very
soon the game began.

Ah me! that ruinous game, which so many, I fear, play, and thereby lose
all sense of honour and right. Who shall say how long is the list of
broken hearts for which gambling is responsible?

And not only the sordid gambling, such as that in which Mr. Skinner and
his boon companions indulged, with dirty packs of cards, in a low room
where the mice scampered about behind the loose boards, and the whole
aspect was uninviting; but, alas! there is the same game going on
amongst those who, from education and social position, should be the
first to shun this crying evil.

It matters not whether the stakes be for a pound or a penny, the danger
and the sin is the same.

The winner is always the winner at the expense of the loser. The
success of one is the destruction and misery of the other. Deceit and
fraud, with too often strong drink to silence the cry of remorse and
the voice of conscience, follow in the gambler's train. No departure
from the paths of honesty is single in its consequences, and there is
no sin but may be compared to the throwing of a pebble into a still
lake, when the circles which follow the fall of the stone widen and
widen, and that indefinitely.

Gambling in all its forms is a grievous wrong; and whether from betting
on horses, or speculating in stocks and shares, or descending to a
shabby little room such as that where Mr. Skinner and his friends sat
on this fair summer night, shuffling their cards, for what seemed by
comparison insignificant sums, we are bound to protest against it with
all our might, and to guard the young under our care from the first
beginnings of what is indeed the cause of untold misery to many who, in
thousands of cases, suffer for the sins of others.

The stakes for which Mr. Skinner and his companions played were small;
but his usual good fortune seemed to have deserted him of late, for he
had lost again and again.

One of the men, as he threw down the cards, said--

"I have a score against you for last Tuesday, Skinner. Do you want to
run up further?" and he pulled out a bit of dirty paper from a
pocket-book, and read from it sums which amounted to several pounds.

Mr. Skinner treated the matter with lofty indifference, saying--

"You needn't fear; I am going in for a prize, and I shall win!"

"Ah, well, win or lose, I must be paid. It is rather inconvenient to
be out of pocket like this."

Mr. Skinner threw down another four shi