disobedience, he looked earnestly in her face and said--

"You won't tell father, will you? He'll whip me so, and I don't like
to be whipped."

"But why did you go in there?" said Mrs. Howland. "Haven't we
forbidden you? And didn't you promise me that if I'd let you go to
the front door, you would stay there?"

"I couldn't help it, mother," replied Andrew.

"Oh, yes, you could."

"Indeed I couldn't, mother. I saw Emily, and then I couldn't help
it."

There was an expression in the child's voice as he said this, that
thrilled the feelings of his mother. She felt that he spoke only the
simple truth--that he could not help doing as he had done.

"But Andrew must help it," she was constrained to reply. "Mother
can't let him go to the front door again."

"You won't tell father, will you?" urged the child, lifting,
earnestly, his large, bright, innocent eyes to his mother's face.
"Say, you won't tell him?"

Grieved, perplexed, and troubled, Mrs. Howland knew not what to say,
nor how to act.