children. He was cold and calm in his temperament, and little
inclined to be drawn aside by the restless, vagrant spirits that
were ever luring Andrew from the strict line laid down for him by
his father. Daily perceiving the great value attached by his father
to external propriety of conduct, Edward made a merit of what to him
was easy. This vexed Andrew, who had opportunities for knowing all
about the worth of Edward's apparent excellencies, and he sneeringly
applied to him the epithet of "Saint," which was the cause of his
drawing down upon himself, in more than one instance, the
displeasure of his father. But he had become so used to censure and
reproof, that it had little influence over him. Let him do wrong or
right, he was almost sure to be harshly judged, and he had, by the
time he was sixteen, almost ceased to care what others thought of
his conduct.

Mary, whose age was next to that of Andrew, failed to acquire any
influence over her brother. She had been fretful and peevish as a
child, and he had worried her a great deal, and, in consequence,
received frequent punishment on her account. This tended naturally
to disunite them, and make them cold toward each other. Instead of
Mr. Howland striving, as their mother ever did, to reconcile their
difficulties, and make them friends, he would listen to Mary's
complaints against Andrew, and mark his displeasure by reproof or
punishment. Trifles, that would have been in a little time forgotten
and forgiven, were raised into importance by the stern father, and
sources of unhappiness and enmity created out of the most ordinary,
childish misunderstandings. Thus, in his mistaken efforts to destroy
what was evil in his children, he was only rooting the evils he
would remove more deeply in the groundwork of their minds. Instead
of harmonizing, his actions had the constant effect of disuniting