They did not =see= the ball break the glass, but they both =knew= that it had crashed into the frame, and though the words they spoke might be true, the lie was there all the same.
Supposing the sisters "Crystal-clear" had brought to the Fairy Queen a diamond that was only good on one side, do you think she would have put it in the Temple? No, indeed, she would have said it was only =half= true; and so we must put away anything that =looks= like truth, but is not truth. How wrong it is to make believe we have not done a thing, when all the time we have.
Dear children, be true all through! Have you ever seen a glass jar of pure honey, no bits of wax floating in it, all clear and pure? Let your heart be like that, =sincere=, which means "without wax, clear and pure".
(UNTRUTH, BY "STRETCHING"--EXAGGERATION.)
One day three little girls were talking about hats and feathers.
The first girl said: "I have such a long feather in my best hat; it goes all down one side".
Then the next girl said: "Oh! =my= feather is longer than that, for it goes all round the hat"; and the third girl said: "Ah! but =my= feather is longer than either of yours, for it goes round the hat and hangs down behind as well".
On the next Sunday each of these little girls went walking in the park with her parents, wearing her best hat with the wonderful feather; it never occurred to =one= of them that she might meet the other two, but that is just what happened, and the three "long" feathers proved to be nothing but three =short=, little feathers, one in each hat! Can you guess how =ashamed= each girl felt?
You have seen a piece of elastic stretched out. How =long= you can make it, and how =short= it goes when you leave off stretching! Each girl wanted to be better than the other, and to =appear= so, each "stretched" the story of her feather, just as the length of elastic was stretched, forgetting that
When we "Stretch" a Story, we do not Speak the Truth.
The little children who went to school long years ago did not have pretty things to play with as you have--no kindergarten balls with bright colours, nor nice bricks with which to build houses and churches! There was a little girl named Lulu who went to a dame's school in those far-off days, and most of the time she had to sit knitting a long, grey stocking, though she was only six years old.