The Talkative Wig | Page 8

said, "Why, Alice, your hair is all
over your face; how comes that?"
"The string was nearly off when I went in, and then it fell on the floor,
and aunt said I looked better without it. Here is the string, which she
picked up."

"I should have thought your aunt would have let you go up to Jane, and
have it tied properly; you should have asked her leave."
"I suppose," said the father, "that Alice felt too shy. It is no matter for
one day. Alice, I dare say, kept her promise as well as she could; and,
next week, she shall have her box; a right pretty one it is."
Alice kissed her father and mother, and went to bed; but there was a
little cloud between her and the all-pure Being to whom she prayed that
night, and her precious tears wetted my locks, ere she went to sleep.
Alice felt that she had not been true to her promise, and her parents'
entire trust was the most severe reproach. Still she could not quite make
up her mind to say so; and she tried not to think so. She had set her
heart upon the little work box made and ornamented by her father
whom she loved dearly. One day after another passed away, and every
day it became harder to confess her fault. How often I heard her sigh
during these days! Nothing makes a perfectly light heart but entire
uprightness.
One day, her father called her to him, and said, "Come, Alice, and tell
me which color I shall use to ornament the border of your box-- blue or
green?"
"Just which you please, Father."
"But you know it is for you, and I want to know what you like best."
"If it should ever be mine, Father, I like blue best."
"Blue it shall be," said her father. "It will be finished to-morrow, and
then your month for keeping your hair tied will end. I think your eyes
are better, and you have learned also that you can keep a promise. You
are my good child."
Alice could not speak. She ran out of doors into her garden where her
father had made her a little arbor, and there, all alone, she struggled
with herself, till courage and truth prevailed. Then she went back into

her father's study where she found him still at work on her box.
"Almost done, Alice," said he; "see how pretty it is." "It must not be
mine, Father," said Alice, very quietly, for she was determined to
command herself. "I have not kept my promise, Father. I have deceived
you and mother. I don't deserve the box. Give it to my cousin." Then
she told her father the whole story, just as it was. As she went on, she
grew braver, and felt happier; so that she was able to look up into her
father's face, and say, very calmly, "I could not take any pleasure in
your pretty box, for I know I do not deserve it. Please, dear Father, to
tell Mother all about it, and put away the box, if you choose not to give
it to some one else. It is very pretty, but it is not to be my box."
The tears began to come in her eyes, and she turned to go out of the
room. Her father stopped her. "Come here, my Child," he said. "You
did wrong, but you have done all you could to repair your fault. You
will never again, I think, be guilty of falsehood. At the end of another
month, if you feel sure of yourself, come to me for your box."
"No, Father, that would seem like being paid for speaking the truth. I
should never ask for the box."
"Would you rather I should give it to your cousin?"
"If you please, I should;" and then the tears ran fast down her cheeks.
"You know my cousin Edith has very few pretty things. I should like
her to have it."
"Take it, Alice, and give it to her yourself."
"As your present, Father, not as mine. You know it is not, and cannot
be mine. I have been so unhappy at my untruth, that I think I shall
never commit such a fault again."
Alice never did again, in the slightest thing, depart from the strictest
truth and uprightness, in action as well as in word. It was common for
her friends to say when there was a question about any thing that had
occurred, "We will ask Alice. She always tells the exact truth."

At last, Alice was a woman; and I, of course, led a more sober life, as
she became more serious. I grew so long and thick that, when she took