. I cannot suggest to Tam O'Shanter that he should not
associate with Cobbler Johnny. Why, he loves him like a very brother!
Indeed, as the last sublime token of friendship, have they not been
drunk for weeks together? Besides, are they not such worthless wights
that they will do less harm in associating with each other than in
enlarging their power of evil by operating on new material? If you are
Tam O'Shanter, I cannot very well advise you to seek out some worthy
young man for an associate and attaint his character and his reputation
by clinging to him. Now the only thing I can consistently do is to hope
you are a young man

FAR REMOVED FROM TAM O'SHANTER IN HABITS

and selfishness. I can hope that you are a young man who, in going on a
fishing excursion with some reputable person of your age, will not cast
a cloud on the mind of that person's employer, and cause him to fear
that his clerk is falling instead of rising in self-esteem. Let my hope
be taken as an enduring fact. Now I feel I am on safe ground. You are
building a structure. On your west party-wall your neighbor is also
erecting one. He is building it so that it will fall down--that is
plain. When it falls it will involve you in its ruins because the middle
wall supports both edifices. What do you do? You go to the authorities,
and they make him take down his house brick by brick. In this way the
law surrounds you with its beneficent protection, and you need not
suffer from the faults of others. But alas!

[Illustration: "Adieu, valor! rust, rapier! be still, drum: For your
manager is in love; yea, he loveth."]

MORALLY,

when you put up a party-wall you must abide by the conclusion. If your
companion reflect credit on you, then you are doubly strong, but if he
pull you down, then there is no relief and little sympathy. Let us
suppose that, in an absolutely evil hour, you have learned to play
billiards. A brother-clerk says: "Let us play a string at dinner-time!"
Across your mind flits the bright green table, the beautiful ivory
balls, the wonderful angle which you discovered the last time you
played, and, compared with the dull routine of the store, you
momentarily feel that

A GAME OF BILLIARDS

would be truly beneficial. So, at noon you go. There never was a game of
billiards that would end precisely at the moment you should leave for
duty. There never were two employes who played billiards who did not
cheat their employers out of consider