, against a
delicate china vase which stood upon the mantle-piece, and in a moment
it lay in fragments at his feet. He was sadly frightened, and would have
been very sorry too, but for the harsh and ill-timed reproof of his
father, which checked the humble plea for forgiveness just rising to his
lips, and as Mr. Colman left the room, put on his hat and coat in the
hall, and closed the street door with more than usual force, to go to
his store, the young lad's feelings were anything but dutiful. Just then
his mother entered.

"Why James Colman! Did you do that? I declare you are the most careless
boy I ever beheld! That beautiful pair of vases your father placed there
New Year's morning, to give me a pleasant surprise. I would not have had
it broken for twenty dollars."

"Mother, I just hit it accidentally with this little cane, and I'm sure
I'm as sorry as I can be."

"And what business has your cane in the parlor, I beg to know? I'll take
it, and you'll not see it again for the present, if this is the way you
expect to use it. You deserve punishment for such carelessness, and I
wish your father had chastised you severely." And taking the offending
cane from his hand, she, too, left him to meditations, somewhat like
the following:--

"'Tis too bad, I declare! If I had tried to do the very wickedest thing
I possibly could, father and mother would not have scolded me worse.
That dear little cane! I told Henry I would show it to him on my way to
school, and now what shall I say about it? It's abominable--it's right
down cruel to treat me so. When I had not intended to do the least thing
wrong, only just as I was looking at the bottom of my cane, by the
merest accident the head of it touched that little useless piece of
crockery. I hate the sight of you," he added, touching the many colored
and gilded fragments with the toe of his boot, as they lay before him,
"and I hate father and mother, and every body else--and I'm tired of
being scolded for nothing at all. Big boy as I am, they scold me for
every little thing, just as they did when I was a little shaver like
Eddy. What's the use? I won't bear it. I declare I won't much longer."
And then followed reveries like others often indulged before, of being
his own master, and doing as he pleased without father and mother always
at hand to dictate, and find fault, and scold him so bitterly if he
happened to make a little mistake. Other boys of his age had left home,
and tak