“What is to be done with that boy, Aunt Mary?” Mr. Belknap repeated his words.  “I’ve tried everything with him; but he remains incorrigible.”

“Have you tried—­”

Aunt Mary paused, and seemed half in doubt whether it were best to give utterance to what was in her mind.

“Tried what?” asked Mr. Belknap.

“May I speak plainly?” said Aunt Mary.

“To me?  Why yes!  The plainer the better.”

“Have you tried a kind, affectionate, unimpassioned manner with the boy?  Since I have been here, I notice that you speak to him in a cold, indifferent, or authoritative tone.  Under such treatment, some natures, that soften quickly in the sunshine of affection, grow hard and stubborn.”

The blood mounted to the cheeks and brow of Mr. Belknap.

“Forgive me, if I have spoken too plainly,” said Aunt Mary.

Mr. Belknap did not make any response for some time, but sat, with his eyes upon the floor, in hurried self-examination.

“No, Aunt Mary, not too plainly,” said he, as he looked at her with a sobered face.  “I needed that suggestion, and thank you for having made it.”

“Mrs. Howitt has a line which beautifully expresses what I mean,” said Aunt Mary, in her gentle, earnest way.  “It is

‘For love hath readier will than fear.’

Ah, if we could all comprehend the wonderful power of love!  It is the fire that melts; while fear only smites, the strokes hardening, or breaking its unsightly fragments.  John Thomas has many good qualities, that ought to be made as active as possible.  These, like goodly flowers growing in a carefully tilled garden, will absorb the latent vitality in his mind, and thus leave nothing from which inherent evil tendencies can draw nutrition.”

Aunt Mary said no more, and Mr. Belknap’s thoughts were soon too busy with a new train of ideas, to leave him in any mood for conversation.

Time moved steadily on.  Nearly half an hour had elapsed, in which period John Thomas might have gone twice to Leslie’s store, and returned; yet he was still absent.  Mr. Belknap was particularly in want of the hammer and nails, and the delay chafed him very considerably; the more particularly, as it evidenced the indifference of his son in respect to his wishes and commands.  Sometimes he would yield to a momentary blinding flush of anger, and resolve to punish the boy severely the moment he could get his hands on him.  But quickly would come in Aunt Mary’s suggestion, and he would again resolve to try the power of kind words.  He was also a good deal strengthened in his purposes, by the fact that Aunt Mary’s eyes would be upon him at the return of John Thomas.  After her suggestion, and his acknowledgment of its value, it would hardly do for him to let passion so rule him as to act in open violation of what was right.  To wrong his son by unwise treatment, when he professed to desire only his good.