Welsh Journals

npTca—ct' AND GENERAL TEMPEÎÌÂNCE MONTHLY. No 6. BRISTOL, FEBRUARY i, 1872. ONE PENNY., "IT'S ONLY A DROP." AN IRISH TALE, BY MRS S. C. HALL. §7 WONDER will Larry be as aisy \ with you as I am. I oftcn take pride in myself for being such an angel. Ellen, I wonder how Larry will behave at the fair of Birr—will he hould out there ?" " Will," answered Ellen ; " I'm not fearful of Larry in a great temptation, but 1 doubt him in little ones. I wish masters would pay their men at twelve o'cloclc on Saturdays instead of in the evening, and let them take their money where they work, instead of paying them in public-houses; that's the ruin of many a fine boy; for it's counted mean to go into the public and not take some- thing ; and boys hate meanness as bad as murder." " O save us ! " ejaculated Michael. " Some of them do, anyhow," said Ellen. " Set a case," commenced Michael with a very wise look—" that Larry really did break out once or twice—only now and then—would you give him up ?" Ellen became pale, and then red ; but after a pause, she replied, " I think I would—I think I could not make a drunkard happy—no woman could—it would be impossible ; and whatever love he has for me would wear out, and soon ; for though I hope I should never forget the duty I owe as a wife, one of her duties is to seek a husband's good in all things, and the highest step towards a man's earthly good is—sobriety." " Bedad !" replied her brother, "you did not go to school for nothing, I see that." " It was you, dear, that sent me there," she said; " and I owe to you what I can never repay." The fair of Birr came and went, and Larry behaved like a hero. His " big coat" was thrown back with an air of determined self confidence (the most dangcrous confidcnce in the world— certain in a long run to gct a man into trouble) ; his hat put on with a jaunty air ; his crimson silk " Barcelona " tied with a knot and fioating ends ; his scarlet cloth waistcoat peeped from bencath the body-coat of blue, whose brass buttons glittered like gold. " Brogues !" Larry disdaincd them !—his "neat" feet were encased in black shining leather, so that he was ready for a jig—if he could only get Ellen to dance one, but she would not: she did not like danciug in a tent, nor was she foolishly jealous or angry when her betrothed attended to the curtsey of a " littlc cousin of her own," who danced him down, amidst the vigorous applause of the company. On thatoccasion Lawrence certainlybehaved like a hero ! not a drop would he touch "beyant" the onc tumbler; and when he walked home with Ellen in the evening he felt almost inclined to quarrel with her, because she remained firm to the time she had originally named for their union. The victory that Lawrence achieved at Birr uplifted him sadly. He had hitherto kept a wakeful guard ovcr himself; and when ever inclination put in its plea for another " drop ;" resolution said " No," and fidelity whispered "Ellen" but Birr " birred" in his ears. " Think of me there," thought Lawrence ; "just look at me, when every boy in the fair was 'blind' or' ' reeling,' able to walk a