"Dear mother!" urged the boy, "you won't tell father? Say you
won't?" And tears began to glisten beneath his eyelids.

"Andrew has been disobedient," said the mother, trying to assume an
offended tone. "Will he be so anymore?"

"If you won't tell father, I'll be good."

The mother sighed, and fixed her gaze musingly on the floor. Her
thoughts were still more confused, and her mind in still greater
perplexity. Ah, if she only knew what was right!

"I will not tell your father this time," she at length said, "but
don't ask me, if you are again disobedient."

But of what avail was the child's promises. He had strong feelings,
a strong will, and, though so very young, much endurance. A law, at
variance almost with a law of his nature, had been arbitrarily
enacted, and he could not obey it. As well might his father have
shut him up, hungry, in a room filled with tempting food, and
commanded him not to touch or taste it. Had an allegation of evil
conduct been brought against Emily Winters; had any right reason for
the interdiction been given, then Mr. Howland might have had some
power over the strong will and stronger inclinations of the child.
But into the mind of Andrew, young as he was, came a sense of
injustice and wrong on the part of his father, and there was no
willingness, from filial duty, to yield obedience in a case where
every feeling of his heart was at variance with the command.

The struggle so early commenced between the father and his child,