: "_Presently his attendants came up."_]

[Illustration]

DICK HARRIS; OR, THE BOY-MAN

Dick Harris was called a clever boy, and no one believed this more
firmly than he. He was only fourteen years of age, and yet he dearly
loved to be thought a man.

As he was about to leave school, his friends often asked him what he
intended to be. Dick could not tell; only, that it must be something
great. Now while Dick had learned some good thing in school, he had also
learned many evil habits--among them the practice of smoking.

Dick's father smoked. He saw men smoking in the streets, and so he
thought it would be manly to smoke. Along with some of his schoolmates,
he used to hide himself and take his turn of the one pipe or cigar which
they had among them. As they were afraid of being found out, they hid
the pipe when any one came near.

His father, who although he smoked himself, forbade Dick doing so, asked
him one day why his clothes smelled so of tobacco smoke.

"Some of my schoolmates smoke, father."

"But do you smoke?"

"No."

"Take care you don't then; it's all very well for men, but I won't have
any of my children smoking."

Dick went away, as the Bible says, "with a lie in his right hand."

And yet he wanted to be a man. Now look at that, my lads. What is it
that makes a man--I mean a true man? There are many things. The Bible
says that the glory of young men is their strength--strength of body,
and strength of mind.

Would Dick get this kind of glory by smoking? He certainly would not
strengthen his body, for it has been proved again and again that boys
who smoke weaken their bodies.

Tobacco is a poison--slower perhaps than strong drink, but quite as
sure; and although it may not kill you outright, because the quantity
taken is not large enough, yet it pollutes the blood, injures the brain
and stomach, and paralyzes many of the healthy functions of the body.

The result is stunted growth and general weakness. A boy who smokes much
never can have the glory of bodily strength.

Dick found this out for himself, to his bitter regret. And besides this,
do you think that his conduct showed strength of mind? He began the
practice of smoking, not because he believed it to be right, but because
_men_ smoked. He was only a boy, yet he wished to appear _a man_--that
is, to appear what he was _not_.

What could be more weak than for a boy to have no reason for doing a
thing than that _men do it?_ B