Then he told the old man the story of that first glass of gin. "It was that," said he, "which has done all the mischief. If I had not played the fool then, I might have been somebody now. But I yielded to temptation. I formed the taste for liquor. It has grown upon me, until I am the loathsome beast that you see before you. No, I never can stop drinking until I die."
Poor, poor man! in less than three weeks after this interview with his parents, he died—died of that most terrible disease, the delirium tremens.
My young friends, before I leave this story of Frederick, let me urge you to beware of the first glass. I don't care whether it is gin, or rum, or brandy. Don't touch it. If you are tempted to drink, be a hero. Have courage to say "No, I'll not throw myself away. I think too much of myself for that."
CHAP. XIII.[ToC]
SAMUEL IN BOSTON.
Time wore away. The peddler's boy, when he made up his mind to go to work in the factory, did not expect to spend his days there. He purposed to enter the factory because he thought that that was the best thing he could do then. You will recollect that he said to his father, when the old gentleman asked him what he would like to do, that there were a great many things which he should like to do, and that may be he would do them some day; but that as he could not do them then, he thought he would go to work in the factory, and wait until he could do them. Samuel, at length, began to think that it was time for him to look for some other business a little more to his mind than what he was doing then. So thought the good old peddler, his father. His mother—alas! she had gone to her rest—her smiling face had long been missed in the little cottage where she had dwelt so many years. It was decided that Samuel should go to Boston. But what was he to do there? That question gave others more anxiety than it gave Samuel. "I don't know, to be sure," said he, "exactly what I'll find to do. But I know I'll do something. I'll shovel dirt, if I can't get anything else to do, and I can make a living at that."
He went to Boston. The first thing he did, after he got there, was to walk straight to the house of Captain Lovechild. The captain was at home, and glad to see him.