OR, CLARENCE MORTIMER. 128

 

disfigured and bloated features, he recog=-
nized his old friend Ben. At the same
moment his mother made the same ‘dis
covery. |

‘¢ See, Clare,” she said, ‘* such you
might have been, if I had not discovered
_ that first glass of wine, —if I had not forci-
bly carried you away from evil influences
which you were too weak to resist. Where
would have been our happiness then!
What would have been your hopes for the
future?” |

Clare was much moved.

‘‘T thank God,” he said, ‘* for giving me
a mother who was wise enough and faithful
enough to save me from myself.”
Boys, the streets of our cities are filled
with just such wrecks of manhood as poor

Ben. Would you willingly be’ numbered