She pulled out a handkerchief from her pocket to wipe her eyes, and a strong whiff of perfume greeted Violet's nostrils, telling a tale that sent a pang to her heart.
Gracie was instantly conscious of it, as she, too, smelled the tell-tale perfume, and stole a glance at her young stepmother's face.
"O mamma!" she sobbed, covering her face with her hands, "I did pour a little on my handkerchief 'cause I knew you always let me have it, but I didn't mean to break the bottle; it just slipped out o' my hands and fell and broke." Violet clasped her in her arms and wept bitterly over her.
"Mamma, don't cry," sobbed the child, "I'll save up all my money till I can buy you another bottle, just like that." "O Gracie, Gracie, it is not that!" Violet said, when emotion would let her speak.

"I valued the bottle as the gift of my dear dead father, but I would rather have lost it a hundred times over than have my darling tell a lie.

It is so wicked, so wicked! God hates lying.

He says, 'All liars shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone.' 'He that speaketh lies shall not escape.' He says that Satan is the father of lies, and that those who are guilty of lying are the children of that wicked one.
"Have you forgotten how God punished Gehazi for lying by making him a leper, and struck Ananias and Sapphira dead for the same sin?
O my darling, my darling, it breaks my heart to think you have both acted and spoken a falsehood!" she cried, clasping the child still closer to her bosom and weeping over her afresh.
Gracie, too, cried bitterly.

"Mamma, mamma," she said, "will God never forgive me?
will He send me to that dreadful place ?" "He will forgive you if you are truly sorry for your sin because it is dishonoring and displeasing to Him, and if you ask Him to pardon you for Jesus' sake; and He will take away the evil nature that leads you to commit sin, giving you a new and good heart, and take you to heaven when you die.
"But no one can go to heaven who is not first made holy.