The Iron Rule: Tyranny in the Household

WRONGED and repelled, Andrew left the presence of his father, sad, hopeless, yet with a sense of indignation in his heart against that father for the wrong he had suffered at his hands.

“It’s no use for me to try to do right,” he (sic) mnrmured to himself.  “If I want to be good, they won’t let me.”

As these thoughts passed through his mind, a feeling of recklessness came over him, and he said aloud—­

“I don’t care what I do!”

“Don’t you, indeed?”

The voice that uttered this sentence caused him to start.  It was the voice of his father, who had left his room soon after the expulsion of Andrew, and was at the moment passing near, unobserved by the boy.

“Don’t care what you do, ha!” repeated Mr. Howland, standing in front of the lad, and looking him sternly in the face.  “You’ve spoken the truth for once!”

For nearly a minute Mr. Howland stood with contracted brows, scowling upon the half-frightened child.  He then walked away, deeply troubled and perplexed in his mind.

“What is to become of this boy?” he said to himself.  “He really seems to be one of those whom Satan designs to have, that he might sift them as wheat.  I sadly fear that he is given over to a hard heart, and a perverse mind—­one predestinated, to evil from his birth.  Ah me!  Have I not done, and am I not still doing everything to restrain him and save him!  But precept, admonition, and punishment, all seem, thrown away.  Even my daily prayers for him remain unanswered.  They rise no higher than my head.  What more can I do than I am now doing?  I have tried in every way to break his stubborn will, but all is of no avail.”

While Mr. Howland mused thus, Andrew, oppressed by the sphere of his father’s house, was passing out at the street door, although expressly forbidden to go away from home after his return from school.  For some time he stood leaning against the railing, with a pressure of unhappiness on his heart.  While standing thus, a lad who was passing by said to him—­

“Come, Andy! there’s a company of soldiers around in the Square.  Hark!  Don’t you hear the music?  Come!  I’m going.”

This was a strong temptation, for Andrew loved music and was fond of sight-seeing.  It would be useless, he knew, to ask the permission of his father, who usually said “No,” to almost every request for a little liberty or privilege.  Especially at the present moment would (sic) be request of this kind be useless.

“Come, Andy! come!” urged the boy, for Andrew, restraining the first impulse to bound away at the word soldiers, was debating the question whether to go or not.

Just then the air thrilled with a wave of music, and Andrew, unable longer to control himself, sprung away with his companion.  For half an hour he enjoyed the music and military evolutions, and then returned home.

“Where have you been, sir?” was the sharp question that greeted him as he came in.

“Around in the Square, to see the soldiers,” replied Andrew.

“Who gave you permission to go?”

“No one, sir.  I heard the music, and thought I’d just go and look at them a little while.  I’ve not been doing anything wrong, sir.”

“Wrong!  Isn’t disobedience wrong?  Haven’t I forbidden you, over and over again, to leave the house after school without my permission?  Say!  You don’t care what you do!  That’s it!  Go off up stairs with you, to your own room, and you’ll get nothing but bread and water until to-morrow morning!  I’ll teach you to mind what I say!”

The boy went sadly up to his room.  It had been a day of severer trial than usual—­of greater wrong and outrage upon him as a child.  For the time his spirit was broken, and he wept bitterly when alone in his silent chamber, that was to be his prison-house until the dawn of another day.

“Where is Andrew?” asked Mrs. Howland, as her little family gathered at the supper table, and she found that one was missing.

“I’ve sent him up to his room.  He can’t have anything but bread and water to-night,” replied Mr. Howland, in a grave tone.

“What has the poor child done, now?” inquired the mother, in a troubled voice.

“He went off to see the soldiers, though he had been expressly forbidden to leave the house after coming home from school.”

“Oh, dear!  He’s always doing something wrong—­what will become of him?” sighed the mother.

“Heaven only knows!  If he escape the gallows in the end, it will be a mercy.  I never saw so young a child with so perverse an inclination.”

“Andrew had no dinner to-day,” said Mrs. Howland, after a little while.

“His own fault,” replied the father, “he chose to fast.”

“He must be very hungry by this time.  Won’t you allow him something more than bread and water?”

“No.  If he is hungry, that will taste sweet to him.”

Mrs. Howland sighed and remained silent.  After supper, she took food to her boy.  A slice of bread and a glass of water were first placed on a tray, and with these the mother started up stairs.  But, ere she reached the chamber, her heart plead so strongly for the lad, that she paused, stood musing for a few moments, and then returned to the dining-room.  A few slices of tongue, some biscuit, bread and butter, and a cup of tea were taken from the table, and with these Mrs. Howland returned up stairs.  Unexpectedly, her husband met her on the way.

“Who is that for?” he asked, in a voice of surprise, seeing the articles Mrs. Howland was bearing on the tray.

“It is Andrew’s supper,” was replied; and as Mrs. Howland said this, her eyes drooped, abashed beneath the stern and rebuking gaze of her husband.

“Esther!  Is it possible!” exclaimed Mr. Howland.  “Didn’t I say that Andrew must have nothing but bread and water for his supper?”

“He has had no dinner,” murmured the mother.

“I don’t care if he had nothing to eat for a week.  I said he should have only bread and water, and I meant what I said.  Esther!  I am surprised at you.  Of what avail will be efforts at correction, if you counteract them in this way?”

Mrs. Howland never contended with her husband.  In all expressed differences of opinion, it was his habit to bear her down with an imperious will.  She was weak, and he was her strong tyrant.  Not a word more did she speak but returned to the dining-room, and replaced the food she had prepared for Andrew by simple bread and water.

The feelings of childhood never run for a long time in the same channel.  Very soon after entering his room, Andrew’s mind lost its sad impression, and began to search about for something to satisfy its restless activity.  First he got upon the chairs, and jumped from one to another.  This he continued until his feet passed through the slender cane-works of one of them.  Then he turned somersets on the bed, until more than a handful of feathers were beaten out and scattered about the room.  Next he climbed up the posts and balanced himself on the tester, to the no small risk of breaking that slender frame work, and injuring himself severely by a fall.  Soon the compass of the room became too narrow, and the elevation of the bed-posts too trifling for his expanding ideas.  He went to the window, and, opening it, looked forth.  Here was a new temptation.  The roof of a piazza, built out from a second story, came up to within a foot of the window-sill.  He had often ventured upon this roof, and he sprung out upon it again without a moment’s hesitation or reflection, and running along, with the lightness of a cat, gained the roof of the back building, which he ascended to the very apex, and then placed himself astride thereof.  Here he sat for some minutes looking around him and enjoying the prospect.  On the end of the back building was fastened a strong pole, running up into the air some ten feet.  On the top of this pole was a bird-box, in which a pair of pigeons had their nest.  Two young pigeons had been hatched out, and now nearly full-fledged and ready to fly, they were thrusting their glossy heads from the box, and looking about from their airy height.

A fluttering of wings, as the mother-bird returned with food for her young ones, attracted the attention of Andrew, and looking up, he saw the young pigeons.  Instantly came a desire to remove them from their nest.  But the way to that nest was too difficult and perilous for him to think of securing his wish.  This was the first impression.  Then he fixed his eye on the nest, and watched the old bird, as she sat on a ledge that projected from the box, while she distributed to her younglings the food she had brought.  Thus sat the boy at the moment his mother left the dining-room with the comfortable supper she had prepared for him, and there she would have found him in comparative safety, had she not been prevented from carrying out the kind promptings of her heart.

The longer Andrew gazed at the young birds, the more desirous did he become to get them in his possession.  Over and over again he measured the height and thickness of the pole with his eyes, calculating, all the while, his ability to climb it, and the amount of danger attendant on the adventure.

“I’m sure I could do it,” said he, at length rising from the place where he sat and walking with careful step to the edge of the roof, at the point above which the pole projected.  Grasping the pole firmly, he first leaned his body over until he could see in a perpendicular line to the pavement in the yard below, a distance of more than forty feet.  For a moment his head swam, as he looked from the dizzy height; but he shut his eyes and clung to the pole until self-possessed again.  Then he looked up at the bird-box and reaching his hands far above his head, grasped the pole firmly and drew his body a few inches, upward.  Clinging tightly with his legs to retain the slight elevation he had acquired, he moved his hands farther along the pole, and then drew himself higher up.  Thus he progressed until he had reached a point some five or six feet above the roof, when his strength became exhausted, and, unable to retain even the position he had acquired, his body slowly descended the pole, swinging around to the side opposite the roof.  On reaching the bottom it was as much as he could do to get himself once more in a position of safety, where he stood for a few moments, until he could recover himself.  He then tried the ascent again.  This time he nearly reached the box, when his strength once more failed him, and he had to slide down the pole as before.  But Andrew was not a lad to give up easily anything he attempted to do.  Difficulties but inspired him to new efforts, and he once more tried to effect the perilous ascent, firmly resolved to reach the box at the third trial.  In his eagerness, he became unconscious of all danger, and commenced clambering up the pole with as much confidence as if it had been placed on the ground.

Great violence had been done to the feelings of Mrs. Howland by her husband.  His stern rebuke hurt her exceedingly.  She did not feel that she was doing wrong in yielding to the appeals of her heart in favor of her wayward, ever-offending boy.  Her mother’s instinct told her, that he needed kindness, forbearance, and frequent exemption from punishment; and she felt that it was better for him to have this, even though in gaining it for him she acted in violation of her husband’s wishes and command—­yea, even though her child knew that such was the case.  Sadly was she aware of the fact, that the father’s iron-handed severity had nearly crushed affection out of the heart of his child; and that all obedience to him was extorted under fear of punishment.  And she well knew that her interference in his favor, while it could not estrange him from his father more than he was already estranged, would give her greater influence over him for good.  Such were the conclusions of her mind—­not arrived at by cold ratiocination, but by woman’s shorter way of perception.  And she knew that she was right.

Hurt in her own feelings was she, by her husband’s harsh, rebuking words, and sad for the sake of her boy, as she returned to the dining-room.  For some time she remained there, debating with herself whether she should stealthily convey something more than the bread and water to Andrew, or take him the meager supply of food his father had ordered.  In the end her feelings triumphed.  A large slice of cake and an apple were placed in her pocket.  Then with the bread and water she went up to her son’s chamber.

“Bless me! what a boy!” fell from the lips of Mrs. Howland, as she pushed open the door and saw the disordered condition of the room.  The chairs were scattered about the apartment, and through the caning of one of them was a large hole.  The wash-bowl and pitcher were on the floor, and a good deal of water spilled around.  The bed-clothes were nearly all dragged off; and it was plain, from the feathers scattered about, that Andrew had been amusing himself with jumping on the bed.  Lifting her eyes to the tester, Mrs. Howland saw nearly a yard of the valance torn away and hanging down.

“Oh, what a boy!” she again murmured.  “He seems possessed with a spirit of mischief and destruction.  Andrew!”

She called the lad’s name, but there was no answer.

“Andrew! where are you?” The mother looked searchingly about the room.  But she neither saw the boy nor heard his voice.  Perceiving now that the back-window was open, she sprung to it with a sudden thrill of alarm.  The first object that caught her sight, was Andrew suspended in the air on the pole that supported the pigeon-box.  He was just about reaching the object of his perilous adventure.  A wild scream of terror came from the mother’s lips, ere she had time to think of self-control.  The scream, as it pierced suddenly the ears of Andrew, startled and unnerved him.  A quick muscular exhaustion followed, and ere he could recover from the confusion and weakness of the moment, his hands were dragged from their hold, and he went flashing down from the eyes of his mother like the passing of a lightning gleam.  Another scream thrilled on the air, and then Mrs. Howland sunk swooning to the floor.

Mr. Howland was just stepping into the yard, when his son fell, crushed by the terrific fall, at his feet.

“Oh, father!” came in a voice of anguish from the yet conscious boy, as he lifted one hand with a feeble effort toward his parent.  Then a deathly whiteness came ever his face, and he fainted instantly.

On the arrival of a physician it was found that Andrew’s left arm was broken in two places, his left ancle dislocated, and two ribs fractured.  As to the internal injury sustained, no estimate could be made at the time.  He did not recover fully from the state of insensibility into which he lapsed after the fall, until the work of setting the broken bones and reducing the dislocation was nearly over.  His first utterance was to ask for his mother.  She was not present, however.  Her cries, at seeing the peril and fall of her child, brought a domestic to the room, who found her lying insensible upon the floor.  Assistance being called, she was removed to her own chamber, where she remained, apparently lifeless for the space of half an hour.  When she recovered, her husband was pacing the chamber floor with slow, measured steps, and his eyes cast down.

“Andrew!  Is he dead?” were her first words.  She spoke in a low voice, and with forced composure.

Mr. Howland paused, and approached the bed on which lay his pale exhausted wife, just awakened from her death-like unconsciousness.

“No, Esther.  He is not dead,” was calmly replied.

“Is he badly hurt”?

The mother held her breath for a reply.

“Yes, badly, I fear,” answered Mr. Howland, in the same calm voice.

“Will he live?” almost gasped the mother.

“God only knows,” replied Mr. Howland.  Then glancing his eyes upward piously, he added, “If it be His will to remove him, I—­”

“Oh, Andrew! don’t say that!” quickly exclaimed the mother.  “Don’t say that!”

“Yes, Esther, I will say it,” returned Mr. Howland, in a steady voice.  “If it be His good pleasure to remove him, I will not murmur.  He will be safer there than here.”

“Oh, my poor, poor boy!” sobbed Mrs. Howland.  “My poor, poor boy!” 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  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 the bedside.  As she bent over to kiss the white-faced sufferer, the child sobbed out—­

“Oh mother!—­dear mother!”

The mother’s frame quivered under the pressure of intense feeling, and she was on the eve of losing all self-control, when the physician whispered in her ear.

“Be calm, madam—­the life of your child may depend on it!”

Instantly the mother was calm in all that met the eye.  Close to her child she bent, and with a hand laid gently on his clammy forehead, she spoke to him words of comfort and encouragement, while the physician proceeded in the work of bandaging his broken and injured limbs.

As for Mr. Howland, he walked the floor with compressed and silent lips, until the physician’s work was done.  He pitied the suffering boy, yet there was nothing of what he called weakness in his pity.  The idea that Andrew was suffering a just retribution for his wrong conduct, was distinctly present to his mind.  And he even went so far as to put up a prayer that the pain he was enduring, and must for a long time endure, might work in him a salutary change—­might lead to his reformation.

In due time the poor boy was made as comfortable as the nature of his injuries would permit, and quiet and order restored to the agitated family.

“You see, my son, that punishment always follows evil conduct.”  These were the first words spoken by Mr. Howland to his suffering boy, as soon as he found himself alone with him.  And then he lectured him on disobedience until the poor child grew faint.