“Disgraceful, Tom!” said the captain. “Now, then, what would you do with the young dog? Send him off to some school for a couple of years?”
“No,” said the admiral, quietly.
“I don’t like thrashing the boy.”
“Of course not, Harry.”
“But I must punish him.”
“What for?”
“What for? Disobedience. This mad escapade—”
“Bah!”
“Tom?”
“I said Bah! Punish him? Why, look at the boy. Hasn’t he punished himself enough? Why, Harry, we were boys once, and precious far from perfect, eh? I say, I don’t think either of us would have had the courage to have faced our old dad and confessed like that.”