oy!
To think that he should come to this? Oh, it was wrong to send him
off as he was sent! to punish him so severely for a little thing.
Heaven knows, he had suffered enough, unjustly, without having this
added!"

"Esther!" exclaimed Mr. Howland, "this from you!"

The distressed mother, in the anguish of her mind, had given
utterance to her feelings, with scarce a thought as to who was her
auditor. The sternly uttered words of her husband subdued her into
silence.

"I did not expect this from you, Esther," continued Mr. Howland,
severely, "and at such a time."

And he stood looking down upon the mother's pale face with a
rebuking expression of countenance. Mrs. Howland endured his gaze
only for a few moments, and then buried her face in the bed-clothes.
Her husband, as his eyes remained fixed upon her form, saw that it
was agitated by slight convulsions, and he knew that she was
striving to suppress the sobs in which her heart was seeking an
utterance. For a little while he stood looking at her, and then
retired, without speaking, from the chamber, and sought the one
where the physician was yet engaged with Andrew. The lad was
insensible when he left him a short time before; now signs of
returning animation were visible.

"Mother!--mother! Where is mother?" he at last said, opening his
eyes, and glancing from face to face of those who were gathered
around him.

"You have nearly killed your mother," replied. Mr. Howland,
expressing, without reflection, the feeling of anger toward the lad
that was still in his heart.

An instant change was visible in the countenance of Andrew; a change
that caused the physician to turn suddenly from his patient and say,
in a low, severe tone--

"Sir! Do you wish to murder your child?"

Mr. Howland felt the rebuke, yet did not his eyes sink for a moment
beneath the steady gaze of the physician, who, after a moment's
reflection, added--

"Pray, sir, don't speak to your child in this way at the present
time. It may be as much as his life is worth. If he have done wrong,
his punishment has been severe enough, Heaven knows! How is his
mother?"

"Better. She has recovered from her faintness," replied Mr. Howland.

The door opened while he was yet speaking, and Mrs. Howland came in,
looking pale and agitated. The physician raised his finger to enjoin
prudence, and then turning to Andrew said, in a cheerful voice,

"Here is your mother, my boy."

Mrs. Howland came quickly to