"
The boys looked puzzled. "Why, Mr. Minturn!" said Ellis; "wouldn't you
think it strange if Howard should do so?"
"Well, no; I don't know that I should have any reason to be astonished."
Howard looked not only surprised, but very much hurt. "I'm sure, father,"
he said, in a voice which trembled a little, "I didn't know I was so rude
to you as all that."
"No," said Mr. Minturn, "you never have been, but I rather expect you to
commence. I shall have no reason to be surprised if you and Ellis and
Will Bailey, and a host of others, all go to making fun of what your
fathers say to you after this."
The boys seemed perfectly astonished. "_I_, for one," said Ellis Holbrook
proudly, "think too much of _my_ father, to be in any such danger."
"You _do_?" said Mr. Minturn; "well, now, I _am_ amazed. I supposed you
would be the very worst one."
Howard left the table and came over to where his father had seated
himself.
"Father, what _do_ you mean?" he asked, in an earnest, anxious tone.
"Why, I mean," said his father, "that I was in that room over there
just before tea, and I heard the discussion which came up between you
boys, and I came to the conclusion that boys who thought it such a
little matter to make fun of solemn words which God has said to them,
need not be expected to show much respect for what their father or
anybody else said.
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