In a vivid early episode in the film An Angel at my Table, a young Janet Frame is stood in front of the class for most of the day while her teacher awaits 'the truth'. Miss Botting is not plagued by metaphysical or post-modernist doubts about the nature of truth. She rolls her tongue around the word, justifiably confident that she will extract what she wants to hear from her young pupil. Janet's father did not give her fourpence for chewing gum: she took it from his pocket. In the book, Frame recalls how puzzled and upset she was by the incident. (1) A child's puzzlement at the somewhat arbitrary nature of truth is easily forgotten by adults immersed in their society's understanding of it. It is a predicament explored by Mark Twain in Huckleberry Finn. During his brief sojourn with the Widow Douglas, Huck is taught respect for private property, just as young Janet Frame was. Like Miss Botting, the Widow Douglas is not beset by doubts about the nature of truth and the difference between right and wrong,
