He saw no hope for them in the future unless obedience were constrained at every cost.

Happy both for them and himself would it have been if he had been wiser in his modes of securing obedience, and more cautious about exacting from his children things almost impossible for them to perform.
Without a law there is no sin.

Careful, then, should every parent be how he enacts a law, the very existence of which insures its violation.
Mr.Howland had sought, by various modes of punishment, other than chastisement, to enforce obedience in this particular case.

Now he was resolved to try the severer remedy.

Andrew had expected nothing farther than to be shut up, alone, in the room, and to go, perhaps, supperless to bed, and he was nerved to bear this without a murmur.
But when the rod became suddenly visible, and was lifted above him in the air, his little heart was filled with terror.
"Oh, father!" he exclaimed, in a voice of fear, while his upturned, appealing face became ashy pale.
"You have disobeyed me again, my son," said Mr.Howland, coldly and sternly, "and I must whip you for it.