"Is it Benjamin Franklin? I know him."
"No; the man I speak of is a preacher who died only a few years ago; a man of the deepest religious nature. I am glad to have known him personally; he has been a guest at our house, and I have taken him by the hand. He and your father, Eric, became intimate friends at once."
"Do you mean Theodore Parker?" inquired Eric.
"I mean him, and I feel elevated to have had such a man live with us."
"Why have you never spoken of this man?" said Roland, turning to Eric.
"Because I did not wish to interfere with the faith in which you were brought up."
Eric said this without meaning to reprove his mother, and yet she was alarmed when she heard his reply; she repeated, that Roland would learn about the man after his judgment had become more mature.
The mischief, however, had been done, of pointing out to the youth something which was now withheld from him; and as he had never been accustomed to being denied, anything, he would now, as usual, be eager after what was forbidden, and if it was not given him, he would take secret measures to get it himself.
Eric and Roland received the salutation of many coming out of church. Eric introduced his mother to the School-director, the Forester, his wife and sister-in-law, who all accompanied the friends into the town. The walk along the public highway was pleasant; there is nothing, on the whole, like this pleasant mood with which a large number of persons of various condition and character return from church.
"Wasn't the Doctor's wife at church?" asked the Mother.