"
"Certainly not."
"But the boy would have been just as bad, for all that."
"I can't see how, father."
"Why, the boy, when he was thinking what he would do about going on that
fishing excursion, could not have foreseen all that would happen if he
went. Do you think he could?"
"No, sir, not all, I suppose. But I am sure he was a very bad boy, whether
he knew what would happen or not."
"Yes, no doubt. But I want you to see exactly where his guilt lay. It was
simply in his not yielding to his mother's wish, when she so kindly left
him at liberty to do as he chose; especially as he knew she was ill, and
needed his assistance."
"Charley deserved a good whipping."
"Well, he _was_ punished severely."
"Did his mother punish him?"
"No, for weeks she was too ill for that; and if she had been well, probably
she would not have punished him."
"How did he get punished?"
"By his own conscience. He felt that he had done wrong, and that made him
very unhappy. He saw, then, that he had been very unkind to his mother, and
that his unkindness cost her pain and sorrow.
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