“Many a time! I’ve been a boy myself. Also I haven’t forgotten, Sam, the scrapes into which I fell. Some of them taught me a lesson—a lesson you’ll have to learn some day. But to get back to the gun. There it was, ready to your hand. You took it. You put a supply of cartridges in your pocket. Your mother was not at home. You were too impatient to await her return. So off you hurried, taking chances, but meaning no harm. You were very sure of yourself; you knew something about firearms; you were confident that you wouldn’t hurt yourself or anybody else. You thought you were extremely careful in the woods. Yet there you took another chance, still meaning no harm, but barely escaping homicide.”
“I know that, sir.”
“You can count yourself most fortunate that the results were not more serious. But I won’t dwell upon what might have happened. What did happen was quite enough to give you food for thought, and to point the moral of your experience. And that is that before you go ahead you should do your best to be sure you’re right.”
“After this I’ll be sure!”
Mr. Parker smiled a little oddly. “I ask only, Sam, that you do your best to be sure. Often you have to take risks—the practical point is to avoid the unnecessary risks. Hear me through! At sixteen you’re not going to develop the wisdom and foresight of a grown man. I’m not going to demand the impossible. I am going, though, to urge you to profit by the mistakes you’ve made—and that, Sam, is the one best use to make of mistakes.”
“You mean, not to repeat ’em?”
“That is precisely my meaning.”
“Trust me!” cried Sam, with conviction.
“I am going to trust you,” said his father. “In the first place, I am going to assume that we have no need to talk about punishment; perhaps you’ve had a reasonable amount of it as it is, for I suspect you have passed some very trying hours. At the same time, though, I’m not prepared to treat this affair as a wholly closed chapter. I think it will be better for all concerned if you regard yourself, for the next few months, as on probation.”
“I don’t quite understand.”