ain; at
first he used to threaten when he wanted money for his extravagancies,
and it was a sure way to obtain it; but one day I discovered that he had
quitted the port without saying farewell, and that he had sailed in a
vessel bound to the coast of Africa. A short letter and a heavy bill
was received from Portsmouth, and I did not hear of him for two years.
I was heartbroken, but not weaned from him; I counted the days for his
return. At last he came--browned by the climate, full of oaths, savage
in his bearing, and occasionally referring to scenes which made me
shudder; but he was my son, my only son, and I loved him as much as
ever. He was now but seldom at home, for he lived almost at the
gaming-tables; if he came to me, it was to extort money, and he never
failed. I sold out my property to support his extravagance, and by
degrees it was rapidly diminishing. I begged him, I entreated him, to
be more prudent, but he laughed, and promised to return me all the first
lucky hit he should make;--but that lucky hit never came, and at last I
had but two thousand pounds left. This I positively refused to part
with: the interest of it was barely sufficient for my wants; I asked no
more, but I expostulated and I reasoned with him in vain. He only
begged me for five hundred pounds; if I sold the money out, he would
tell me where I might have as good interest for the fifteen hundred
pounds as I now received for the two thousand pounds. He begged and
entreated me, he kissed, and he even wept. I could not withstand his
importunities: I sold out the money, and gave him the sum he wanted; the
fifteen hundred pounds I put by in my desk, to invest as he had pointed
out. That very night he forced the lock, took out the money, and left
me without a sixpence in the world."

"What a villain!" exclaimed I.

"Yes, you may say so, Jack; but who made him such a villain but his
foolish doting mother? Had I done him justice, had I checked him when
young, had I brought him up as I ought to have done, he might now have
been a happiness and a blessing to his mother. I was the person to
blame, not he; and many years of anguish have I lamented my folly and my
wretchedness."

"You loved him too much, mother, but it was a fault on the right side."

"No, Jack, that is an error of yours; it was a fault on the wrong side.
There is no credit to a mother in loving her children, for she cannot
help it. It is a natural instinct implanted in