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.