actions, did she encourage them to partake with her in secret of that
which was banished from the table. It was only by the awful but timely
discovery of their mother's degradation that the children were prevented
from following in her steps.

A few months later, upon entering the house at the close of the day, the
father was met by his eldest daughter, a girl of seventeen, who, with
dismay on her face, exclaimed: "Oh, papa, do come upstairs, and see what
is the matter with poor mamma. She has been sleeping heavily for hours,
and when I have tried to disturb her, she has spoken quite wildly, and
then gone to sleep again. A dreadful thought has just occurred to me
that perhaps she has taken poison." Mr. Stewart anxiously followed his
daughter to the room where his wife was lying on the bed. He bent over
her. Her unnatural appearance, and the strong smell of liquor which
proceeded from her parted lips, told the tale; and the truth, horrible
and ghastly, stood revealed to the husband.

"Papa, tell me the truth; is it poison?" asked his daughter, as Mr.
Stewart staggered to a seat. He hesitated a moment, then hoarsely said:

"It is poison of the worst kind, my poor child! Your mother is
intoxicated. Oh, what shall we do? How can we save her?" One brief
moment of horror, and then, subduing all outward manifestation of her
agony, the girl said:

"Papa, we must put the temptation out of her way. We must all of us do
without a luxury which has brought about such a terrible result."

So from the house there was banished from that time the alcoholic
beverages which had been deemed necessary; but, alas! too late to save
the wife and mother from rapidly drifting into confirmed habits of
drunkenness. All the schemes that love could devise proved powerless to
prevent the mistaken woman from continued indulgence in the fatal cup.

The apparent need for constant recourse to stimulants had long since
passed away, but the habit of past years had wrought deadly mischief,
not alone in gradually weakening the power of self-control, but in
creating that morbid craving for alcohol which leaves its deluded victim
no alternative but to obey its behests. She had seen no harm in what had
become an essential of life to her, until she found herself bound in its
toils. True, she did not yield to its slavery without many a struggle,
but temptation was overpowering, and finally she succumbed to what she
declared was inevitable. She had forgotten