The debate lasted ten minutes, and at the end four boys walked slowly, with much manifestation of feeling, back to the tree where the fifth sat. There was woe and lamentation after the manner of boy-kind. When the boys left the yard it seemed to Miss Morgan that she could not look from her work without seeing the lonesome figure of Bud. In the afternoon the patter of feet by her house grew slower, and then ceased. Occasionally a belated wayfarer sped by. The music of the circus band outside of the tent came to Miss Morgan's ears on gusts of wind, and died away as the wind ebbed. She dropped the dish-cloth three times in five minutes, and washed her cup and saucer twice. She struggled bravely in the Slough of Despond for awhile, and then turned back with Pliable. "Henry," she said, as the boy walked past her carrying peppergrass to the bird, "Henry, what made you act so last night?" The boy dropped his head and answered: "I dunno." "But, Henry, didn't you know it was wrong?" "I dunno." "Why did you stick that little boy with the pin?" "Well--well--" he gasped, preparing for a defence. "Well--he pinched me first." "Yes, Henry, but don't you know that it's wrong to do those things in church? Don't you see how bad it was?" "I was just a-playin', Miss Morgan; I didn't mean to." Bud did not dare to trust his instinctive reading of the signs. He went on impulsively: "I wanted him to quit, but he just kept right on, and Brother Baker didn't touch him." The wind brought the staccato music of the circus band to the foster-mother's ears. The music completed her moral decay, for she was thinking, if Brother Baker would only look after his own children as carefully as he looked after those of other people, the world would be better. Then she said: "Now, Henry, if I let you go, just this once--now just this once, mind you--will you promise never to do anything like that again?" Blackness dropped from the boy's spirit, and by main strength he strangled a desire to yell. The desire revived when he reached the alley, and he ran whooping to the circus grounds.