“I wish I was a total abstainer.”
“Well,” said Mr Oliphant in reply, with a smile, “I wish you were; but why do you wish it just now, my dear boy?”
“Oh, I’ve been thinking a good deal about it lately. I see you smile, Hubert, but I really have been thinking—yes, thinking—I’ve been thinking that I should like to do as you all do; you’re just as happy without beer and wine, and just as well too.”
“And is that your only reason, dear Frank?” asked Mrs Oliphant.
“Oh no! that’s not all; the plain truth is this, I can’t help thinking that if I keep getting fonder and fonder of beer and wine, as I’m doing now, I shall get too fond of it by-and-by.”
Mr Oliphant sighed, and poor Mary exclaimed,—
“Oh, Frank, don’t say that.”
“Ay, but it’s true; don’t you think, Mr Oliphant, that I should be better and safer without it?”
“I do, most sincerely, my dear boy,” answered the rector; “yes, both better and safer; and specially the latter.”
“I know,” said Frank, “that papa and mamma are not fond of total abstinence; but then, I cannot think that they have really looked into the matter as you have.”