Rupert. “Yes; for I am sure I could not have broken any more by that little sleigh-ride.”
Mr. Penrose. “What is the third commandment, Rupert?”
Rupert. “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.”
Mr. Penrose. “Your first words after the congregation was dismissed prove that you broke the third commandment. Christ says, ‘Swear not at all: neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne: nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King: neither shalt thou swear by thy head; because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay; for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.’ Matt. v, 34-37.
“Now, your communication was not Yea, yea, or Nay, nay, when you burst upon us with ‘By jingo,’ before the minister had hardly finished the benediction. That word was wicked, and certainly comes under the head of that ‘foolish talking’ which the apostle condemns.”
Rupert. “Well, I know you will make me out a sabbath-breaker next. I knew I was that myself; but I did not know that I was doing so many other bad things by that sleigh-ride.”
Mr. Penrose. “Since you plead guilty to breaking the fourth commandment, Rupert, we will pass over that, and come to the fifth.”
“I did not break that. My father and mother would not have cared for my riding to-day,” said Rupert, who had got the Bible opened before him, at the twentieth chapter of Exodus, that he might find out what the commandments were.
Mr. Penrose. “But you are now under our care, Rupert. We are as parents to you while you stay with us. You knew that we would not like to have you riding about the town on a Sunday; therefore, in not honoring us, and doing as we wish, I think you broke the fifth commandment.”
By this time Rupert seemed to have got quite interested in the examination of himself; for Mr. Penrose spoke kindly to him, and he knew that it was out of love to him that he thus talked to him of his faults. He ran over the commandments: