The door into the wash-house stands ajar, and through it may
be seen on the slop-stone a broken yellow mug; and near it a tub full of
clothes, from which there dribbles a soapy little puddle on to the
uneven flags, just deep enough to float an unsavoury-looking mixture of
cheese-rinds and potato-parings. Altogether, the appearance of the
house is gaunt, filthy, and utterly comfortless. Such is the drunkard's
home.

Into this miserable abode stepped Johnson the night after his son's
disappearance, and divesting himself of his pit-clothes, threw them down
in an untidy mass before the fire. Having then washed himself and
changed his dress, he sat him down for a minute or two, while his wife
prepared the comfortless tea. But he could not rest. He started up
again, and with a deep sigh turned to the door.

"Where are you going?" cried his wife; "you mustn't go without your tea;
yon chaps at the `George' don't want you."

"I'm not going to the `George,'" replied Thomas; "I just want a word
with Ned Brierley."

"Ned Brierley!" exclaimed Alice; "why, he's the bigoted'st teetottaller
in the whole village. You're not going to sign the pledge?"

"No, I'm not; but 'twould have been the making on us all if I _had_
signed years ago;--no, I only just want a bit of talk with Ned about our
Sammul;" and he walked out.

Ned Brierley was just what Alice Johnson, and scores more too, called
him, a bigoted teetotaller, or, as he preferred to call himself total
abstainer. He was bigoted; in other words, he had not taken up total
abstinence by halves. He neither tasted the drink himself, nor gave it
to his friends, nor allowed it an entrance into his house. Of course,
therefore, he was bigoted in the eyes of those who could not or would
not understand his principles. But the charge of bigotry weighed very
lightly on him; he could afford to bear it; he had a living antidote to
the taunt daily before his eyes in a home without a cloud, an ever-
cheerful wife, healthy, hearty, striving, loving sons and daughters.
And, best of all, Ned was a Christian, not of the talk-much-and-do-
little stamp, nor of the pot-political-mend-the-world stamp. He loved
God, and always spoke of him with a reverential smile, because his very
name made him happy. He had a wife, too, who loved the same gracious
Saviour, and joined with her husband in training up their children in
holy ways. They knew well that they could not give their children
grac