Doubtless, you would like to know what was James’ first act in his downward career. It was betting at the “little gambling house.” There he learned to do evil rather than good.
I have neglected to explain to you what the gambling house was. It was a wide-spreading elm tree, beneath the hospitable shade of which the boys of the neighborhood were accustomed to meet and play marbles for have-ance; that is, each boy kept all the marbles he knocked out of the ring.
Have any of you ever been guilty of this? If so, then you were gambling, and, unless you stop it at once, the gallows or the penitentiary may be your end. Do not gamble with marbles; it may be your ruin. Truly, “The way of the transgressor is hard.”
“Placed on the verge of youth, my mind
Life’s opening scene surveyed;
I viewed its ills of various kinds,
Afflicted and afraid.
“Oh, how shall I, with heart prepar’d,
Those terrors learn to meet?