For John's Sake Part 11

Mattie bore the sight as long as she could, and then said: "Don't cry, mammie; if you're bad, I'll run and fetch the doctor."

But Susan took no notice, and probably had not heard her child's words.

By and bye her tears ceased, and she staggered to her feet, saying: "Oh, G.o.d! that I should have come to this, while he--"

What did her grief, her broken words mean? The children stood aghast; and, at that juncture, heavy footsteps were heard on the stairs, and directly the husband and father entered the room; his clear brow, fearless eye, and manly bearing all gone, and in their stead, darkness, sullenness, and feebleness.

"What's these?" he asked, for the gaudy cards had been thrown to the very entrance of the room, and in another moment his foot would have rested upon them.

Mattie sprang forward and placed them, without a word, in his hands.

Susan crossed the room, and came to her husband's side.

"Who's been putting the brats up to this?" he asked, half angrily, turning to her.

"I don't know," she answered; "but, oh, George, look at the signature, and think what that man used to be, and how we couldn't find a name bad enough for him; and now he's respectable and well-to-do, and me and you's sunk lower than ever he did. Oh, dear! oh, dear!" and again Susan's sobs shook the room.

"Timothy Morris, as I live!" exclaimed George Dixon, dropping the cards in sheer amazement, while upon his mind there rushed a score of memories, some joyous and bright; others, and these of later days, sad and sin-shadowed.

"Don't carry on so, Susan," he said; "it makes me feel bad, for I've been as much in the wrong as you."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Look at the signature, and think what that man used to be."--_Page 76._]

"Oh, George, I wouldn't care if I'd only cursed and ruined myself; but look there!" and she pointed to the five children, who, half terrified at the scene, were huddling together in the corner.

"Come here, Mattie," she said; "go to your father, child, and ask him if he remembers the golden-haired, bonnie baby who sat on his knee and pulled his hair when he came home, nigh upon eight years ago, and told me that the drunken sot, whose name is on your pledge-card, had turned teetotal. Ask him if you look like that baby at all. Oh, you needn't turn away, George, for you know there's but one answer. And what's made the difference between that happy home, and this beastly place? and what's made me and you more like brutes than the loving couple we were, eh, George?"

With streaming eyes Susan stood before her husband, waiting for the answer to her questions.

Gnas.h.i.+ng his teeth, as if in despair, he hissed out: "It's the moderate drinking as has worked all the mischief, woman, if you want to know; and may G.o.d's curse rest upon it!"

Mattie began to understand at length the meaning of her parents'

distress, and hastened to proffer the only advice that was in her power to give.

"Daddie, mammie," she said, "won't you come and sign the pledge too?

Then you won't never touch the drink again, and we'll have a nice home; and me, and Melie, and Bob'll stay with you, and never run away as we've been a talking of."

Then Melie and Bob came and said: "Oh, please do! We're so hungry and miser'ble all the time; and if you'll only give up the drink we'll be so good, and never want any beating."

George looked at Susan across the upturned faces of the children, and Susan looked back at him wistfully, earnestly.

"Susan," said George, in low, troubled tones; "if I promise now, can I ever keep my word? for I'm raging for a drop this minute."

Susan might have answered, "So am I," but, with a touch of returning womanliness, she hid her own suffering that she might minister to the need of the man who thus confessed his weakness.

"George," she answered steadily, "I had a praying mother once, and so had you. I once knew how to pray myself, and so did you; and if ever our mothers' prayers for us are going to be answered, it'll be now; and if ever we begin to pray for ourselves again, it'll be this very minute, or we shall be lost for ever!" And Susan fell on her knees, and pa.s.sionately poured out her whole soul that forgiveness might be granted to herself and her erring husband, and that to their weakness and feebleness there might descend the almighty power and perpetual help of an Omnipotent Saviour.

Was that prayer answered? Could two souls so bound and tied by Satan's strongest fetters be loosed and set free, no longer slaves of a tyrant but children of a King? Let the new home in a new land, and the subdued brightness of their faces, and the happy abandonment of their children's glee answer, and say that once again the captives of the mighty have been taken away, and the prey of the terrible delivered.

In his own land, Timothy Morris hears, from time to time, of the well doing of his former neighbours; and rejoices that he has been the humble instrument of bringing light and succour to a household which had been darkened and degraded for years through the insidious advances of moderate drinking.

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THE COMMITTEE'S DECISION.

THE weekly Band of Hope meeting had been carried on through the long winter months with vigour and success, and now on the evening of one of the first spring days, its committee had met to decide upon the all-important question as to whether the meetings should be discontinued through the summer months.

"I certainly think it would be a pity to hold the meetings on the long bright evenings," said Mr. Jones, and, judging from the expression on many of the faces, his opinion was shared by several.

"It would be a downright shame to coop up the children in a close school-room when they might be enjoying themselves in the bright suns.h.i.+ne," said Mr. Gale.

It may be here stated that the committee was comprised of equal numbers of abstainers and non-abstainers, to which latter cla.s.s the afore-mentioned speakers belonged. From a corner, a nervous little man summoned up courage to suggest the possibility of the younger members of the Band of Hope breaking their pledge, if they had not a constant reminder in the shape of their attractive weekly meeting.

"That goes to prove what is my firm conviction, that these kind of affairs, popular as they have become, accomplish little of what they profess to, for although pledges of total abstinence are taken from the young folks who attend in large numbers, it only needs a trivial pretext such as a change of residence, or the suspension of their meetings, and they become forgetful of the pledge which they have signed," said a prominent member of the committee.

"You are quite right, my dear sir," replied a middle-aged gentleman beside him; "as I can testify by my own experience. When I was a lad of seven or eight, I attended a Band of Hope meeting. Like all children, I was readily influenced by others, and as most of the little folks who attended signed the pledge, I did the same. Two or three years afterwards my parents moved out of the neighbourhood, and it never occurred to my childish mind that I was just as much bound to keep my pledge as though I had still been attending the meeting where I signed it. So I partook with my brothers and sisters of the daily stimulant which found its way to our table, to the amus.e.m.e.nt of my father, who had looked upon my previous self-denial as a boyish whim."

"I believe your experience is by no means an isolated one," added another member, complacently stroking his beard; "I myself joined at least two Bands of Hope when I was a youngster; but I don't belong to the cold-water ranks to-day."

"Come, gentlemen, we are not here to discuss whether the Band of Hope answers the end it has in view; but whether it is advisable to give its juvenile members a long summer vacation. Will one of you make a proposition? and we will take the vote of the meeting," said the chairman.

The nervous member made an uneasy movement, and looked anxiously around, but before he could summon up courage to open his mouth, a gentleman, who had hitherto remained silent, rose, and commenced to speak.

"Mr. Chairman," he began, "I had no intention of making my voice heard when I came into this meeting, but my soul is too deeply stirred to allow me to preserve silence. Sir, it has been suggested that Bands of Hope accomplish little of what they profess to do, and in proof of that, two of our non-abstaining friends have readily confessed that in their boyhood they were a.s.sociated with Bands of Hope. Sir, there doubtless is a percentage of children who carelessly or ignorantly take upon themselves these solemn vows, and fail to fulfil them. I may add that to my knowledge, many a drunkard has gone down to his dishonoured grave uttering the impotent wish that he had kept the pledge of his childhood.

But, sir, I am in a position to say that such percentage is very small, and that the juvenile temperance movement in this country is doing a mighty work. We are saving the children, and sending into many a sin-darkened home, the little ones as messengers of hope and salvation.

And not alone into poverty-stricken courts and alleys, but into abodes of the better cla.s.ses where the drink demon has a.s.serted his supremacy, do our youthful members find their way. Yet, sir, I am not ashamed to say, that these children need the reminder of their weekly meeting. They are but weak, and temptation is oftentimes strong, whether conveyed to them by the sight and smell of the intoxicants which many of them have to fetch, or, as in the case of our friend who has spoken, placed upon the well-spread table within their easy reach. Sir, if for the summer months we could compel the publicans, and all who are licensed to sell alcohol in any shape or form, to close their premises, and take a long vacation, and could we during that time banish from the homes of our land every temptation to strong drink, then we might afford to give up our meetings for the next few months; but while the monster Intemperance is ceaselessly devastating homes and blighting lives in all cla.s.ses and communities, let us not dream of giving our endeavours to meet and vanquish the strong man armed a summer holiday."

The speaker wiped his brow and sat down, and significant glances went round the room. When a minute later the votes were taken, there were found to be only two members who did not cordially agree with the proposal that the meetings of the Band of Hope should be continued all through the year.

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THE RIGHT HAND THAT OFFENDED.