new era. Judge
Hammond--himself not the purest man in the world, I'm afraid--gave his
countenance to the establishment, and talked of Simon Slade as an
enterprising man who ought to be encouraged. Judge Lyman and other men
of position in Cedarville followed his bad example; and the bar-room of
the 'Sickle and Sheaf' was at once voted respectable. At all times of
the day and evening you could see the flower of our young men going in
and out, sitting in front of the bar-room, or talking hand-and-glove
with the landlord, who, from a worthy miller, regarded as well enough
in his place, was suddenly elevated into a man of importance, whom the
best in the village were delighted to honor.

"In the beginning, Willy went with the tide, and, in an incredibly
short period, was acquiring a fondness for drink that startled and
alarmed his friends. In going in through Slade's open door, he entered
the downward way, and has been moving onward with fleet footsteps ever
since. The fiery poison inflamed his mind, at the same time that it
dimmed his noble perceptions. Fondness for mere pleasure followed, and
this led him into various sensual indulgences, and exciting modes of
passing the time. Every one liked him--he was so free, so
companionable, and so generous--and almost every one encouraged, rather
than repressed, his dangerous proclivities. Even his father, for a
time, treated the matter lightly, as only the first flush of young
life. 'I commenced sowing my wild oats at quite as early an age,' I
have heard him say. 'He'll cool off, and do well enough. Never fear.'
But his mother was in a state of painful alarm from the beginning. Her
truer instincts, made doubly acute by her yearning love, perceived the
imminent danger, and in all possible ways did she seek to lure him from
the path in which he was moving at so rapid a pace. Willy was always
very much attached to his mother, and her influence over him was
strong; but in this case he regarded her fears as chimerical. The way
in which he walked was, to him, so pleasant, and the companions of his
journey so delightful, that he could not believe in the prophesied
evil; and when his mother talked to him in her warning voice, and with
a sad countenance, he smiled at her concern, and made light of her
fears.

"And so it went on, month after month, and year after year, until the
young man's sad declensions were the town talk. In order to throw his
mind into a new channel--to awaken, if po