"There, now, my good lad, look not so like a colt that feels the
whip for the first time. You will have a good home, imbued with
the spirit of a most excellent piety that will be ever about
you."
"Like a colt feeling the whip," indeed! Rolf reeled like a
stricken deer. To go back as a chore-boy drudge was possible,
but not alluring; to leave Quonab, just as the wood world was
opening to him, was devastating; but to exchange it all for
bondage in the pious household of Old Peck, whose cold cruelty
had driven off all his own children, was an accumulation of
disasters that aroused him.
"I won't go!" he blurted out, and gazed defiantly at the broad
and benevolent selectman.
"Come now, Rolf, such language is unbecoming. Let not a hasty
tongue betray you into sin. This is what your mother would have
wished. Be sensible; you will soon find it was all for the best.
I have ever liked you, and will ever be a friend you can count
on.
"Acting, not according to my instructions, but according to my
heart, I will say further that you need not come now, you need
not even give answer now, but think it over.
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