The Iron Rule | Page 9

provocation, he took up a large stone
and struck my boy with it on the forehead, knocking him down
senseless. I have had to send for the doctor. It may cost him his life."
"Oh dear! dear! What will become of that boy?" exclaimed Mr.
Howland, wringing his hands, and moving up and down the floor
uneasily. "Knocked him down with a stone, you say?"
"Yes sir And that without any (sic) provoeation. I can't stand this. I
must, at least, protect the lives of my children. Every week I have had
some complaint against your son; (sic) bnt I didn't wish to have a
difficulty, and so said nothing about it. But this is going a little too far.
He must have a dreadful temper."
"There is something very perverse about him," remarked Mr. Howland,
sadly. "Ah, me! What am I to do?"
"There may have been some slight provocation," said the man, a little
modified by the manner in which his complaint was received, and
departing from his first assertion.
"Nothing to justify an assault like this," replied Mr. Howland with
promptness. "Nothing! Nothing! The boy will be the death of me."
"Caution him, if you please, Mr. Howland, against a repetition of such
dangerous conduct. The result might be deplorable."
"I will do something more than caution him, you may be sure," was
answered, and, as he spoke, the lips of Mr. Howland were drawn tightly
across his teeth.

The man went away, and Mr. Howland dispatched a messenger to the
school for Andrew immediately, and then started for home. He had
been there only a little while, when the boy came in with a frightened
look. To his father's eyes conscious guilt was in his countenance.
"Go up stairs, sir!" was the stern salutation that met the lad's ears.
"Father, I--"
"Silence, sir! Don't let me hear a word out of your head!"
The boy shrunk away and went up to his own room in the third story,
whither his angry father immediately followed him.
"Now, sir, take off your jacket!" said Mr. Howland who had a long,
thick rattan in his hand.
"Indeed father," pleaded the child, "I wasn't to blame. Bill Wilkins--"
"Silence, sir! I want none of your lying excuses! I know you! I've
talked to you often enough about quarreling and throwing stones."
"But, father--"
"Off with your jacket, this instant! Do (sic) your hear me?
"Oh, father! Let me speak! I couldn't--"
"Not a word, I say! I know all about it!" silenced the pleading boy. His
case was prejudged, and he was now in the hands of the executioner.
Slowly, and with trembling hands, the poor child removed his outer
garment, his pale face growing paler every moment, and then
submitting himself to the cruel rod that checkered his back with
smarting welts. Under a sense of wrong, his proud spirit refused to his
body a single cry of pain. Manfully he bore his unjust chastisement,
while every stroke obliterated some yet remaining emotion of respect
and love for his father, who, satisfied at length with strokes and
upbraiding, threw the boy from him with the cutting words--

"I shall yet have to disown you!" and turning away left the apartment.
CHAPTER III.

WHILE Mr. Howland yet paced the floor in a perturbed state of mind,
after the severe flogging he had given to Andrew, and while he
meditated some further and long-continued punishment for the offences
which had been committed, a servant handed him a note. It was from
Andrew's teacher, and was to this effect--
"From careful inquiry, I am entirely satisfied that your son, when he
threw the stone at William Wilkins, was acting in self-defence, and,
therefore, is blameless. Wilkins is a quarrelsome, overbearing lad, and
was abusing a smaller boy, when your son interfered to protect the
latter. This drew upon him the anger of Wilkins, who would have
beaten him severely if he had not protected himself in the way he did.
Before throwing the stone, I learn that Andrew made every effort to get
away; failing in this, he warned the other not to come near him. This
warning being disregarded, he used the only means of self-protection
left to him. I say this in justice to your son, and to save him from your
displeasure. As for Wilkins, I do not intend to receive him back into my
school."
For a long time Mr. Howland remained seated in the chair he had taken
on receiving the teacher's note. His reflections were far from being
agreeable. He had been both unjust and cruel to his child. But for him
to make an acknowledgment of the fact was out of the question. This
would be too humiliating. This would be a triumph for the perverse