"I hope Father comes home soon." The boy's voice sounded worried.

"Your father will surely be angry," said Aunt Phoebe, who was sitting in the living room with a book.

Richard got up from the sofa where he had been sitting for the past half hour and said, with a touch of indignation in his voice, 'He'll be sad but not angry. Dad never gets angry… Here he comes!” The doorbell rang and he went to the door. He came back slowly and disappointed: "It wasn't him," he said. 'Where is he? Ah, if only he would come at last!'

"You can't wait to get into more trouble," remarked his aunt, who had only been home a week and didn't particularly like children.

"I think, Aunt Phoebe, you would like my father to give me a beating," said the boy somewhat indignantly, "but you won't see that, for father is good and he loves me."

'I have to admit,' replied the aunt, 'that a little beating wouldn't hurt you. If you were my child, I'm sure you wouldn't be able to avoid her."

The bell rang again and the boy jumped up and went to the door. "It's Father!" he cried.

"Ah, Richard!" Mr. Gordon greeted his son kindly, taking the boy's hand. 'But what's the matter? You look so sad."

'Come with me.' Richard pulled his father into the book room. Mr Gordon sat down. He was still holding Richard's hand.

"Are you worried, son? What happened then?"

Tears welled up in Richard's eyes as he looked into his father's face. He tried to answer, but his lips trembled. Then he opened the door of a display case and pulled out the fragments of a statue that had just arrived yesterday as a gift. Mr. Gordon frowned as Richard placed the shards on the table.

"How did that happen?" he asked in an unchanged voice.

"I threw the ball up in the room, just once because I didn't think about it." The poor boy's voice was thick and shaky.

Mr. Gordon sat for a while, struggling to control himself and trying to collect his troubled thoughts. Then he said kindly, 'What happened happened, Richard. Take away the shards. You've been through enough about it I see. I'm not going to punish you for that, too."

"Oh papa!" The boy hugged his father. "You're so sweet." Five minutes later, Richard came into the living room with his father. Aunt Phoebe looked up, expecting to see two scowls. But what she saw amazed her.

"It's very unfortunate," she said after a short pause. “It was such an exquisite work of art. Now it's broken once and for all. I think that's very naughty of Richard."

'We've settled the matter, Aunt Phoebe,' said Mr Gordon gently but firmly. "A rule in our house is: get out in the sun as soon as possible." In the sun, as soon as possible? Yes, that's actually the best.

Character classics from: Choice Stories for Children, ed.: Ernest Lloyd, Wheeler, Michigan: undated, pp. 47-48.

First published in German in Our solid foundation, 4-2004.