Final Disposition of the Case.

After Egbert had gone to bed, and before he went to sleep, George made him a visit at his bedside, and, after a little playful frolic with him, to put him in special good-humor, said he would make his explanation.

“The reason why I had to give up the fishing expedition,” he said, “was, I found that I could not depend upon your obeying me.”

Egbert, after a moment’s pause, said that he did not disobey him; and when George reminded him of his taking the path that he was forbidden to take, and of his crossing the log bridge against orders, he said that that path led to the river by the shortest way, and that he knew that the log was firm and steady, and that he could go over it without falling in.  “And so you thought you had good reasons for disobeying me,” rejoined George.  “Yes,” said Egbert, triumphantly.  “That is just it,” said George.  “You are willing to obey, except when you think you have good reasons for disobeying, and then you disobey.  That’s the way a great many boys do, and that reminds me of the story I was going to tell you.  It is about some soldiers.”

George then told Egbert a long story about a colonel who sent a captain with a company of men on a secret expedition with specific orders, and the captain disobeyed the orders and crossed a stream with his force, when he had been directed to remain on the hither side of it, thinking himself that it would be better to cross, and in consequence of it he and all his force were captured by the enemy, who were lying in ambush near by, as the colonel knew, though the captain did not know it.  George concluded his story with some very forcible remarks, showing, in a manner adapted to Egbert’s state of mental development, how essential it was to the character of a good soldier that he should obey implicitly all the commands of his superior, without ever presuming to disregard them on the ground of his seeing good reason for doing so.

He then went on to relate another story of an officer on whom the general could rely for implicit and unhesitating obedience to all his commands, and who was sent on an important expedition with orders, the reasons for which he did not understand, but all of which he promptly obeyed, and thus brought the expedition to a successful conclusion.  He made the story interesting to Egbert by narrating many details of a character adapted to Egbert’s comprehension, and at the end drew a moral from it for his instruction.

The Moral.

This moral was not, as some readers might perhaps anticipate, and as, indeed, many persons of less tact might have made it, that Egbert ought himself, as a boy, to obey those in authority over him.  Instead of this he closed by saying:  “And I advise you, if you grow up to be a man and ever become the general of an army, never to trust any captain or colonel with the charge of an important enterprise, unless they are men that know how to obey.”  Egbert answered very gravely that he was “determined that he wouldn’t.”