home now present. I could not keep my
countenance for joy, when the neighbors came in to congratulate me on
the change. I could now dress my children neat and comfortable, and send
them to the Sabbath-school. I went myself with my husband constantly to
church, and on making known my wish to our minister, publicly professed
my faith in the Saviour of sinners. Thus happily did the winter and
summer pass away. One day in autumn, as the minister was passing by, my
husband was in the road in front of the house.

The minister remarked, "I am glad, Robert, to see your _house repaired_
and looking so well."

"Thank you, sir; why, it does look some better." As the minister was
about to pass on, Robert added, "Mr. G., I have not drank a drop of rum
for one year, come next Monday. So you see the effect upon my house. I
used to work hard before, and spent about all I earned for rum, to drink
myself, or to give away. Many a time I have been at my work on a Sunday,
and earned a dollar or more in the course of the day, and taken the
money, and then laid out the whole in rum. Now I can clothe my family
well, and have something to lay out upon my house. Last summer, my boy
and I saved sixty dollars besides supporting the family."

Sixty dollars saved! But who can tell the value of the happy days and
nights of this year; or the worth of a kind, sober, industrious husband
and father, compared with a cross, cruel, and drunken one? Ask the wife;
what would she tell you? Ask the children; what would be their answer?

Some of my husband's former wicked companions felt piqued and envious
that Robert was free from their degrading habit. They saw him thriving,
respected, and happy. His life and prospects were a continued reflection
upon theirs. They longed to see him fall, and determined, if possible,
to effect his ruin. As he was quietly returning home one evening, he
passed by the shop which he was once so much in the habit of
frequenting. They accosted him: by taunts and jeers which he had not
firmness enough to resist, they drew him into their company. Once there,
they thought him within their power. When they could not induce him to
violate his pledge by taking rum, they called him a "cold-water man;"
"a white-livered coward;" "priest-ridden;" "afraid of his minister," and
many other titles of reproach. They then told him he had not promised to
drink no wine; and, after much persuasion, they induced him to take a
glass. But in this glas