"Why, father! how can you put such an idea in the child's mind?" protested Mrs. Abercrombie.
"He's only teasing you, mama," said Little Crotchet.
"I heard him talking to a bogie the other night," remarked Mr. Hudspeth, the Teacher.
"Oh, I don't think you're a bogie," cried Little Crotchet. "You would have been one, though, if you had kept me in those awful books."
The Teacher had mischievously thrown out this hint about Aaron to see what effect it would have. He was amazed at the lad's self-possession, and at the deft manner in which he had turned the hint aside.
"Oh, have you been admitted to the sanctum?" inquired the lad's mother, laughing.
"I paused at the door to say good-night and remained until I learned a lesson I never shall forget," said Mr. Hudspeth.
"Ah, you're finding our boy out, eh?" exclaimed Mr. Abercrombie with a show of pride.
"He possesses already the highest culture the mind of man is capable of," Mr. Hudspeth declared. His tone was so solemn and his manner so earnest that Little Crotchet blushed. "He is cultured in the humanities. That is apart from scholarship," the Teacher explained, "but without it all knowledge is cold and dark and unfruitful."
"I know he is very humane," suggested Mr. Abercrombie.