Dr. Ashley very deliberately allowed his anger to cool, his quick brown eyes flashing to Peter in radiant sympathy.
"It won't happen again, son," he promised.
"If it does, he'll wish he never was born," Mrs. Ashley agreed, staring at Mr. Caxton with a hate so cold and merciless it brought all of his terror back.
Perhaps buried somewhere deep in Mr. Caxton's mind was a childhood fear of punishment at the hands of a scolding woman. It could have explained why he trembled and turned pale, and went stumbling out of the shack without a backward glance.
It was of no great importance, and it would have been silly for Peter's parents to waste any sympathy on him.
They didn't.
Dr. Ashley went up to his son, and gripped him by the shoulder with all of the gentleness of a supremely wise parent with a bedrock of granitelike strength to draw upon.
"Never let malicious envy disturb you, son," he said. "If anyone hates you enough to push you around you can rest assured there's a secret envy gnawing away at him."
Seeing the puzzlement in Peter's eyes, Dr. Ashley smiled reassuringly. "Mr. Caxton has a complicated approach to everything. He'd like to see nature as you do, son—simply and clearly with a boy's shining vision. He never could, and that shriveled him up tragically."
"I really did see a bird, Pop. It stood in the doorway and—"