Now, Cicely had told him that he _must not_ go a fishin' in the creek back of the house, there was such deep places in it; and he must not go there till he got older. And he would _mean_ to mind, I would know it by his looks. He would look good and promise. But mebby in a hour's time little Let Peedick would stroll over here, and beset the boy to go; and the next thing she'd know, he would be down to the creek, fishin' with a bent pin. [Illustration: LED ASTRAY.] And Cicely had told him he _mustn't_ go in a swimmin'. But he went; and because it made his mother feel bad, he would deceive her jest as good-natured as you ever see. Why, once he come in with his pretty brown curls all wet, and his little shirt on wrong side out. He was kinder whistlin', and tryin' to act indifferent and innocent. And when his mother questioned him about it, he said,-- “He had drinked so much water, that it had soaked through somehow to his hair. And he turned his shirt gettin' over the fence. And we might ask Let Peedick if it wuzn't so.” We could hear Letty a whistlin' out to the barn, and we knew he stood ready to say “he see the shirt turn.” But we didn't ask. But when the boy see that his actin' and behavin' made his mother feel real bad, he would ask her forgiveness jest as sweet; and I knew he meant to do jest right, and mebby he would for as much as an hour, or till some temptation come along--or boy. But the good-tempered easiness to be led astray made Cicely feel like death: she had seen it in another; she see it was a inherited trait. And she could see jest how hard it was goin' to make his future: she would try her best to break him of it. But how, how was she goin' to do it, with them weak, good-natured lips, and that chin? But she tried, and she prayed. And, oh, how we all loved the boy! We loved him as we did the apples in our eyes. But as I said, he was a child that had his spells. Sometimes he would be very truthful and honest,--most too much so. That was when he had his sort o' dreamy spells. [Illustration: THE BOY'S EXPLANATION.] I know one day, she that wus Kezier Lum come here a visitin'. She is middlin' old, and dretful humbly. Paul sot and looked at her face for a long time, with that sort of a dreamy look of hisen; and finally he says,-- “Was you ever a young child?” And she says,-- “Why, law me! yes, I s'pose so.” And he says,-- “I think I would rather have died young, than to grow up, and be so homely.” [Illustration: SHE THAT WUS KEZIER LUM.] I riz up, and led him out of the room quick, and told him “never to talk so agin.” And he says,-- “Why, I told the truth, aunt Samantha.” “Wall, truth hain't to be spoken at all times.” “Mother punished me last night for not telling the truth, and told me to tell it always.” And then I tried to explain things to him; and he looked sweet, and said “he would try and remember not to hurt folks'es feelin's.”