"Answer me," was his father's stern command.
"Not often, papa."
The captain barely caught the low breathed words. "Not often? sometimes, then?" he groaned, covering his face with his hand.
"O papa, don't be so grieved! I'll never do it again," Max said in a broken voice.
The captain sighed deeply. "Max," he said, "dearly as I love my only son, I would sooner lay him under the sod, knowing that his soul was in heaven, than have him live to be a profane swearer. Bring me that Bible from the table yonder."
The boy obeyed.
"Now turn to the twenty-fourth chapter of Leviticus, and read the sixteenth verse."
Max read in a trembling voice, "'And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him; as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put to death.'"
"Now the twenty-third," said his father.
"'And Moses spake to the children of Israel, that they should bring forth him that had cursed out of the camp, and stone him with stones; and the children of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses.'"