should consort with
a man who can do you no goods and, will certainly do 'ee much harm, when
you've no call for to do so. Why do 'ee stick by him--that's what I
want to know--when everybody says he'll be the ruin of you? And why do
'ee always put me off with vague answers when I git upon that subject?
You did not use to act like that, Jim. You were always fair an'
above-board in your young days. But what's the use of askin'? It's
plain that bad company has done it, an' my only wonder is, how _you_
ever come to play the hypocrite to that extent, as to go to the
prayer-meeting and make believe you've turned religious."

There was a little bitterness mingled with the tone of remonstrance in
which this was said, which appeared to affect the young man powerfully,
for his face crimsoned as he stopped and laid his hand on his father's
shoulder.

"Whatever follies or sins I may have committed," he said, solemnly, "I
have not acted a hypocrite's part in this matter. Did you ever yet find
me out, father, tellin' you a lie?"

"Well, I can't say I ever did," answered the mate with a relenting
smile, "'xcept that time when you skimmed all the cream off the milk and
capsized the dish and said the cat done it, although you was slobbered
with it from your nose to your toes--but you was a _very_ small fellow
at that time, you was, and hadn't got much ballast aboard nor begun to
stow your conscience."

"Well, father," resumed Jim with a half-sad smile, "you may depend upon
it I am not going to begin to deceive you now. My dear mother's last
words to me on that dreary night when she died,--`Always stick to the
_truth_, Jim, whatever it may cost you,'--have never been forgotten, and
I pray God they never may be. Believe me when I tell you that I never
join Morley in any of his sinful doings, especially his drinking bouts.
You know that I am a total abstainer--"

"No, you're not," cried Mr Welton, senior; "you don't abstain totally
from bad company, Jim, and it's that I complain of."

"I never join him in his drinking bouts," repeated Jim, without noticing
the interruption; "and as he never confides to me any of his business
transactions, I have no reason to say that I believe them to be unfair.
As I said before, I may suspect, but suspicion is not knowledge; we have
no right to condemn him on mere suspicion."

"True, my son; but you have a perfect right to steer clear of him on
mere suspicion."

"No doubt," replied Jim, w