"You should have begun that before," said Moodie. "He seems a
hopeful pupil."
"Oh, as to that, a little swearing is manly," returned the father;
"I swear myself, I know, and as the old cock crows, so crows the
young one. It is not his swearing that I care a pin for, but he will
not do a thing I tell him to."
"Swearing is a dreadful vice," said I, "and, wicked as it is in the
mouth of a grown-up person, it is perfectly shocking in a child; it
painfully tells he has been brought up without the fear of God."
"Pooh! pooh! that's all cant; there is no harm in a few oaths, and I
cannot drive oxen and horses without swearing. I dare say that you
can swear too when you are riled, but you are too cunning to let us
hear you."
I could not help laughing outright at this supposition, but replied
very quietly, "Those who practice such iniquities never take any
pains to conceal them. The concealment would infer a feeling of
shame; and when people are conscious of the guilt, they are in the
road to improvement." The man walked whistling away, and the wicked
child returned unpunished to his home.
The next minute the old woman came in.
