Year: 1870

mutually pledged each other that we would
make him drink at the first opportunity.
After this determination was taken we
treated Jack more kindly, and he was
happier than he had been for sometime.
We we're on our homeward bound passage,
by the way of Brazil, and our ship stopped
ut Rio Janeiro, where we were to remain
q week or so. One pleasant morning we
six youngers received permission to 60 on
shore and spend the whole day; and ac-
cordingly We were rugged up in our best
tags and were carried to the landing.
Now was our chance, and we put our
heads together to see how it should be
done. Jacks very first desire, as soon as
he got on shore, was to 60 up and examine
the various things Of interest in the city.
He wanted to visit the churches and such
like places, and to please him we agreed to
60 with him if he would 60 and take din.
ner with US. He agreed to this at once,
and We thought we had him sure. We
planned that after dinner was eaten we
would have some light, sweet wine brought
on, and that we would contrive to get rum
enough into what he drank to upset him !;
for nothing on earth would please us more
than to get Jack drunk, and carry him on
board in that condition. Then we fancied
the captains favoritism would be at an end,
and that he would no longer look upon our
rival with more preference than upon our.
selves.


Dinner time came at length. It was a
capital dinner, and we came in with shar.
pened appetites. But when the wine was
brought in, Jack not only refused to taste
it, but declined to remain in our company
We cried out against him as mean, stingy
fellow who thought himself too good to
associate with us, and accused him, at
last, of trying to step over our heads on
the ship, and all the unpleasant things we
could think of to make the poor fellow
unhappy. At first he seemed to be iu-
clined to leave us and return to the ship
alone, but suddenly, in quiet tone, he
said, Shipmates, listen to me moment.
Since matters have come to this pass
have resolved to tell you something which
never meant to reveal. My story is
short. From my earliest childhood I
never knew what it was to have a happy
home. My father was drunkard Once
he had been good man and good hus-
band, but rum ruined all his manhood and
made brute of him. l can remember
how cold and cheerless the winter used to
be. We had no fire-no food-no clothes
no joy-no nothing-nothing but misc
ry. Oh i! how my mother prayed to God
for her husband; and I, who could just
prattle, learned to pray too.


"When grew older 1 had to 20 out
and beg for bread. All cold and shiver-
ing l waded through the deep snow, with
my clothes in tatters and my freezing feet
almost bare. And l saw other children of
my own age dressed warm and comfortable,
and knew they were happy, for they
laughed and sang as they bounded along
toward school. Those boys had sober ia.
theirs. l knew that their fathers we're no
better than mine had been once; for my
mother had told me how noble my father
could be if rum were not in his way.


Time passed on and l was eight years
old, and those eight years had been years
of such sorrow and suffering as 1 pray
God may never again experience. At
length, one cold morning, in the dead of
winter my father was not at home. He
had not been at home through the night.
My mother sent me to the tavern to see if
l could find him. I had gone half the
way when l saw something in the snow by
the side of the road. I stopped, and
shudder ran through me, for it looked like
human form. 1 went up to it, and turn
ed the head over and brushed tho snow
from the face. 1t was my father, and he
was stiff and cold laid my hand upon
his pale brow, and it was solid marble.
He was dead!


~ went to the tavern and told the peo-
pie what / had found, and the landlord
sent two of his .men to carry the frozen
body of my father home Oh, shipmates,
I cannot tell you how my poor mother
wept aud groaned. She sank down upon
her knees and clasped that icy corpse to
her heart, as though she would have given
it life from the warmth of her own breast.
She loved her husband through all his er-
rors, and her love was all powerful now.
The two men went away and left the dead
body still on the floor. My poor mother
WhAoPSASu w AV w COtuC duu AuCGl Nv ncI
side. did so. MY Child she said to
me, and the big tears were yet rolling
down her cheeks, you know what has
caused all this. This man was once as
noble aud happy and true as man can be,
but oh see how he has been stricken
down. Promise me, my child, oh promise,
here before God aud your dead father, and
your brokeu-hearted mother, that you will
never, never, touch single drop of the
fatal poison that has wrought for US all this
miseryv


Shipmates, I did promise all my moth
er asked, and God knows that to this mo.
ment that promise has never been broken.
My father was buried, and some good,
kind neighbors helped us through the win
ter. When the next spring came could
work, aud earned something for my
mother. AT length found . chance to
ship; and every time I 50 home have