He poured out another finger of whiskey, but forgot to drink it. A
canary-bird chirped loudly, then lapsed into a sleepy twitter.

"I was well rid of him! To make a quarrel out of a thing like that--a
joke, as you might say. I laughed, myself, afterwards, at the thought
of it. A fellow of twenty-four--spanked! Why didn't he swear and be
done with it? I would have reproved him for his profanity, of course.
Profanity in young persons is a thing I will not tolerate; Simmons
will tell you so. But it would have cleared the air. If he had done
that, we'd have been laughing about it, now;--he and I, together." The
old man suddenly put both hands over his face, and a broken sound came
from behind them.

Dr. Lavendar shook his head, speechlessly.

"What's the matter with you?" cried Benjamin Wright, pulling off his
hat and banging it down on the table so fiercely that the crown
collapsed on one side like an accordion. "Good God! Can't you see the
tomfoolery of this business of thirty-two years of hurt feelings?"

Dr. Lavendar was silent.

"What! You excuse him? When I was young, parsons believed in the Ten
Commandments; 'Honor thy father and thy mother--'"

"There is another scripture which saith, 'Fathers, provoke not your
children to wrath.' And when it comes to the Commandments, I would
commend the third to your attention. As for Samuel, you robbed him."