in, and then I was so sick and frightened, I had no idea, then, that father would take it all in earnest. But he rushed right off, and when I heard Squire Sanders had been at the school--oh, Dorothy how can I tell you how I felt!" "But it is all over now," spoke Dorothy soothingly, "and I will take care that every girl in school knows the greatest part of the trouble came from a mistake." "But I can never go back to that school again--" "Why, of course you can. I have to make an explanation myself when I go back. You know how hasty Alice is; well she got herself in trouble on my account, and I feel I must say something about it. I was too sick then to know just what to say. So, now that Tavia is back, she will have to give an excuse. Then I can say how the whole trouble was more of a mistake, than anything else, and how we were all really somewhat to blame; perhaps one as much as another." CHAPTER XI A SOLDIER'S DAUGHTER