It was only half-past seven o’clock and yet his father appeared and ordered him in to bed.
“Look here, you young pup,” the man intercepted as Nat drearily obeyed, “—what’s this nonsense I’m hearing about you traipsin’ around behind some girl? Do you?”
“N-N-No, sir!”
“I don’t believe you!—Else folks around town wouldn’t be talking. If you lie to me I’ll lay on the strap. Now who is the girl and what about her? Answer me quick, or it’ll be worse for you!”
“I don’t know what you mean!”
A shrill cry of pain followed as the man twisted the boy’s ear.
“Answer me!” he thundered.
“B-B-Bernice Gridley,” Nat confessed.
“Well—you let me lay down a law right here and now! No son of mine is going to make a young jackass of himself—or ruin his life—by getting mixed up with any girl before he’s old enough to know his own mind! You put girls out of your mind once and for all, the same as when we lived over in Foxboro you were told to put the baby business out of your mind! You hear me? Don’t you ever be seen on the street with a girl. Don’t you ever speak to one excepting when you’re absolutely obliged to—on strictly business! Don’t you ever let me hear of you goin’ to any party where there’s girls—while as for loving or kissing ’em—my God, I’ll skin you alive if I find you up to any such looseness and wickedness. You promise that here and now—before me and before God—and may God damn your disobedient young soul if you go back on your promise.”
Nathan was aghast. Johnathan tortured the boy until he got his promise out.