[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.

“Dear Earl, I am so sorry you are sick,” cried Lilian, when she came in to see him the next morning.

Kneeling by the bed she put one arm under his aching head and threw the other over his shoulder, while Earl put one arm lovingly about his sister.

“I’m sorry, too,” he said, “but really, Lilian, I’m sorrier that I did wrong.  Mamma is so sorry she trusted me, and she says maybe she ought not to have let me go into temptation.  She said that when we both promised she felt sure, and so let us go.  Isn’t it mean not to keep a promise when you’re trusted?”

“I was mean not to help you keep yours, when I promised to,” Lilian said, not wishing to scold Earl when he was ill in bed.  “Mamma says,” she went on, “that when I went security for you it meant that I must help you to keep your word as well as to say that I felt sure you would, so I didn’t do my part as I should, you see.”

“You told me to remember,” said Earl.

“But not at the right time,” said wise Lilian.  “I ought to have looked to see if you remembered, when the time came.  If I go your security after this, and promise that you’ll not forget, I’ll watch and tell you at the time.”

“Do,” said Earl.  “You can think of things easier,” which was true, Lilian being older and more thoughtful.

So the sister promised to make it as sure as she could that her brother would keep his promises after this.  True, she sometimes forgot, herself, and Earl was not always willing to do right, even when reminded, but both were in earnest, and Lilian grew to be more and more of a help, feeling the responsibility of being her brother’s security.  Who will follow her example?

REAL FUN.

When Roy saw that Uncle Henry was in the shop getting the troughs and pails ready for the spring sap running, he made up his mind to ask if he couldn’t go to the maple orchard with the men.  He had heard them tell so much about the happy days among the big maples that he had wanted to go for a long while, and it seemed to Roy that he must be large enough this year to take his turn at the sap gathering.  He asked Uncle Henry about it first.