the slaughter." Truly, Jack, "her house is the way to hell, going down
to the chambers of death." The consequences you may readily imagine. I
was made to drink until I was quite insensible; was robbed of all my
money, and then turned out of doors into the cold street. When I came to
myself it was nearly sunrise, and I could not imagine how I had got
there. My head swam, my bones ached, and I felt as if it was "blue
Monday" with me. I staggered off not knowing where I was or whither I
went, for half an hour or more, when I sat down on a flight of steps,
and fell asleep. When I awoke, all the horrors of my situation rushed
upon my mind; and O, Jack, I felt the raging hell in my bosom that you
did when Hardheart first shipped you off. How sunk and degraded in my
own eyes. I determined, however, upon going home, as the distance was
short--only fifteen miles--and a bitter journey it was, Jack. I thought
on my madness and folly, and wondered, with the poor ignorant Indian,
why people would put an enemy into their mouths to steal away their
brains. Instead of going to meet my dear father and sweet little sister
with a joyous face and a pocket full of money, with which to make their
hearts sing for joy, I was returning, like the prodigal son, from
feeding upon husks with swine--poor, and with a heavy heart and a
gnawing conscience. O the hell, Jack, of a bad conscience. It is the
beginning of the existence of the worm that never dies, and of the fire
that is never quenched. It is a foretaste of that eternal hell prepared
for those who persist in violating God's holy laws. Well, I reached home
at last, and a sad home I found it. The sand of my dear father's glass
was almost run out--the poor old man was about slipping his cable. But
O, Jack, how happy he looked; and so calm and resigned to the will of
his heavenly Father, as he said--ready to set sail on the great voyage
of eternity, or to stay and weather more of the rough gales of adversity
in this life, just as God pleased. He held out his thin, white hand to
me, and welcomed his boy, and thanked the Lord that he had given him a
sight of me before his eyes were scaled in death. My poor sister hung
weeping on my neck. But, Jack, bad as I then felt, I felt a thousand
times worse when my dear old father beckoned me to him, and laying his
hand on my head, prayed that God--his God, the Friend who had stood by
him in every gale and tempest of life, and proved true to him till the
l