"To be sure it is lying, and nothing else," answered Jem, laughing;
"everybody lies, cannot you do so too?"

The blood mounted to the temples of the indignant boy, spreading its
glow over his fair forehead, and causing his usually gentle eyes to
flush with righteous anger.

"I a liar! I tell a lie?" he cried. "No! not to escape a beating every
day will I tell a falsehood!"

"And why not, you silly jackanapes?" asked his ungodly comrade, in a
tone of derision.

"Because my parents taught me it was sinful, and God has forbidden
it," said William. "My mother always told me that lying was the first
step in the road to ruin; and I read in my Bible that no one 'that
loveth and maketh a lie' can enter into that Holy City of which God
himself is the glory and the light."

Dear young reader, how glorious is the majesty of truth! The
dissipated and sin-loving journeyman, long since made familiar with
vice, could not listen unmoved as the boy uttered the scriptural
denunciation in the solemn and reverential manner he had been taught
was proper, it was long since Jem Taylor had heard any word from that
holy book, and now, awed by the dignity of the truth, that great
principle of Christian life and conduct, he made no answer, but
continued to work in silence. Perhaps he might have resumed the
subject; but Mr. Walters came in and commenced the usual
fault-finding, and Jem answering reproach with reproach, there was
nothing more said.