oon as he
comes?'

"But I ax your pardon, friends, for telling you all this.--`Go on,' do
you say? Well, I'll go on just for a bit. So you see what a blessing
the giving up the drink has been to me and my family. And, what's
better still, it's left room for the gospel to enter. It couldn't get
in when the strong drink blocked up the road. I'm not going to boast; I
should get a tumble, I know, if I did that. It ain't no goodness of
mine, I'm well aware of that. It's the Lord's doing, and his blessing
on Thomas Bradly's kindness and care for a poor, wretched, ruined sinner
like me. But here's the fact: we has the Bible out now every night in
our house, and I reads some of the blessed book out loud, and then we
all kneels us down and has a prayer; and we goes to church on Sundays,
and it's like a little heaven below. Rather different that from what it
used to be on the Sabbath-day, when I were singing and drinking with a
lot of fellows, and it were all good fellowship one minute, and perhaps
a kick into the street or a black eye the next. Ay, and there's many of
the old lot as knows the change, and what the Lord's done for me, and
they're very mad, some on 'em; but that don't matter, so long as they
don't make a madman of me.

"But just a word or two for you boys and girls of the Band of Hope afore
I sit down.--Now, I've brought with me, by Mr Bradly's leave, something
to show you." So saying, he beckoned to a young man, who handed him a
small basket. He opened it, and produced a small jar with a brush in
it. A half-suppressed murmur of merriment ran through the crowd. "Ah!
You know what this is, I see," continued James Barnes. "'Tain't the
first time as this has made its appearance in Cricketty Hall. Now, I'm
not going to say anything ill-natured about it. As William Foster has
said, `let by-gones be by-gones.' It's very good of him to say so, and
I only mean to give you a word or two on the subject. This little jar
has got tar in it, and tar's a very wholesome and useful thing in its
proper place. Now, a few months ago them as shall be nameless meant to
daub William all over with this, and feather him afterwards, because he
wouldn't break his pledge. A cowardly lot they was to deal so with one
man against a dozen of 'em; but that's neither here nor there. I only
want you, boys and girls, to take example by William, and stick to your
pledge through thick and thin. See how the Lord protected him, an