lemonade were passed, he allowed himself to be helped with the rest,
thinking only how hot he was and how good the cold things would taste.
He had eaten half his cream and half emptied his glass before he really
thought of his promise. Then he stopped suddenly, feeling sorry and
distressed.

[Illustration: The ice cream and lemonade prove too big a temptation.]

"But what could I do?" he reasoned. "It would not be polite to ask for
just berries alone."

This was Earl's second mistake. The first was forgetting his promise,
the second in thinking true obedience could ever be impolite.

"I might as well finish now, for if it's going to hurt me it has
already, and the rest won't do any more harm."

Mistake number three. Why should any wrongdoing be finished? Suppose a
driver should say about a horse, "He has a pretty big load now and so I
might as well pile on as much more as I can," would it be no worse for
the horse? Earl was entirely wrong.

Of course he suffered for it. The doctor had to be sent for in the
night, and the next day, though better, he was ill and weak, and had to
stay in bed--something no boy was ever known to enjoy.

He had hoped that the simple remedies mamma gave him as soon as he
confessed what he had done, and began to feel ill, would undo the
mischief, but they did not. Earl had to bear the full consequences of
his broken promise.