PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 165

we’ve ever heard of, since the beginning
of the world.

Laughing Bill had scarcely tasted a
drop of liquor when he was fourteen
years of age. His father was pretty
temperate in his habits, and though he
furnished liquor to his hired men in hay-
ing time—for there was only one man in
Willow Lane who believed it possible to
get through haying without New Eng-
land rum, or something of that class and
order—he did not drink much himself,
and never allowed his boys to drink at
all.

But about this time, William was in
company with two or three of the drink-