“Why, it is doing what you tell me not to do; is it not?”
“That is not a sufficient definition of it; for suppose you were out there in the bushes, and I was to beckon you to come here, and you should not come, would not that be disobedience?”
“Why, yes, sir.”
“And yet I should not tell you to come.”
“No, sir.”
“And so, if I were to shake my head at you when you were doing any thing wrong, and you wore to continue doing it, that would be disobedience.”
Rollo admitted that it would. “So that it is not necessary that I should tell you in words what my wishes are: if I express them in any way so that you plainly understand it, that is enough. The most important orders that are given by men, are often given without any words.”
“How, father?”
“Why, at sea, sometimes, where there is a great fleet of ships, and the admiral, who commands them all, is in one of them. Now, if he wants all the fleet to sail in any way; or if he wishes to have some one, vessel come near to his, or go back home, or go away to any other part of the world; or if he wants any particular person in the fleet to come on board his vessel,—he does not send an order in words; he only hoists flags of a particular kind upon the masts of his vessel, and they all obey them.
“Now, suppose,” continued he, “one of the ships did not sail as he wished, and when he called the captain to account for it, he should say that he was not guilty of disobedience, because he did not tell him to sail so.”