"I have you now," said Dick," you are coming about, and about, the whisky; and gibbet me, but I'll gie it over all the days of my life, gif it will plause my dear Lewis."

"I know you are an honest man, Dick," said Roger; "and if you promise, will keep your word-will you solemnly vow never to taste any thing stronger than smallbeer? I know it is grief for your hard drinking, that has destroyed Lewis."

"Destroy Lewis! Destroy Lewis!" repeated Dick, and throwing himself on his knees, uttered the most awful imprecations on his own head, if ever, from that moment, any liquor stronger than small-beer should pass his lips.

During several days Lewis never spoke but in monosylables. The opening of a door, or a step on the floor, agonized him. Terence and his wife came late every afternoon in turns to see him, and in the forenoon one of them, or one of their elder children, met Roger or Lizzy half way, to inquire for the patient. Dick's wife came also often to ask for him. One morning as Dick was venting self-reproaches while he sat with Roger, his wife came in. She was always ready to take up that subject; and began in a cutting haughty manner to rate poor Dick. 66 If you true regard for your husband, your children, or yourself, Betty," said Roger, "your looks and words will be more gentle. I know you mean well; but once for all, 1 take this opportunity to tell you, that a man may be led to his own fireside, and charmed to sit down there contentedbut he will not drive. A pleasant wife and good children, are the cordials that will warm his heart better than whisky."

have

any

"And if a man takes it into his head to find fault with his wife and children," said Betty, "is that to excuse him for warming his heart, and muddling his head with

whisky.

whisky. Are you an advocate for drink, Roger ?" "Judge for yourself, Betty," said Roger, "when you hear what I have to say on the subject. Drunkenness is a vice that does not spring from any natural cause. The brutes themselves, who have all animal passions in common with man, abhor to commit self-murder, by burning upthe juices of their bodies with strong drink. The horse, though forced to swallow wine or porter a thousand times, can never be brought to suck it up, as he does fresh water from the fountain. Drink makes a man the slave of every brutal passion that may be accidentally excited,, when he is deprived of his reason—and it lays him open to the perfidy of every villain who may wish to defraud him. He is as unfit to take care of his own conduct, or his own interest, as a child—and this appears in his mad or vicious excesses, and in the poverty that generally marks the close of a drunkard's days. He beggars his children; and what is far worse, his example corrupts them, before they have sense to know good from evil. They hear him and his companions speak in exaggerated terms of the pleasures they have tasted, or expect at the alehouse; and they are. too inexperienced and heedless to remark the low spirits,. or to trace the cause of the ill-humour that tormented their father next day. Imagination, overbeated, brings them into riotous parties and custom enchains them to repeat the folly, though it has disappointed their expectations. Here they waste their earnings, whilst the father, who first gave them these lessons, wanders a beggar, justly despised and wretched. This is the life of a drunkard ;: but who can bear to contemplate his death!-Racked by inflammatory distempers, discoloured with jaundice, or swollen with dropsy, he suffers in this world a part of the chastisement his unnatural excess has drawn upon him. Let us hope he is penitent-and, Oh! what repentant an

t

guish must tear his bosom.

If he remains insensible to

his guilt-I shudder to look beyond the grave.

Roger had seized this occasion, indirectly, to lay before Dick some of the horrors that might attend his past indulgences. He was greatly affected; and in his blunt way said to his wife: "Betty, Betty; dear Betty! be you a good wife, and I shall be a good man.”

"I defy you, and all that dare to say I am not a good wife," said Betty, "up early, and up late. I must do your part as well as my own. I am farmer and housewife,father to rule the boys, as well as mother to keep the girls busy. Who dares say I am not a good wife?"

"You are a good housewife and a good servant," said Roger;" but SHE IS A GOOD WIFE THAT MAKES HER HUSBAND FIND DELIGHT UNDER HIS OWN ROOF; AND A GOOD MOTHER THAT BRINGS UP GOOD CHILDREN, AND MAKES THEM LOVE HOME. Use your good sense, and consult your conscience, my honest woman,and dont storm; for it is a blast that scatters your own best comforts. Your husband has promised to renounce the alehouse, will you come under a vow to give up the intoxication of anger

"Who has a right to ask that said Betty?"

66

"Your husband has," said Roger ;" and the same right that his brother's have to use their influence with him to correct one fault, we also have to make you sensible that your intemperate anger hurts your family."

"You know little about keeping a family in order," said Betty. "If I was a simpleton, could I make my servants work, or could I rule my brats?"

"All extremes are bad," said Roger" but it is a sad affair when servants make a joke of putting their mistress in a fury, or provoke her rage that she may bribe them

to put up with her violence—and as to your children, Betty, OUT OF YOUR OWN MOUTH WILL I CONDEMN YOU. How many times have you complained that they are unruly, and that you cannot believe one word they say. Your own harsh usage tempts them to a thousand arts to hide their transgressions when little, and it urges them to throw off the yoke whenever they begin to grow up. You see Terence's family, young and old, yield a willing obedience to their parents; and not one of them ever receives a hard name or a blow ;—but I must leave you. Will you, Betty, go up beside Lewis, and send my wife to our little one till I return."-" And I," said Dick, " will take my post in Lewis's room where he wont see me...but the sound of his voice or his breath I must hear."

Roger set out to meet Terence, to inform him how Lewis had passed the night. Terence had come half way whenever the children were allowed an hour of relaxation at noon; and not meeting Roger, he proceeded in great alarm, fearful that Lewis was worse. Roger explained how he had outstaid his appointment. "In short, Terence," continued he, "I fear Dick will not be happy. I have been pondering on his case as I came along. He is no worse in morals than we all might have proved, if we had been exposed to the same temptation. Perhaps the best of us might have been more worthless if we had kept so much bad company. It was not poor Dick's fault that the nobility and gentry at old Mrs GAHAGAN'S gave him wine every day, when he was a little urchin; or that the Squire's dissolute companions dosed him with brandy." "No, no," said Terence, "I pity him from my soul; and in proportion as I discern his errors, I feel the immense debt of thanksgiving we owe to Almighty God for a better education. That Dick will keep his promise I am assured;—but time will hang heavy on his hands.

He

never

never was used to labour, and he is rich enough to keep servants. He cannot be a companion for himself one quarter of an hour,-and that defect is of all kinds of poverty the most wretched."

"There is but one remedy," said Roger, " and I think we are all sufficiently disinterested to concur in it. Let us relinquish the pleasure of Lewis's society except as a visitor. Let us propose to him to become Dick's guest. You justly observe he cannot be a companion for himself. I am sure that vacuity of mind first threw him into idle company, and the habit gained upon him. HIS SONGS WERE HIS BANE. In infancy they brought him to be taken notice of by persons who did not consider the danger of giving a child a decided liking for strong drink : As a man, he was sought after by every riotous party that he might divert them with his catches; but I think these very songs and catches may be converted now to the most salutary purposes."

"You are the best hand that I know," said Terence, "for extracting all the good out of circumstances, and sometimes of transmuting evil into good, but I have not penetration enough to find a key to this paradoxical scheme. Explain it, and you will receive all the assistance I can lend."

"I have been all over the booksellers' shops, since yesterday," said Roger," to look out for simple volumes, that after Dick has been allured to them a few days by the reading of select ballads, he may be gradually led on to moral songs and good books in prose. I am astonished to find so few publications suitable for humble readers; and I think a cheap periodical work adapted for them, must. be a public benefit. In the meantime I must make the best of such as I have been able to procure. I know Lewis will sacrifice his time and inclination if he finds Dick

takes