I think we must forgive him for that part of it this time if he will promise never to say what is n't true again . '' `` I never will , now that I know it 's bad , '' asseverated Davy between sobs . `` If you ever catch me telling a whopper again you can ... '' Davy groped mentally for a suitable penance ... `` you can skin me alive , Anne . '' `` Do n't say ` whopper , ' Davy ... say ` falsehood , ' '' said the schoolma'am . `` Why ? '' queried Davy , settling comfortably down and looking up with a tearstained , investigating face . `` Why ai n't whopper as good as falsehood ? I want to know . It 's just as big a word . '' `` It 's slang ; and it 's wrong for little boys to use slang . '' `` There 's an awful lot of things it 's wrong to do , '' said Davy with a sigh . `` I never s ` posed there was so many . I 'm sorry it 's wrong to tell whop ... falsehoods , 'cause it 's awful handy , but since it is I 'm never going to tell any more . What are you going to do to me for telling them this time ? I want to know . '' Anne looked beseechingly at Marilla . `` I do n't want to be too hard on the child , '' said Marilla . `` I daresay nobody ever did tell him it was wrong to tell lies , and those Sprott children were no fit companions for him . Poor Mary was too sick to train him properly and I presume you could n't expect a six-year-old child to know things like that by instinct . I suppose we 'll just have to assume he does n't know ANYTHING right and begin at the beginning .
But he 'll have XXXXX be punished for shutting Dora up , and I ca n't think of any way except to send him to bed without his supper and we 've done that so often .
If at between for of on since that to with