The sun., 1901-10-24
A FALL FROM GRACE.

when willis Flagg was graduated from
che high school he started life with a dc.
termination to be model young man
With Willie this meant to avoid liquor and
tobacco, to shun games of chance and walt |
in the straight and narrow path which leads
to bed at nine o'clock p. m. and to break
fast at seven in the morning. Willie's mann
una was immensely pleased with these res
Iolutions, which was good thing for Willie
for as late as his last year at school, when |
he was home for holiday and got sassy"
TO his grandmother, she spanked him sound
ly. 1t must not be thought for moment
that Willie was led to his good resolutions
by fear Of the maternal wrath; no, indeed |
He was 4 student of the lines beginning |
Lives of great men all remind us, and
Willie meant to be great man at all costs,
Now, the seven bright crisp dollar bills
that Willie found in his envelope at the end
Of the first week Of toll in the commission
house where he had found employment
looked large and promising and he tucked
them away in his inside pocket, Resolved to
soak four of them in the bank the next |
morning, making them the foundation Of
the fortune he meant to build up. Willie
lives in the suburbs of Jersey City, in a
house with large veranda around it, and
he thought, as he started for the ferry, |
how he would spend the evening there with
mother, talking over the future and think. |
ing of the seven so snug and comfortable
in his inside pocket. But alas for Willie
Flagg There were other young men in tho
commission house, and sofne of them got
so much more than seven per that they
could afford to spend part Of 1t in riotous
living. Saturday night being their favorits
one for gay doings, they set out 1nd had
made good beginning before they met Will
lie making his lonely way to the ferry.
Needless to say Willie was quite over
whelmed by the attentions showered on him
by those over him in the commission house.
1t is unnecessary to go into details of the
fight against temptation put up by Willie,
or how his high notions of morality were
swept away by the eloquence Of the others.
Enough to say that very few moments
later Willie's nose was buried in glass, and
| in the glass was beer. Two OF these were
!, enough to affect Willie, and very soon his
own seven was going the way of the other
salaries paid by the commission house that
/ day Several ferryboats for Jersey City left
New York without Willie, and they were
running on half-ho schedule when he
finally made his uncertain way down Cort.
landt street.
/ w HuiC Was huuEI tIC iihhehtG, oubt NiHt
] was worse, he had spent his seven. He could
explain the loss of the seven to mother In
a score of ways, he figured, but his own
| condition-how was he to explain that?
Every third step he became independent
and inquired of himself what right any
body had to interfere with him or to qnes,
ton his conduct. Then he would resolve to
| let the folks at home know that he was nd
1 child. But as quickly as this Dutch courage
was born II would shrink before the recol-
lection Of mothers strong right arm. Willie
finally got on the boat, was duly taken over
the river and correctly headed on the way
home by good.natured policeman.
All was dark and still around the house
when Willie arrived. He wondered how
| people could sleep on such hot night, but
he was not sorry, for it WAS absolutely nee
essary for him to get in unobserved. He
disliked to think of how badly mother would
feel if she met him in his present plight. Up
the steps of the porch went Willie, and al
though 1t took him five minutes to reach the
] top it was not wasted time, for he awoke
no one. The route to the door was
straight one, but Willie chose to make an
inshoot of it. The creaking OF his boots
sent chills up his back and It seemed to him
that some one must hear him. But no one
ulub ana IL WAS With u great sign OF TelleI
that he finally found the lock- Finding the
key was another proposition, however. One
pocket after another was searched and
finally turned inside out, but no trace Of
the key was discovered. Willie distinctly
remembered that it was on ring with some
other keys, and that some time between
leaving his friends and arriving at home
probably on the boat, he had taken it out
of his pocket and placed it somewhere with
the idea of knowing where II was when he
| wanted to use It, But where he had put il
Willie could not remember for the life of
him.
1t was a horrible situation for young
man with mother like Willie had Not
to show up all night was as bad as cominp
home under TIE influence. and to ring the
bell was to give himself away, for deeI
down in his heart Willie was aware of hi.
condidon. So, after half an hour of futile
seGrch for the keyring, Willie went to cor
1er of the veranda, took off his coat, rolled
it into pillow and then lay down and went
to sleep. =
1t was daylight when Willie woke to find
his mother and his grandmother STANDING
over him. Willie was startled and would
have sprung to his feet, but some myste
rous force held him back. Three times he
] tSsdyeu W GlSSi Dut not all lncH ulu He
make. Finally by terrific effort he man
aged to break away from the mysterious
something that held him, and simultaneous
ly with his rising came a ripping sound.
and the back of Willie's coat and trousers
were observed glued to the floor of the
porch. 1t was an awful situation, made
more awful by the ominous silence of moth
er and grandmamma. 1t was up to Willie
to say something, and he knew it, but what
he didn't know was, what the dickens to
say Suddenly in a fash, it came to him
that he had figured on just such situation,
and before he knew it he was telling the
story that he had planned to tell the night
before. But somehow it didn't seem as
plausible as it had then. He staggered
through il and was starting for the door
! when his mother stopped him.
willie, is that the keyring you were
looking for?" she asked, pointing at the
young mans left hand. Willie looked at
the hand, and there on one of the fingers
was the missing keyring. He remembered
now that this was the precaution he had
taken the night before. He was suffering
around for something to say when grand
mamma piped up:
"And, Willie, You needn't have been SO
solioitous for us as to sleep in fresh paint