thes for the wife and
children. Another thing, and better still, I've got one or two good
friends as pulled me out of the mire, and won't let me go. Tommy Tracks
there, as you call him, he's one of them; and _your_ good friend the
vicar,--for he _is_ your friend, think as you please,--he's another.
And, best of all, I've got a clear head and a clear conscience, and a
hope of a better home by-and-by, and a Saviour above all to look to; and
I shouldn't have had none of these if I'd been going on in my old ways.
So _you_ may laugh if you please when you say, `Jim Barnes has turned
teetotaler;' but I mean to sing when I says it, for it's true, and he
means to stick to it, with God's help, all the days of his life."

Having delivered himself of this brief address, James Barnes hurried
down from the platform, followed by a roar of hearty applause, which
completely drowned the efforts of a few dissentient voices.

The vicar was now just rising to call on another speaker to address the
meeting, when his attention, as well as that of the whole audience, was
turned to William Foster as he got up deliberately from his seat. Mr
Maltby had watched him narrowly during the evening, and not without
considerable anxiety and interest. Up to the close of Barnes's speech
Foster had apparently taken little or no interest in the proceedings;
certainly he had not joined either in the applause or in the dissent.
What was he now about to do? Turning to the vicar, amidst a breathless
silence throughout the hall, he said, in a firm and clear voice, "Mr
Chairman, may I say a few words to this meeting?" The vicar hesitated.
Was this man going to spoil all? His eye at that moment caught Thomas
Bradly's. Thomas nodded to him, and then turned to Foster and said,
"Get you on to the platform, William; the vicar and all the rest of us
will give you a patient hearing, I'm sure." Foster then mounted the
platform, and stood for a moment facing the audience without speaking.
He was very pale, and his voice trembled at first, but soon recovered
its firmness as he spoke as follows:--

"Mr Chairman and fellow-townsmen, I have not come here to-night to
oppose the temperance movement, but quite the contrary. I am quite sure
that movement has been doing good in this town, and is doing good still.
You have only to look at Jim Barnes to see that. Everybody knows what
he was, and everybody knows what he now is; there is no sham nor deceit
in the matter.