Humiliation is one of the proudest conditions
in the human world. When he felt that it would be a relief to say more
explicitly, "Father, I have sinned," then let him say it; but not till
then. To compel manifestation is one surest way to check feeling.
My readers must not judge it silly to record a boy's unwillingness to go to
bed. It is precisely the same kind of disobedience that some of them are
guilty of themselves, and that in things not one whit more important than
this, only those things happen to be _their_ wish at the moment, and not
Charlie's, and so gain their superiority.
CHAPTER VIII.
THEODORA'S DOOM.
Try not to get weary, respected reader, of so much of what I am afraid
most people will call tiresome preaching. But I know if you get anything
practicable out of it, you will not be so soon tired of it. I promise you
more story by and by. Only an old man, like an old horse, must be allowed
to take very much his own way--go his own pace, I should have said. I am
afraid there must be a little more of a similar sort in this chapter.
On the Monday morning I set out to visit one or two people whom the
severity of the weather had kept from church on the Sunday.
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