"What in creation have you done! Careless boy, how could you be so
heedless? You are forever cutting some such caper, on purpose to ruin me
I believe. Now go to work, and earn the money to pay for it, will you?
lazy fellow!"

Coarse and passionate exclamations these, and I am sorry to say they
were uttered by Mr. Colman, who would be exceedingly indignant if any
body should hint a suspicion that he was, or could be, other than a
gentleman, and a _Christian_. His son, a bright and well-meaning lad of
fourteen, had accidentally hit the end of a pretty new walking cane,
which his favorite cousin had given him a few hours before, against a
delicate china vase which stood upon the mantle-piece, and in a moment
it lay in fragments at his feet. He was sadly frightened, and would have
been very sorry too, but for the harsh and ill-timed reproof of his
father, which checked the humble plea for forgiveness just rising to his
lips, and as Mr. Colman left the room, put on his hat and coat in the
hall, and closed the street door with more than usual force, to go to
his store, the young lad's feelings were anything but dutiful. Just then
his mother entered.

"Why James Colman! Did you do that? I declare you are the most careless
boy I ever beheld! That beautiful pair of vases your father placed there
New Year's morning, to give me a pleasant surprise. I would not have had
it broken for twenty dollars."

"Mother, I just hit it accidentally with this little cane, and I'm sure
I'm as sorry as I can be."

"And what business has your cane in the parlor, I beg to know? I'll take
it, and you'll not see it again for the present, if this is the way you