Don't you see that this sort of thing is not only a disgrace to him, but very prejudicial to the village?
What authority can you have for speaking against vice and drunkenness, when your son is constantly intoxicated ?" "I see that, Squire--none better; and I have thought of resigning my cure." "Stuff and nonsense, Parson! If the young fellow persists in his present course he must leave the village, that is clear enough; but that is no reason why you should.

The question is what is to be done with him?
The best thing he could do would be to enlist.

He might be of some service to his country, in India or the American Colonies, but so far as I can see he is only qualifying himself for a jail here." "I have told him as much, Squire," Mr.Bastow said, in a depressed voice, "and he has simply laughed in my face, and said that he was very comfortable where he was, and had no idea whatever of moving." "What time does he go out in the morning ?" John Thorndyke asked abruptly.
"He never gets up till twelve o'clock, and has his breakfast when I take my dinner." "Well, I will come in tomorrow morning and have a talk with him myself." The next day the Squire rode up to the door of the Rectory soon after one o'clock.

Mr.Bastow had just finished his meal; his son, a young fellow of between seventeen and eighteen, was lolling in an easy chair.
"I have come in principally to speak to you, young sir," John Thorndyke said quietly.

"I have been asking your father what you intend to do with yourself.