Peter by Francis Hopkinson Smith — Read

That Jack hardly closed his eyes that night, and that the first thing he did after opening them the next morning was to fly to Peter for comfort and advice, goes without saying. Even a sensible, well-balanced young man -- and our Jack, to the Scribe's great regret, is none of these -- would have done this with his skin still smarting from an older man's verbal scorching -- especially a man like his uncle, provided, of course, he had a friend like Peter within reach. How much more reasonable, therefore, to conclude that a man so quixotic as our young hero would seek similar relief.

As to the correctness of the details of this verbal scorching, so minutely described in the preceding chapter, should the reader ask how it is possible for the Scribe to set down in exact order the goings-on around a dinner-table to which he was not invited, as well as the particulars of a family row where only two persons participated -- neither of whom was himself -- and this, too, in the dead of night, with the outside doors locked and the shades and curtains drawn -- he must plead guilty without leaving the prisoner's dock.