e drifted down the descent he had started on so unthinkingly. Here,
also, he learned to drink, a vice which he had heretofore escaped.

So he kept on, down, and down. He needed money for the gratification
of his desires, and to procure it he began to venture a little now and
then on some gaming device. He was cautious and shrewd, and his early
"investments" were fortunate. He won small sums at various times, and
was elated with his success. He loitered much about the "bucket shop,"
and now and then took a "deal" as some friend gave him a "pointer." He
was fortunate here, also, and even though so young, his vivid
imagination began to picture the fortune he should some day make in
this way. He suddenly dropped his country ways, dressed flashily, and
took on, with marvelous aptitude, the customs and manners of
metropolitan life.

And still he kept his own counsel. The great gulf fixed between
himself and his parents grew wider and wider. It was through this gap
that the devils entered in and took possession of his soul.

The Book has it that wicked men wax worse and worse. It was so with
"Dodd." His love of liquor grew upon him with wonderful rapidity. He
began drinking to excess, his eyes became bloodshot, his hand became
unsteady, and his step halted.

But the better part of the young man rebelled at this retrogression.
He passed many an agonizing night alone, pledging himself to stop;
hoping, longing for his true life of a few months before, and cursing
his present condition. The "Other Fellow" was faithful to him, too,
calling loudly to him to turn about, to go the other way, to "be
converted."

But as is usual in such cases, after a night of such agony he would
take one drink in the morning, just to steady his nerves down, and one
being taken, the rest followed in course through the day, as they had
done the day before, and the day before that. He was drunk a good
share of the time.

It happened one night as he was going home, or rather as he was trying
to go home, being in a very mellow condition, that is, he "stackered
whiles"--that he was accosted by a polite and pleasant voiced, young
gentleman, who took his arm kindly and walked with him several blocks.
As they walked he told "Dodd" that he was on his way to attend a
revival meeting, and asked him to go along. Just then "Dodd" "took a
bicker," and in the lurch, he knocked a book out from under the arm of
his companion. It was a Bagster Bibl