Part 8 (1/2)
”I wish you to do it for my sake, Andrew,” urged Mrs. Howland.
”I can't, mother. And it would not do any good.”
”Yes, it will do good. You were wrong in not going punctually to school. All that is now required of you is to acknowledge this, and ask to be restored to your place.”
Andrew stood silent and gloomy by his mother's side.
”Were you not wrong in absenting yourself from school at the proper hour?” asked Mrs. Howland, in a calm, penetrating voice.
There was no reply.
”Say, Andrew?” urged the mother.
”Yes, ma'am. I suppose I was.”
”Was not your teacher right in objecting to this?”
”I suppose so.”
”And right in sending you home if you would not obey the rules of the school?”
The boy a.s.sented.
”Very well. Then you alone are to blame for the present trouble, and it rests with you to remove it. For my sake, go back to school, promise to do right in future, and ask to be reinstated. Will not this be better than going to sea, or leaving your father's house, as you thoughtlessly threatened to do just now?”
The tender earnestness with which Mrs. Howland spoke, more than the reasons she urged, subdued the stubborn spirit of the boy.
”You know how determined your father is,” she continued. ”In his intention to send you to sea he is entirely in earnest, and nothing will prevent his doing so but your going back to school. You threaten to run away. That would avail nothing. You are but a boy, and would be restored to us in a week. Think of the trouble you will bring upon me. Andrew! Andrew! unless you do as I desire, you will break my heart.”
Giving way at this point to the pressure on her feelings, Mrs.
Howland wept bitterly; and, greatly subdued by his mother's grief, Andrew drew his arm around her neck, and wept with her.
”Go, dear,” said Mrs. Howland, as soon as she had recovered herself, parting the hair upon the forehead of her boy, and pressing her lips upon it--”go, and secure your own self-approbation and my happiness, by doing as I desire. Go, now, while your heart beats rightly. Go, and save your mother from untold wretchedness.”
And again Mrs. Howland pressed her lips to his forehead. Happily, she prevailed over him. Acting from the good impulses with which she had inspired his better nature, he went to the teacher, who readily consented to take him back into the school on his promise of more orderly conduct in future.
”Andrew has gone back to school,” said Mrs. Howland to her husband, on his return home in the evening.
”Gone back to school? I thought the teacher had expelled him.”
”Andrew went to him, and promised amendment.”
”He did?”
”Yes. After I had talked with him a long time, he consented to do so.”
”It is well,” briefly, and with much severity in his tone, replied Mr. Howland. He was greatly relieved at this unexpected result; although neither in word or manner did he let his real feelings appear.
CHAPTER VI.