"Kiss me again, Tom!-and be off with you to school, now, and don't bother me any more."
The moment he was gone, she ran to a closet and got out the ruin of a jacket which Tom had gone pirating in. Then she stopped, with it in her hand, and said to herself:
"No, I don't dare. Poor boy, I reckon he's lied about it-but it's a blessed, blessed lie, there's such a comfort come from it. I hope the Lord-I know the Lord will forgive him, because it was such good-heartedness in him to tell it. But I don't want to find out it's a lie. I won't look."
She put the jacket away, and stood by musing a minute.
Twice she put out her hand to take the garment again, and twice she refrained.
Once more she ventured, and this time she fortified herself with the thought: "It's a good lie-it's a good lie-I won't let it grieve me." So she sought the jacket pocket.
A moment later she was reading Tom's piece of bark through flowing tears and saying: "I could forgive the boy, now, if he'd committed a million sins!"
CHAPTER XX
THERE was something about Aunt Polly's manner, when she kissed Tom, that swept away his low spirits and made him lighthearted and happy again.
He started to school and had the luck of coming upon Becky Thatcher at the head of Meadow Lane.