e than two years ago."

"I never expected he would be much, but I had no idea he would come to
this so soon," added Frank. "I scarcely ever heard of a person going to
ruin so quick."

"James was a very smart fellow, naturally," said Nat. "I once thought he
was the most talented fellow of his age in town, and it would have
turned out so if he had tried to make anything of himself."

"I think so, too," said Frank. "But he never wanted to be respectable.
He always seemed to glory in drinking. He was earning five dollars a day
in the machine-shop when they turned him away, and was considered by far
the best workman there. He lost his place on account of his intemperate
habits; but it never seemed to trouble him. It is my opinion now, that
he had a strong appetite for intoxicating drinks at the time we
organized the Total Abstinence Society, and for that reason he opposed
it."

"His case will be a good defence of the temperance cause," continued
Nat, "and I hope the rumsellers will never hear the last of it. I can
scarcely see what a person can say in favor of the use and traffic in
strong drink, with such an illustration of the evil before them."

The news of James's condition spread through the village, and many
received it in a very exaggerated form. Some heard that he was dead, and
others that he was near dying, the latter rumor not being far from the
truth. Before night, however, it was announced that he was better, and
there was hope of his recovery. All sorts of stories were put in
circulation about the place of his drinking, and the circumstances
attending it. The rumseller very justly came in for his share of
condemnation, while he and his allies were disposed to say very little,
for the simple reason that there was not much for them to say. Such an
instance of degradation in the very dawn of manhood, when the dew of his
youth was still upon the victim, was an unanswerable argument for the
cause of temperance. He who could close his senses against such an
appeal in behalf of sobriety, would take the side of error in spite of
the plainest evidence to the contrary. It was not strange, then, that
much was said at the fireside, in the streets and shops, and everywhere,
concerning the event, nor that the foes of temperance were inclined to
be unusually silent.

"Doctor! how is James Cole now?" inquired a gentleman who met him some
three or four weeks after the fatal night of drunkenness.

"His case is hopeless,"