fountain. This particular young gentleman did not even deem a reply
necessary. He vanished an instant, and when he returned a close
observer might have seen that the mixture in the glass he bore had
slightly changed color and increased in quantity. But the elder saw
only the whizzing stream of water dart into its center, and the rosy
foam rise and tremble on the glass's rim. The next instant he was
holding his breath and sipping the cooling drink.

As Elder Brown paid his small score he was at peace with the world. I
firmly believe that when he had finished his trading, and the little
blue-stringed packages had been stored away, could the poor donkey
have made his appearance at the door, and gazed with his meek,
fawnlike eyes into his master's, he would have obtained full and free
forgiveness.

Elder Brown paused at the door as he was about to leave. A
rosy-cheeked school-girl was just lifting a creamy mixture to her lips
before the fountain. It was a pretty picture, and he turned back,
resolved to indulge in one more glass of the delightful beverage
before beginning his long ride homeward.

"Fix it up again, sonny," he said, renewing his broad, confiding
smile, as the spruce young man poised a glass inquiringly. The living
automaton went through the same motions as before, and again Elder
Brown quaffed the fatal mixture.

What a singular power is habit! Up to this time Elder Brown had been
entirely innocent of transgression, but with the old alcoholic fire in
his veins, twenty years dropped from his shoulders, and a feeling came
over him familiar to every man who has been "in his cups." As a matter
of fact, the elder would have been a confirmed drunkard twenty years
before had his wife been less strong-minded. She took the reins into
her own hands when she found that his business and strong drink did
not mix well, worked him into the church, sustained his resolutions by
making it difficult and dangerous for him to get to his toddy. She
became the business head of the family, and he the spiritual. Only at
rare intervals did he ever "backslide" during the twenty years of the
new era, and Mrs. Brown herself used to say that the "sugar in his'n
turned to gall before the backslide ended." People who knew her never
doubted it.

But Elder Brown's sin during the remainder of the day contained an
element of responsibility. As he moved majestically down toward where
Balaam slept in the sunlight, he felt no fatigue. There w