rom the window, and called him in.

He and Lucy went in together into the parlor.

"Rollo," said his father, "did you know you were doing very wrong?"

Rollo felt a little guilty, but he said rather faintly, "No, sir, I was
not doing any thing."

"You are committing a great many sins, all at once."

Rollo was silent. He knew his father meant sins of the heart.

"Your heart is in a very wicked state. You are under the dominion of
some of the worst of feelings; you are self-conceited, ungrateful,
undutiful, unjust, selfish, and," he added in a lower and more solemn
tone, "even impious."

Rollo thought that these were heavy charges to bring upon him; but his
father spoke calmly and kindly, and he knew that he could easily show
that what he said was true.

"You are _self-conceited_--vainly imagining that you, a little boy of
seven years old, can judge better than your father and mother, and
obstinately persisting in your opinion that it is not going to rain,
when the rain has actually commenced, and is falling faster and faster.
You are _ungrateful_, to speak reproachfully of me, and give me pain, by
your ill-will, when I have been planning this excursion, in a great
degree, for your enjoyment, and only give it up because I am absolutely
compelled to do it by a storm; _undutiful_, in showing such a repining,
unsubmissive spirit towards your father; _unjust_ in making Lucy and all
of us suffer, because you are unwilling to submit to these circumstances
that we cannot control; _selfish_, in being unwilling that it should
rain and interfere with your ride, when you know that rain is so much
wanted in all the fields, all over the country; and, what is worse than
all, _impious_, in openly rebelling against God, and censuring the
arrangements of his providence, and pretending to think that they are
made just to trouble you."

When he had said this, he paused to hear what Rollo would say. He
thought that if he was convinced of his sin, and really penitent, he
would acknowledge that he was wrong, or at least be silent;--but that
if, on the other hand, he were still unsubdued, he would go to making
excuses.

After a moment's pause, Rollo said,--"I did not know that there was need
of rain in the fields."

"Did not you?" said his father. "Did not you know that the ground was
very dry, and that, unless we have rain soon, the crops will suffer very
much?"

"No, sir," said Rollo.

"It is so," said his father; "and this r