broken voice, but with clear eyes, and the frank, respectful manner
they had tried to teach him,
“I’ll say I’m sorry now, and ask you to forgive me, sir.”
“It was a kind lie, Dan, and I can’t help forgiving it; but you see it
did no good,” said Mr. Bhaer, with a hand on either shoulder, and a
face full of relief and affection.
“It kept the boys from plaguing Nat. That’s what I did it for. It
made him right down miserable. I didn’t care so much,” explained
Dan, as if glad to speak out after his hard silence.
“How could you do it? You are always so kind to me,” faltered
Nat, feeling a strong desire to hug his friend and cry. Two girlish
performances, which would have scandalized Dan to the last
degree.
“It’s all right now, old fellow, so don’t be a fool,” he said,
swallowing the lump in his throat, and laughing out as he had not
done for weeks. “Does Mrs. Bhaer know?” he asked, eagerly.
“Yes; and she is so happy I don’t know what she will do to you,”
began Mr. Bhaer, but got no farther, for here the boys came
crowding about Dan in a tumult of pleasure and curiosity; but
before he had answered more than a dozen questions, a voice cried
out,
“Three cheers for Dan!” and there was Mrs. Jo in the doorway
waving her dish-towel, and looking as if she wanted to dance a jig
for joy, as she used to do when a girl.
“Now then,” cried Mr. Bhaer, and led off a rousing hurrah, which
startled Asia in the kitchen, and made old Mr. Roberts shake his
head as he drove by, saying,
“Schools are not what they were when I was young!”
Dan stood it pretty well for a minute, but the sight of Mrs. Jo’s
delight upset him, and he suddenly bolted across the hall into the
parlor, whither she instantly followed, and neither were seen for
half an hour.
Mr. Bhaer found it very difficult to calm his excited flock; and,
seeing that lessons were an impossibility for a time, he caught their
attention by telling them the fine old story of the friends whose
fidelity to one another has made their names immortal. The lads
listened and remembered, for just then their hearts were touched
by the loyalty of a humbler pair of friends. The lie was wrong, but
the love that prompted it and the courage that bore in silence the
disgrace which belonged to another, made Dan a hero in their eyes.
Honesty and honor had a new meaning now; a good name was
more precious than gold; for once lost money could not buy it
back; and faith in one another made life smooth and happy as
nothing else could do.
Tommy proudly restored the name of the firm; Nat was devoted to
Dan; and all the boys tried to atone to both for former suspicion
and neglect. Mrs. Jo rejoiced over her flock, and Mr. Bhaer was
never tired of telling the story of his young Damon and Pythias.
CHAPTER XV IN THE WILLOW
The old tree saw and heard a good many little scenes and
confidences that summer, because it became the favorite retreat of
all the children, and the willow seemed to enjoy it, for a pleasant
welcome always met them, and the quiet hours spent in its arms
did them all good. It had a great deal of company one Saturday
afternoon, and some little bird reported what went on there.
First came Nan and Daisy with their small tubs and bits of soap,
for now and then they were seized with a tidy fit, and washed up
all their dolls’ clothes in the brook. Asia would not have them
“slopping round” in her kitchen, and the bath-room was forbidden
since Nan forgot to turn off the water till it overflowed and came
gently dripping down through the ceiling. Daisy went
systematically to work, washing first the white and then the
colored things, rinsing them nicely, and hanging them to dry on a
cord fastened from one barberry-bush to another, and pinning them
up with a set of tiny clothes-pins Ned had turned for her. But Nan