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.