During the time that John was undergoing such severe temptation, his father was very busy.  He realized that his child needed more instruction than he was receiving and that Will’s influence over John was not good; but just what advice to give, he hardly knew.  Once he thought that he could smell tobacco smoke on his boy’s clothing so calling John to his side, he said: 

“John, I feel that I must tell you something more about certain bad habits that so many boys form while they are young.  You remember I told you that smoking and chewing tobacco ruin many a life.  Now, I am not going to say that you cannot use tobacco; but I wish that for my sake, as well as for your own, you would let it alone, for it is indeed a very bad habit.”

To this advice John made no reply; for an appetite was being formed, and in his heart he decided to keep right on.  It would have been better could his father have remembered the temptations of his own boyhood days.  He might then have more fully realized how next to impossible it is for a parent to availingly teach his child to do something without first setting before the child an example that is worthy of imitation.  Could he have helped his little son to understand the true meaning of manhood and the necessity of building up within himself in youth a noble, honest, and always-to-be-depended-upon character, as well as the need of developing a strong body, he might have laid a foundation upon which John could have later safely builded.

John dearly loved his father and wanted to please him.  And to his mind he could best please his father by as quickly as possible becoming a man.  So, with the thought of early manhood ever before him, he felt that, in using tobacco, he was doing right.  And then, too, Charley had learned to smoke and chew, and it would be very hard indeed to be near the boys and not to join in with them.

By the time that John had passed his seventh birthday, the small amount of tobacco that was kept in the cellar was not sufficient to fill the demand of the three boys without too rapidly diminishing the uncle’s supply, and the boys decided to look elsewhere.

Now, John’s aunt had at one time explained to the boys that lying and stealing are wrong; but she had not made it clear that deceiving is lying and that taking little things that did not belong to them, even though they took the things from some member of the family, is stealing, and that just such thefts lead to the greater crimes that send men and women to prison.  Instead, she gave the advice in such a way that, though they were impressed with a horror of stealing, the boys could only in part comprehend her meaning.  But because she had warned them, she felt that she had done her duty and that they ought to know right from wrong in regard to that matter without further explanation.