"“I’m pretty good at that. There were a lot of things I did when I was just a boy that I didn’t tell her about. I didn’t come right out and lie to her, of course. A boy should never lie to his mother, but now and then things sort of slipped my mind. You know how that can happen.” “Oh, yes.” Althalus laughed. “Things have been slipping my mind for as long as I can remember.”"