same history
awaited him.

CHAPTER VII

FATHER AND SON

On the following morning, after breakfast, Joe was summoned to the
library by his father, and he went in almost with a feeling of gladness
that the suspense of waiting was over. Mr. Bronson was standing by the
window. A great chattering of sparrows outside seemed to have attracted
his attention. Joe joined him in looking out, and saw a fledgeling sparrow
on the grass, tumbling ridiculously about in its efforts to stand on its
feeble baby legs. It had fallen from the nest in the rose-bush that climbed
over the window, and the two parent sparrows were wild with anxiety over
its plight.

"It 's a way young birds have," Mr. Bronson remarked, turning to Joe
with a serious smile; "and I dare say you are on the verge of a somewhat
similar predicament, my boy," he went on. "I am afraid things have
reached a crisis, Joe. I have watched it coming on for a year now--your
poor scholarship, your carelessness and inattention, your constant
desire to be out of the house and away in search of adventures of one
sort or another."

He paused, as though expecting a reply; but Joe remained silent.

"I have given you plenty of liberty. I believe in liberty. The finest
souls grow in such soil. So I have not hedged you in with endless rules
and irksome restrictions. I have asked little of you, and you have come
and gone pretty much as you pleased. In a way, I have put you on your
honor, made you largely your own master, trusting to your sense of right
to restrain you from going wrong and at least to keep you up in your
studies. And you have failed me. What do you want me to do? Set you
certain bounds and time-limits? Keep a watch over you? Compel you by
main strength to go through your books?

"I have here a note," Mr. Bronson said after another pause, in which he
picked up an envelop from the table and drew forth a written sheet.

Joe recognized the stiff and uncompromising scrawl of Miss Wilson, and
his heart sank.

His father began to read:

"Listlessness and carelessness have characterized
his term's work, so that when the examinations
came he was wholly unprepared. In neither history
nor arithmetic did he attempt to answer a question,
passing in his papers perfectly blank. These
examinations took place in the morning. In the
afternoon he did not take the trouble even to
appear for the remainder."

Mr. Bronson ceased reading and looked up.