It was almost nine o'clock, the hour when it was generally understood that the party was to break up. The boys had been very merry all the evening; the discussion which had taken place just before tea seemed to have been forgotten, save by Ellis, who, genial and hearty enough with the others, was cold and haughty to Tip. Still, they kept apart, and the fun had gone on famously. There was a sudden lull in the uproar when Mr. Minturn opened the door. "Are the walls left?" he asked, coming forward. "The _walls_?" said Ellis inquiringly; "why, sir, did you expect to miss them?" "Well, I had some such fears, but I see they're all right. What are you up to?" "Ellis was telling a story, that's what we were laughing at when you came in," said Howard. "Go on, El--never mind father, he likes to hear stories." "No," said Ellis, blushing crimson; "I think I'll be excused." "Go ahead," said Mr. Minturn; "I'm very fond of stories." "I was only telling, sir, how Joe Barnes talked to his father when I was down there this morning." "Yes, and, father, you'd be perfectly astonished to hear him," chimed in Howard. "I never heard a fellow go on so in my life; he makes fun of every single thing his father says." "Do you think there is anything very surprising in that?" asked Mr. Minturn coolly. "Surprising! I guess you'd think so. Why, when his father is talking to him real soberly, he mimics him, and laughs right in his face." "But I shouldn't suppose you would think there was anything strange about that." The boys looked puzzled. "Why, Mr. Minturn!" said Ellis; "wouldn't you think it strange if Howard should do so?" "Well, no; I don't know that I should have any reason to be astonished." Howard looked not only surprised, but very much hurt. "I'm sure, father," he said, in a voice which trembled a little, "I didn't know I was so rude to you as all that." "No," said Mr. Minturn, "you never have been, but I rather expect you to commence. I shall have no reason to be surprised if you and Ellis and Will Bailey, and a host of others, all go to making fun of what your fathers say to you after this." The boys seemed perfectly astonished. "_I_, for one," said Ellis Holbrook proudly, "think too much of _my_ father, to be in any such danger." "You _do_?" said Mr. Minturn; "well, now, I _am_ amazed. I supposed you would be the very worst one." Howard left the table and came over to where his father had seated himself. "Father, what _do_ you mean?" he asked, in an earnest, anxious tone. "Why, I mean," said his father, "that I was in that room over there just before tea, and I heard the discussion which came up between you boys, and I came to the conclusion that boys who thought it such a little matter to make fun of solemn words which God has said to them, need not be expected to show much respect for what their father or anybody else said."