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False Witness

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International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · May 21, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 20.

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False Witness.

"What a shame! How can any one be so deceitful?"
"Well, it's true, anyhow. I passed by her house and saw her at her window. She put her head out and said, 'I'm writing my composition for examination,' and then she went on copying out of a book."
The speakers were two young girls. The first was named Jennie Gray, the second, Tillie Andrews.
They were on their way home from school, and were talking over the examination just passed.
Bessie Terry had won the prize for composition, and it was she whom Tillie was accusing of having stolen the successful essay.
"It certainly is too bad," Jennie replied. "Such things ought not to be allowed. I wonder what Dr. Matthews and Miss Prim would say if they knew about it. I rather think they'd give the prize to an honest person, anyhow."
Dr. Matthews was the examining committee, and Miss Prim was the teacher.
"I'll tell you what, Jennie, we'll just go to my house and write a note to Miss Prim and tell her all about it. I guess she'll open her eyes."
This plan was decided upon, and the note, when finished, read thus:—
"DEAR TEACHER:—We are very sorry to inform you that the young lady who won the prize this afternoon did not deserve it. She copied her composition out of a book. "Yours respectfully, TRUTH AND JUSTICE."
This communication, having been sealed and directed, was put in the post-office, and there Miss Prim found it next morning.
She read it on her way to school, and having arrived there, threw it into the waste-basket. Far too sensible was she to pay any attention to a charge whose authors were unwilling to make known their real names.
It would have been better if she had torn the note to pieces, for it was found by Jimmy Leader when he was searching in the basket for something with which to wipe his pen.
As he had less good sense than his teacher, he read it aloud at recess to a number of his school-mates who were assembled in the playground.
Then there was an excitement indeed. Some blamed Bessie; others pitied her. Some didn't believe the story; others wanted to know who had written the note.
Jennie Gray, who was in the crowd, couldn't resist the temptation to bring herself into notice.
"We did," she exclaimed, "Tillie and I. She is Truth and I am Justice. Tillie knows all about it. Just ask her. Here she comes."
Tillie was less ready to confess to her authorship, but was finally persuaded to give an animated account of what she knew about the matter.
She was just saying, "I wouldn't wear a medal unless I had earned it," when Bessie herself appeared upon the scene. She heard these last unkind words, saw the glances cast upon her, and understood at once that it was of her that they were talking.
"What have I done?" she asked, pleasantly. "I think I earned the medal by hard work, if I didn't by good writing."
"Oh, yes, it's very hard work to copy," sneered one. "We know all about it, Miss Perfection. You needn't hold your head so high after this. Tillie saw you writing that wonderful composition."
Bessie looked from one to the other in amazement. Then she blushed crimson and burst into tears. She was entirely innocent of the cruel charge, but how could she prove her innocence? That was the question.
Fortunately, Miss Prim, who had been in another part of the grounds, just then approached the group.
"O Miss Prim!" Bessie exclaimed in her grief, "they say that I stole my composition, and you know better, don't you? I only copied that one verse that I put in quotation marks. Tillie must have seen me doing that."
Instantly it flashed through Tillie's mind that this was the truth. She remembered the verse very well. It was a pretty one and quite appropriate. Four short lines had been the cause of all this ado.
She ought to have been ashamed of herself, and perhaps she was.
At all events, it was her turn to shed tears when Miss Prim, having come to a full understanding of the case, said, quietly: "I would like to have Tillie Andrews and Jennie Gray remain after school." Through her sobs Tillie stammered out: "I thought it was true, anyway." But that didn't seem to excuse her in Miss Prim's opinion, for the gentle reply was: "I hope you didn't want it to be true."
For a long two hours after school that day, the girls who had been detained copied and copied and copied these words, which are found in the 28th verse of the 24th chapter of Proverbs: "Be not a witness against thy neighbor without cause."
Tillie learned them so well that she repeated them in her dreams through the night, and whenever afterward she was tempted to give information against any of her companions, the same words rushing into her mind would check the unkind speech.
"Judge not," said Jesus. "Speak not evil one of another," said the apostle James. If we obey these commands, we shall do well.