The Iron Rule | Page 3

force them
into the right way.
The word of interdiction was uttered, but Andrew could not give up his
sweet little friend; and the word was therefore disregarded. Stealthily,
to avoid punishment, he went to her but watchful eyes were upon him,
and he was soon brought back. Gently and earnestly his mother would
chide his disobedience; harshly his father would punish it--but all was
of no avail.
"Where is Andrew?" asked Mr. Howland, on returning home one
evening from his store, and not seeing the bright little fellow in the
room with his mother. This was on the occasion of his introduction to
the reader.
"I don't know. He was here just now," replied Mrs. Howland.
"I saw him a little while ago playing on the steps with Emily Winters,"

said the nurse, who had come recently into the family, and was not
aware of the prohibition that existed in regard to the child she had
mentioned.
"Is it possible!" exclaimed Mr. Howland, angrily. Then he added in an
excited voice, "go and bring him home immediately!"
The nurse left the room and soon returned with the child. In his face
was a look of blended fear, anger and resolution.
"Where have you been, sir?" sternly asked Mr. Howland.
The child made no answer.
"Do you hear me, sir?"
A slight motion of shrinking and alarm might have been seen in the
little fellow as the angry voice of his father fell upon his ears. But he
did not look up or make a reply.
"Will you answer me? Stubborn boy!" exclaimed Mr. Howland, now
catching hold tightly of Andrew's arm.
"Why don't you answer your father, my child?" said the mother, in a
voice that was tender and appealing. The tone reached the boy's heart,
and he lifted his large blue eyes from the floor and fixed them on his
father's threatening countenance.
"Say! Where have you been?" repeated Mr. Howland.
"To see Emily," returned Andrew.
"Haven't I forbidden you to go there?"
The child's eyes sunk again to the floor.
"Say! Haven't I forbidden you to go there?"
But there was no answer.

"Do you hear me?"
"Andrew! Andrew! why don't you answer your father?" came in
distressed and tremulous tones from his mother's lips.
Mr. Howland was about turning to chide sharply his wife for this
interference, when Andrew again raised his eyes and said--
"Yes, sir."
"Then why have you disobeyed me?"
The boy's eyes fell again, and he remained silent.
"I'll break you of this if I break your heart!" said Mr. Howland severely,
and, as he spoke, he almost lifted the child from the floor with his
strong arm as he led him from the room. A groan issued from the
mother's heart and she covered her face and wept.
By the time Mr. Howland reached the chamber above, to which he
repaired with Andrew, the excitement of his anger had subsided; but
not his stern purpose in regard to his child, who had again disobeyed
him. The absolute necessity of obedience in children he recognized in
all its length and breadth. He saw no hope for them in the future unless
obedience were constrained at every cost. Happy both for them and
himself would it have been if he had been wiser in his modes of
securing obedience, and more cautious about exacting from his children
things almost impossible for them to perform. Without a law there is no
sin. Careful, then, should every parent be how he enacts a law, the very
existence of which insures its violation.
Mr. Howland had sought, by various modes of punishment, other than
chastisement, to enforce obedience in this particular case. Now he was
resolved to try the severer remedy. Andrew had expected nothing
farther than to be shut up, alone, in the room, and to go, perhaps,
supperless to bed, and he was nerved to bear this without a murmur.
But when the rod became suddenly visible, and was lifted above him in
the air, his little heart was filled with terror.

"Oh, father!" he exclaimed, in a voice of fear, while his upturned,
appealing face became ashy pale.
"You have disobeyed me again, my son," said Mr. Howland, coldly and
sternly, "and I must whip you for it. Disobedient children have to be
punished."
"Oh, father! Don't whip me! Don't!" came huskily from the lips of the
terrified child. But even while he thus pleaded, the smarting strokes
began to fall.
"Now, sir!" at length said Mr. Howland, pausing with the rod uplifted,
"will you go into Mr. Winters' again?"
The child hesitated, and down came a blow upon his tender limbs,
followed by the words--
"Say! Will you go in there any more?"
Still there was a reluctance to make this promise, and another and