CHAPTER FOUR
EVERYBODY IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD KNEW HIM TO
be an unmanageable child, and some said he should
be treated this way, others that way, but on one
point there was no disagreement, and that was that
all the good done by the elder Werendonk was
ruined by the younger. He seemed to be no more
than a child himself. Floris had been seen at the
Forest Gate standing up to his knees in the horse-
pond, where the horses were washed, and splashing
the passers-by with water, while Frans, who had
been sent out to find him, stood by, himself dripping
wet, and laughed. How was a child to know what
was wrong if one uncle punished him for things
that the other saw no harm in ? It was just the
same about telling the truth. When Frans brought
him home he would make something up in order
to gloss over some escapade or another, and the
boy learnt early that the commandment not to tell
a lie didn't apply if he wanted to avoid a beating.
Before he was old enough to go to school, his
lips would curl at the corners when he told a lie.
Gerbrand mistrusted that expression on the boy's