CHAPTER VIII.





WHEN Mr. Howland threatened his son with exclusion from the house,
if he were away at ten o'clock, Andrew's feelings were in a state of
reaction against his father, and he said to himself, in a rebellious
spirit--

"We'll see if you will."

But after growing cooler, he came into a better state of mind; and,
in view of consequences such as he knew would be visited on him,
decided not to come in contact with his father in this
particular--at least not for the present. If turned from his own
door at midnight, where was he to find shelter? This question he
could not answer to his own satisfaction.

After supper, on the evening succeeding that in which he had visited
the theatre, Andrew left home and went to an engine-house. in the
neighborhood, where he joined about a dozen lads and young men as
idle and aimless as himself. With these he spent an hour or two,
entering into their vicious and debasing conversation, when a person
with whom he had gone to see the play on the previous evening,