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How the boy loved this tree! It was beautiful in the spring, with its red buds; beautiful in summer, with its masses of dark-green foliage, and its refreshing shade; but most beautiful of all in the autumn, with its crimson tints, relieved by the lighter colors of the surrounding trees. Here he made his whistles; here ...
Soaking blankets in salt water, they spread them on the roof of the house, wet the ground around it, and urged to desperation by the fear of losing their home, beat out the flame from the grass with hemlock boughs, which is the best way to stop fire that is running in grass. But the wind now began to rise, and as fast ...
If the fire reached the house it would not only burn that, but would run to the beach, where was lumber worth hundreds of dollars, which Ben had been nearly two years in preparing for market,--the greater part of which was dry, and would take fire in a moment; there, too, were the sails and rigging. Ben’s large canoe l...
Sally, uttering a loud scream, ran wildly to the shore. A piece of blazing moss, borne by the wind, had fallen into the canoe, and set fire to the straw, which was blazing up all around the baby. In a moment more it would have been burned to death; as it was, its clothes were scorched, and the little creature terribly ...
Scarcely was this accomplished, when the roof was discovered to be on fire; the violence of the wind had blown off a blanket, and the cinders catching had kindled in the dry bark. Ben, taking Charlie, threw him up on the roof, when, the others passing him water, he soon extinguished the flames. Ben had now opportunity ...
Poor Sally, now that the excitement was over, fainted away. Ben carried her into the house, while the others brought in a bed, and by the aid of burnt vinegar applied to her nostrils revived her. Her face was uninjured, but her hair was scorched, and her arms and hands burned, causing her much suffering. “What shall we...
“Ben,” said Uncle Isaac, “do you sit by her and keep that clay moist with cold water; no matter how cold it is now, it will have the chill taken off before it gets through the clay.” “But how shall we ever get the clay off?” “You don’t want to get it off; the flesh will heal under it, and then it will come off itself.”...
“The Indians learned me; there’s a good deal in an Indian, you’d better believe.” “But won’t there want to be some healing-salve on it?” “Healing-salve? fiddlestick! I’ve seen Indians cut half to pieces, scalded, and burnt, and get well, and I never saw any salve among them. Now,” continued Uncle Isaac (who, though one...
At any other time Charlie would have been very anxious to have gone with them, but the suffering of his mother, and the care of the baby, put everything else out of his head. He kissed her again and again, with tears in his eyes, made gruel for her, and did everything in his power to relieve her. The party found that t...
“Quit that, Joe Griffin; what are you thrashing me with that hemlock limb for?” cried Robert Yelf. “Jerusalem! if my eyes ain’t so full of smoke that I took your red face for a fire-coal.” Many a rough joke was played, and many a sly blow given and taken, in the smoke. The fire had now nearly spent itself for lack of f...
“Come, Ben,” said Joe, “go and eat supper with us; and when you get back Charlie can come.” As they were eating, Ben ascertained how it happened that his friends were present so opportunely. “You see,” said Uncle Isaac, “we heard the mackerel were master thick outside; that started us all up. I’d got in my hay, so thou...
Notwithstanding the mackerel were thick, neither John nor Uncle Isaac would start in the morning till they saw how it fared with Sally, who, to the great delight of all, was much better. Uncle Isaac inspected Charlie’s sink, canoe, and baskets, and praised them very much. “There’s the making of a mechanic in that boy,”...
“I call that a first-rate burn,” said Joe; “a miss is as good as a mile, Ben. Sally is doing well, and this burn will give you your bread-stuffs for a year, and hay for your cattle after that.” The next morning Ben sent Charlie after the widow Hadlock, who came on to take care of her daughter and grandchild. There were...
These were now all consumed; and the rocks, shorn of moss, stood out white and naked in the sun. The willows and alders that fringed the brook were gone; the trunks of the elms and that of the great maple scorched, and the grass all around the house black as a coal. All over the land were blackened stumps and stubs, fr...
This smutty and laborious job being over, land fenced, and logs burned up, Ben sowed half of it with winter rye, reserving the other to plant with corn in the spring. The grain must now in some way be covered; but Ben had no harrow to cover it with; besides, the ground was dotted with stumps, whose great roots stuck ou...
There were many places where the hedge-hog could not go close to the stumps, because the large spur roots rolled it off: around these Charlie hacked the grain in with a hoe. Ben now went over to his father’s, and got all the chaff he could find in the barn, which was full of grass-seed, and sowed it on the rye. It was ...
CHAPTER XV. FITTING AWAY. It was now the month of September, and time to think of getting ready for sea. Captain Rhines came on to the island, and with him John Strout, who had closed up his fishing, and was to be first mate; Seth Warren, who was second mate; and Joe Griffin and Robert Yelf, who were to go before the m...
“So I have.” “Well, here’s the tree to make a bunkum one, I tell you; shall I cut it for you?” “Yes.” At first, they could only work at low water, as the tide ebbed and flowed in their craft. Captain Rhines and Ben stowed the boards, while the others ran them in. They arranged them with great care, that the joints migh...
The tide now began to make. As they did not wish their timber to float in the vessel, and get out of place, they put shores under the deck beams to keep it from rising, and piled rocks on it: in a short time it was all out of sight, under water. They employed the rest of the day in piling boards on the breastwork, that...
The bow of the craft, a few feet aft of the fore-mast, was close timbered, as in ordinary boats; but from that to the mainmast was a hole large enough to drive in three yoke of oxen abreast. They lengthened their breastwork a little, hauled the craft alongside of it, and made a stage of plank. The others laid the board...
“I wouldn’t have believed it,” said Joe; “why didn’t you put them way down in the bottom of her, and fill her floor? she would have floated as light as a feather.” “If I had,” replied the captain, “she would have done like the boy who went in swimming with the bladders.” “How was that?” “A boy had heard tell that bladd...
“What an ass I am!” said Joe; “ain’t I?” “No; but you didn’t happen to think of that.” “Joe,” said Ben, one night after work, “can you make a float?” “No.”
“Then I’m all ashore. I’ve been thinking that, after you came back, you and I could make one before the kitchen fire this winter.” “I tell you, though it seems to be a very simple thing, there’s a great knack in making a float. I can make a hog’s trough, and christen it a float, but to make one that will be stiff and l...
“Uncle Sam!” replied Ben, in amazement; “I didn’t know he could work in anything but rocks.” “It’s my opinion that he can work in anything he has a mind to; but he won’t touch anything but rocks, except it is a float or a gun-stock. He will make as neat a gun-stock as ever a man put to his face, or a snow-shoe; but if ...
“We’ll hew it out, at any rate; that’ll save him some work.” “I wouldn’t; he’s a particular old toad, and would rather have it just as it grew; but if you touch it, he’ll think you’ve taken off some where you ought not to, and spilte it; he’ll no more thank you for saving him labor on a float-piece, than a feller would...
They now made sail, and ran her over into Captain Rhines’s cove, and came to anchor. They found upon trial, that although she was clumsy in working, she minded her helm, and sailed beyond their most sanguine expectations. “I declare, Ben!” said Captain Rhines; “who would have thought she would go through the water so; ...
The Ark, as they called her, was most appropriately named, both in respect to her proportions and her cargo. Captain Rhines had resorted to a custom common in those days. He gave his crew merely nominal wages,--four dollars a month,--and the mates in proportion; but, in addition to this, he gave them a “privilege,” as ...
“Because,” replied he, “a lucky man is master.” One night, as the captain and his family were at the supper-table, there came in a negro, very black, and of truly vast proportions, whom Captain Rhines addressed by the singular appellation of Flour. This nickname he obtained in this manner. He was a man of great strengt...
“Massa cap’n,” said the black, “dey tells me you’s gwine to sail the salt seas again. Massa, if you is goin’, this nigger would like to go wid you.” “Well, we’ve been a good many cruises together. Wife, give Flour some supper, and then we’ll talk it over. I suppose,” said the captain, after supper, “you’ve got dry, and...
“But I ain’t going to give much of any wages; they are going to have a ‘privilege’--mates and all. I tell you, we are like old Noah; we’ve got cattle, and feathered fowl, beasts clean and unclean.” “Massa, me have privilege, too.” “What have you got to carry?” “Me got an onion patch, massa,--my ole woman raise him; got...
“But how will you get back? I am going to sell the craft.” “O, massa, you know I good sailor man; you give me what you call recommend, I get a chance in some ship to go somewhere--don’t care where; my ole woman so debilish ugly me no want to come back. Last Monday mornin’ she break de skillet; she kill my dog; she put ...
“Well, Flour, I give the men four dollars a month, and their privilege. I’ll give you six, and your grog, and all the privilege you want; but I shall expect you to lend us a hand in bad weather, and perhaps take the helm, for there’s not a man in the vessel can steer in bad weather as you.” “O, massa, you know this dar...
A WELL-DESERVED HOLIDAY. Sabbath morning, after a rainy day and night, Charlie waking up, and looking, as he usually did the first thing, in the direction of Captain Rhines’s, missed the great bulk of the Ark, which before seemed to fill up the whole cove. The wind was north-west, and blowing a gale. “Father,” he shout...
On the summit of the middle ridge stood the tallest tree on the island, with an eagle’s nest on it. Beside it grew a large spruce, whose top reached to its lower limbs, and next to the spruce a scrub hemlock, whose lower limbs came almost to the ground. Charlie had made a bridge of poles from the spruce to the pine, an...
“Yes.” “While it is pleasant weather, I would give Charlie a holiday, and let him ask John and Fred Williams to come over here; it would please him very much, and I really think he deserves it.” “So do I. I’ll tell him in the morning that he may go over and get them. They say there isn’t a better behaved, smarter boy i...
She woke up Charlie, and told him the good news, which kept him awake a long time, laying plans for the amusement of his company. The next morning he set off betimes, arriving at Captain Rhines’s just as they were sitting down to breakfast, where he received a hearty welcome. When John heard that he had come to invite ...
“Mother, he knows what it means, and is as glad as I am; see, he is going to roll.” After rolling over, he remained a few moments on his back, his paws stuck up in the air, apparently in joyous meditation. As this was Tige’s method of manifesting the very acme of happiness, we are bound to suppose, with John, that he k...
The boys looked at the mill, and helped Fred a while, and then caught fish in the mill-pond; for it was a tide-mill, though there was a brook ran into it. When the gates were open, and the tide from the sea flowed in, the fish--smelts, tom-cod, and sometimes small mackerel, called “tinkers,” came with it. When tired of...
“I never disobeyed my father,” replied John, “because I never wanted to; but I’ve often done wrong, and if every boy feels as bad as I do about it, there can’t be much comfort in it.” “I don’t believe,” said Charlie, “that boys who have nothing to do but play are as happy as we that work, for, when we get a holiday, we...
“No; you know I never was on here, only in the winter, when everything was frozen up, and covered with snow.” Going along, they came to the two great trees which were connected by a common root, making a natural bridge across the brook, which, above them, widened out into a little basin. “What a nice place this would b...
“I’ll give you a duck in the spring that wants to set, and eggs to put under her.” “Thank you, Fred.” “I think it’s real nice to see them play in the water; and, when one gets a bug, the others swim after, and try to get it away from him, and all going one right after the other to the pond in the morning.” Although Fre...
“What is that, Charlie, on that lower limb?” asked John. “That’s the baby-house.” In the spring, at the time boys make whistles, Charlie had peeled the bark from some willow rods (which he called whitening the sallies), and made a long, narrow basket. He then worked an ornamental rim round it, and put strong handles in...
“How did you make that look so natural? and how did you fix the tail so?” asked Fred. “I put a wire in it, and bent it to suit me.” “But the head; it is exactly the right shape.” “Well, I took the head out of the skin, and got the meat all off of it, and put the skull back again, and stuffed in wool enough to fill up b...
On a little shelf by itself, made of apple-tree wood, oiled and polished, and upon which Charlie had evidently bestowed a great deal of labor, was the Bible his mother had given him. They now opened the drawers. The first one opened was filled with all kinds of boys’ playthings, which Charlie had made himself,--whistle...
“Will it bounce well?” “Try it.” Fred threw it down on the flat stone, when it went way up over his head into the tree. “My jingoes! I never saw a ball bounce like that. What is it made of?”
“Yarn.” “But what is there in it? What’s it wound on?” “That’s telling; guess.” “On a piece of cork?”
“No.” “On horse hair?” “No; guess again.” “I can’t guess.”
“Will you give it up?” “Yes.” “It’s wound on a sturgeon’s nose.” “That’s a likely story!” exclaimed both boys in a breath. “Is it now--honest?”
“Yes.” “Where did you get a sturgeon’s nose?” “They caught one at the mill; father and I were there with logs, and I got his nose.” “How did you know it would make a ball bounce?”
“I learned it of the boys in Nova Scotia.” “What a feller you are to make things! I wish I could; I’d have lots of things. I couldn’t cover a ball as neat as that to save my life. I wish I had lived on an island, and had to make things; perhaps I might have learned something.” “I’ll give you that ball, Fred.” “’Twould ...
“I can make another. I take lots of comfort sitting under this tree making things; besides, I’ve nobody to play with me, and there’s not much fun playing ball alone.” They opened another drawer (which had two small ones--one beneath the other--at one end), but there was nothing in it, except a bow and arrows, some of w...
“I never saw a bow made of that; we boys make them of ash, walnut, or hemlock.” “Uncle Isaac told me to make it of that; perhaps that’s what the Indians make them of. In our country they make them of yew.” They opened the little drawers, but they were empty. “Why don’t you keep something in these drawers?”
“I’m saving them for my tools; that is, when I get any money to buy them.” “That reminds me,” said Fred, “that I have brought with me all the money that the baskets sold for; and now we will settle up the affairs of our company.” He pulled a paper from his pocket, which contained an account of the number of baskets he ...
“Now, Charlie,” said she, “do you use that money to buy things that you want and need, and don’t go to buying pigs, and spending it for us or the baby.” “I’ll have a knife,” said Charlie, “at any rate, and then I shan’t have to be all the time borrowing father’s, or using a butcher’s knife. I’ll have some tools, too, t...
“That is true, Charlie,” said Sally, delighted with sentiments so much in accordance with her own feelings. “I’m sure, if we had sheep, and flax, and pasturage, and I had a loom, and the house full of blankets, and sheets, and nice things, all given to us, I shouldn’t be half so happy as I am in trying to get them. I t...
They measured the distance, and set up a mark, when, to their astonishment, Charlie beat them both. “You thought, John, the first time we ever saw each other,” said Charlie, “that I had a great many things to learn; you’ll find you have some things to learn, too.” “I was a fool, Charlie; I believe you have forgot more ...
“We’ll have bows, and practise,” said John. “I’ll give you this one, and make Fred one, too. I like to make bows.” “Thank you, Charlie; and when we get learned we’ll come on here and give it to the squawks, and go on to Oak Island, and shoot squirrels and woodchucks, and save our powder and shot for sea-fowl. Have we s...
“I should think,” said Charlie, “it would be a great deal more comfortable to sleep in a bed.” “_Comfortable!_ who wants to be comfortable; we can be comfortable any time.” At supper John broached the matter, and asked Sally to let them have some blankets. “I wouldn’t do that,” said she; “you’ll get your death’s cold, ...
“Let them have the clothes,” said Ben; “we’ve invited them here to have a holiday; let them spend it in their own fashion; it will taste the sweeter.” As they passed the maple on their way to the woods, John suddenly exclaimed, “What say, boys, for camping in the top of the tree? it will be grand to lie there, hear the...
“What if we should fall out?” “We will lash ourselves in.” Tying the blankets to a line, they hoisted them up. They went to the beach, and picking up some dry eel-grass, spread it over the platform for a bed, and covered it with the sail of Ben’s canoe. John fastened them all in with ropes, and then fastened himself. C...
The limbs of the great tree swayed gently in the westerly breeze, and the moonbeams came slanting through them most delightfully, as the boys lay listening to the moan of the night wind, the sound of the surf along the shore, and watched the clouds as they coursed by the moon, all heightened by the novelty of their sit...
But after twelve o’clock the wind changed to south-east; clouds obscured the moon; and, while the boys were quietly sleeping, a gust of wind struck the tree, covering them with showers of leaves, while the rain dashed in sheets upon their faces. Waking in alarm, they found themselves enveloped in midnight darkness, pel...
“We can’t stay here,” said Charlie; “let’s go to the house.” “I won’t,” replied John; “Ben will laugh at us, and Sally will say, ‘Didn’t I tell you so.’” “Charlie, have you got the flint, steel, and matches?” “Yes.”
“Do you know of any hollow tree?” “Yes; a great big one, all dead.” “Could you find it in the dark?” “Yes; I can go right to it.”
They found the tree, dark as it was, for Charlie knew it stood in the corner of the log fence, and followed the fence till he came to it. It was an enormous pine, completely dead, and with a hollow in it large enough to hold the whole of them. It stood among a growth of old hemlocks, whose foliage was so dense,--the lo...
Charlie, to whom such scenes were altogether new, was in raptures. “I didn’t know before,” he said, “that you could make a fire in the woods in a rain-storm. I never saw any woods till I came to this country, and don’t know anything about such things as you and Fred, that have been brought up in them.” “There are alway...
“Yes; after father gets home. You get Uncle Isaac to tell you about how the Indians do, and I will, too.” “Yes; and I shall learn to shoot better with a gun by that time, and you will learn to shoot with a bow. I tell you what, I like to contrive and make shifts, and get along so, better than I do to have everything to...
“There’s another thing I like,” said John; “I like to go to new places; I should like to go to a strange place every day; I should like to go all over the world.” “I don’t; when I find a place I like, I want to stay there; and the longer I stay the better I like it; it seems as if I liked the very ground.” “I think we’...
“Yes,” replied John; “the ducking coming in between is just what puts the touch on. Now let’s go to sleep in the old stub.” They cleaned out the rotten wood, put in some brush to lie on, built the fire so near to it that the heat from it would keep them warm, and were soon fast asleep. When they awoke the fire was stil...
“I’m glad,” said Sally, “I didn’t know you were in the top of that tree; I shouldn’t have slept a wink if I had; it must be curious fun to leave a good warm bed and sleep in the top of a tree this time of year. I don’t see what put that in your heads; that’s some of John’s work, I know. I don’t believe but, if you woul...
“I can fix them, I know,” said Charlie. He got a bushel basket, and took out small pieces of the filling to make it a little more open, put in bait, and sunk it. After the fish were in he drew it slowly up. The basket being deep, and the fish well to the bottom, they did not take alarm until the rim was almost at the t...
“The bed up stairs is first rate,” replied John, “as you may judge by the length of our nap; but the pine stub for me.” As they were eating and chatting, Ben came running in for his gun, saying there was a seal in the cove. “O, do let me shoot him!” cried John, leaping from the table. “I’m afraid you won’t hit him; I w...
“Yes, I will; do let me fire, Ben?” Charlie had cut a scull-hole in his canoe, so that she could be used for gunning. Getting into this, John sculled towards the creature, who kept swimming and diving. At length he fired. The water was instantly red with blood. John paddled with all his might, but the seal began to sin...
“I will dive and get him at low water.” At low water, John, diving down, brought up the seal. Neither of the other boys had ever seen one, except in the water. They regarded it with great interest, and volunteered, under John’s direction, to skin it and obtain the fat, called blubber, from which a good oil is made. “On...
The boys removed the skin from this mass of fat, like lard, which was quite a difficult operation for novices, and required a great deal of care, that they might not cut the skin, or leave the fat upon it. When the skin was removed, there lay the fat in one mass, that trembled when they touched it. They next removed th...
“But I’ll swim in and get it.” “Swim in! The moment you get into that undertow, it will hold you, and carry you back and forth just as it is doing that ball. Why, I’ve seen a mill-log get in there and stay three or four days; and so it will carry you back and forth till you are worn out, or perish. I had rather make yo...
“I tell you I have a _plan_, if you would only _help_ a fellow a little. Charlie gave me that ball, and it’s all the present I ever had in my life; for nobody ever cared enough about me to give me anything before.” “Let’s hear your plan.” “Can’t you row up to the surf in the canoe? I will put a line round me and go _in...
“I can get a new line,” said Charlie, “that was left when they rigged the Ark.” There was no getting into the cave by its mouth, as it was entirely filled by the surf; so they hauled the canoe over the rock into the cave, rowed up, and anchored as near as they dared, to look at it. Every time the surf came in, which wa...
“We will make the end fast to the head-board of the canoe; then it _can’t_ get away, and we can have it as well as he.” The boys now pulled up the grappling, holding the canoe stationary with their oars till the surf should come in to drive the ball towards them. “Ready!” shouted Fred; “here it comes!” “Ay, ay.”
“Ready! Give way together!” Away shot the canoe directly to the surf. “Ease, Charlie; pull, John; steady together; grab, Charlie! it’s right under the bow, on your side.” Looking over his shoulder, Charlie caught sight of it; dropping his oar, he strove to grasp it; but the canoe, ceasing to feel the influence of his o...
“Pay out the line, Fred,” said John; “let’s go beyond it; I’ll risk the surf.” Fred, who needed no prompting, did as he was ordered. Familiarity with danger had made them reckless. With set teeth and white lips they strained at the oars; the canoe stood almost on end, and the din was awful. At that moment the blade of ...
“Haul and hold!” cried John; “take a turn, Charlie!” Charlie ran the end of the line through a hole in the head-board, and took in the slack. Slowly the canoe yielded to their efforts, as with desperate energy, they strained at the line, and began to recede from the surf. All at once the line slackened in their grasp. ...
Trembling with excitement, and breathless with exertion, they gazed upon each other in silence as the canoe drifted back before the wind to the beach. “I never will play with this ball again,” said Fred, taking it from the water; “but I will keep it just as long as I live.” “You ought to, Fred,” said John, “for we have...
Indeed, Charles and John had done as boys often do; after giving Fred good advice, and striving to prevent him from a perilous act, they had involved him and themselves in greater danger. “I think, John, we had better not mention this matter at home; if we do, I’m afraid father will send you and Fred both home, and nev...
“Of course you will.” “We might do as we did before--make a fire in the woods.” “That’s first rate; I never thought of that.” Youth soon recovers from fatigue; and after lying an hour stretched at full length before a warm fire, they felt entirely rested. Thoroughly dried, and recruited by rest, they now began to feel ...
“I’m so hungry,” said Fred; “I do wish it was supper time.” “It is almost,” said Charlie; “and if we go home mother will hurry it up.” CHAPTER XVII. UNCLE ISAAC’S PLEDGE.
As they came to the edge of the woods they espied Uncle Isaac standing beneath the branches of the old maple, and, with his hand over his eyes, looking all around him as though in quest of something. Equally surprised and delighted, they ran to meet him. “I heard you was on here,” said he, “and was looking for you. How...
“What should you say if I could beat that?” The boys entreated him to fire. “This bow is rather small for me, and the arrow will go slower than I have been accustomed to have them, which makes it difficult judging how much it will fall. It’s many a long year since I drew an arrow to the head; but I’ve seen the time it ...
“Well, I am going to hit it. Where did you stand, Charlie?” “Here, Uncle Isaac; I put my toe right against that stone.” “I will put mine right against that stone; I want you all to see that it’s fair, and I stand just in his tracks.” The boys all allowed it was fair. After firing up in the air once or twice, to get the...
The boys were greatly delighted at this proof of skill. “I will show you another thing. Charlie, run to the house and get your mother’s milk-pail. Now, what will you bet that I can’t shoot an arrow up in the air so that it will come down in that pail?” “It’s impossible,” cried Charlie; “it can’t be done.” “If I do it, ...
“Yes, will we.” “And so will I,” said Fred. He drew the bow, and, sure enough, the arrow came down in the milk-pail, and, as it was pointed, stuck up in it. “Well,” exclaimed Charlie, “if any man in this world had told me he had seen that done, or that it could be done, I wouldn’t have believed him.”
“I rather think,” said Uncle Isaac, with a smile, “this is the easiest way in which I can dig my potatoes.” “Now, Uncle Isaac,” said Charlie, “I want you to tell me just one thing; how did you learn to shoot so? My grandfather killed men in battle, and used to shoot at the butts on holidays, and gained prizes for shoot...
“They don’t know how to read in books; but they are a wise and understanding people, after their fashion. I learned to love my Indian father and mother, for they were very kind to me, and, when we were scant of food, would go without themselves to feed me.” “Why can’t you stay, and go hunting with us to-morrow, and tel...
“Poor old Uncle Yelf is dead; and I hope none of us will ever die in such an awful way.” “How did he die?” “Why, night before last his horse came home with the bridle under his feet. They raised the neighborhood, and followed the horse’s tracks to William Griffin’s door, and then it got dark, and they lost them; howeve...
“I drink it,” said John, “at huskings and raisings, and when father gives it to me.” “So do I,” said Fred; “but I don’t buy any to drink myself.” “I,” said Charlie, “used to drink at home, when father gave it to me; but, after he was pressed, I promised my mother not to drink any, and I never have, of my own will; but ...
“Why do you want us to promise that?” “Because I remember the time when Yelf was as smart, iron-sided, and industrious a man as ever trod the Lord’s earth. It took a withy man to lay him on his back, or lift his load, I tell you. He had a farm of two hundred acres of the best of new land; his wife milked seven cows, ma...
The proposition of their friend was, notwithstanding, so strange in that day, that the boys hesitated. “Uncle Isaac,” asked John, “don’t you drink?” “Yes, I do, John; but if I was beginning life, and forming habits as you are, a drop should never cross my lips. Though I never drank a daily dram, and sometimes not for s...
“Your father, the minister, and myself may be able to govern ourselves, but a great many others may not, and you may not. Poor Mr. Yelf never thought he should die in a hog-sty.” “But,” asked Fred, “if it is wrong now, wan’t it always wrong? You never said anything about it before.” “I’ve been thinking about it this lo...
“I don’t want you to promise without consideration, because I expect you to keep it. A promise made in a hurry is broken in a hurry. I want you to be ‘fully persuaded in your own minds,’ and think what you would do if your own folks should ask you to drink.” “It costs a great deal,” said John. “Father spends lots of mo...
“But,” said Charlie, “after it grows up there will be nothing to keep us from drinking.” “It will be many a year before that hole grows up, for I’ve bored through the sap. I expect by that time you will have seen so much of the bad effects of drinking spirit, and the benefits of letting it alone, that no power on earth...

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