Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-04-15
Duty and Kindness.

countenance of Dea.Jonas Browning
There were tears in the sad face {
his wife.
''He shall be sent to sea ~ sal
Dea. Browning, sternly.
There was pleading look in til
eyes of Mrs. Browning as she LITE
them to the stern face of her hus
band. But no words passed her lips
she shall be sent to sea 1t is m
last hope
"Philip is very young, Jonas" saiC
Mrs. Browning.
mot too young for evil, land there
fore not too young for the discipline
needed to eradicate evil. He shall
go to sea Capt. Ellis sails in the
Fanny Williams on next Monday. ]
will call upon him this very day"
''Isn't the Fanny Williams a whal-
er?' The lips of Mrs. Browning
quivered, and her voice had chok-
ing sound.
''Yes," was answered firmly.
81 wouldn't send him away in a
whaler, Jonas. Remember he is very
young, not thirteen till April
''Young of old, Mary, he's got to
CO." said the stern old deacon, who
was a believer in the gospel of the
law. He was no weak advocate of
moral suasion, as it is Familiarity
termed. He went in for law, and
was a strict constructionist. Implic
it obedience was the statute for him,
and deviations therefrom met the
never withheld penalty.
Mrs. Browning entered into no ar
gument with her husband, for she
knew that would be useless. She
had never succeeded in changing his
purpose by argument in her life.
And so she bent her eyes meekly to
the floor again, while the tears crept
over her face, and fell in large bright
drops upon the carpet. Deacon
Browning saw the tears but that did
not move him. He was tear proof.
Philip, the offending member of the
Browning family, was a bright, &C
tive, restless boy, who from the start
had been a rebel against unreasona-
BILE authority, and as a matter of
course, not unfrequently against au-
thority both just and reasonable.
Punishment had only hardened him,
increasing instead of diminishing his
power of endurance. The particular
offence for which he was now in dis
grace was, it must be owned, rather
a serious one. He had in company
with three other boys of his age,
knewn as the greatest reprobates in
the village, rif1ed a choice plum tree
belonging to neighbor of all the
fruit it contained, and then killed
favorite dog, which, happening to
discover them at their work, at
tempted to drive them from the gar
den. The neighbor had complained
to Deacon Browning, accompanying
his complaint with a threat to have
Philip arrested for stealing.
''If you don't do something with
that boy of yours" he added with
considerable feeling, "he'll end his
days in the state prison or on the
gallows."
Hard words were these for the
ears of Deacon Browning. Hard
words, and with prophetic convic-
ton in them. He had not a very Gre
alive imagination, but in this instance
the prediction of his angry neighbor
conjured up in his mind the image of
prison and gallows, causing shud-
der TO pass along his nerves and the
cold perspiration to start upon his
forehead. From that moment the
resolution of Deacon Browning was
taken.
The boy was on the brink of ruin,
and must be saved at all hazards. AS
to the means of doing this it never
entered into the heart of Deacon
Browning to conceive of any other
than involved harsh discipline. The
Canaanite was in the land and must
be driven out with fire and sword.
With him the word duty had stern
Specification. He had always tried
to do his duty. moving steadily on
ward in the path of life, and crushing
down all vanities and evils that
sprang up by the way, under heel
shod with iron.
''He shall be sent to sea-" That
was the last desperate remedy. In
his mind as in minds of many like
him some years ago, a ship was the
great school of reform and when a
boy was deemed incorrigible, lie was
sent to sea, usually to have his evil
inclinations hardened into permanent
qualities.
When Deacon Browning met his
son, Philip, after receiving the intel
li9ence of his great offence, it was
with q stern, angry repulsion. He
did not see the look of appeal, the
sigh of repentance, the plea for mer-
cy that was in his fearful eyes. A
single word of kindness would have |
broken up the great deep of the boys |
heart, and impelled by the warmer
impulses inherited from his mother,
he would have flung himself weeping
into his fathers arms. But Deacon |
Browning had separated duty from
kindness. The one was stern cor |
rector of evil. the other a smiling APP |