ut to the
stables to see the horses, and about the grounds.

To-day, at Roselands, it was Ralph's turn to entertain. He soon drew Max
away from the company in the parlors, showed him the horses and dogs, then
invited him to take a walk.

It was near dinner time when they returned. After dinner he took him to
his room, and producing a pack of cards, invited him to play.

"Cards!" exclaimed Max. "I don't know anything about playing with them,
and don't want to."

"Why not? are you too pious?" Ralph asked with a sneer, tumbling them out
in a heap upon the table.

"I've always been taught that men gamble with cards, and that gambling is
very wicked and disgraceful, quite as bad as getting drunk."

"Pooh! you're a muff!"

"I'd rather be a muff than a gambler, any day," returned Max with spirit.

"Pshaw! 'tisn't gambling, unless you play for money, and I haven't asked
you to do that, and don't propose to. Come now, take a hand," urged Ralph
persuasively. "There isn't a bit more harm in it than in a game of ball."

"But I don't know how," objected Max.

"I'll teach you," said Ralph. "You'll soon learn and will find it good
sport."

At length Max yielded, though not without some qualms of conscience which
he tried to quiet by saying to himself, "Papa never said I shouldn't play
in this way; only that gambling was very wicked, and I must never go where
it was done."

"Have a cigar?" said Ralph, producing two, handing one to Max, and
proceeding to light the other. "You smoke, of course; every gentleman
does."

Max never had, and did not care to, but was so foolish as to be ashamed to
refuse after that last remark of Ralph's; beside having seen his father
smoke a cigar occasionally, he thought there could be no harm in it.

"Thank you, I don't care if I do," he said, and was soon puffing away as
if quite accustomed to it.

But it was not many minutes before he began to feel sick and faint, then
to find himself trembling and growing giddy.

He tried to conceal his sensations, and fought against them as long as
possible. But at length, finding he could endure it no longer, he threw
the stump of the cigar into the fire, and rising, said, "I--I feel sick. I
must get out into the air."

He took a step forward, staggered, and would have fallen, if Ralph had not
jumped up and caught him.

"Here, I'll help you to the bed and open the window," he said. "Never
smoked before? Well, don't be discouraged; I was deathly s