“Jacob was much pleased with his new situation.  He found his relative a man of the most honorable character.  Accommodations were procured for him in a first-class boarding-house, where none but persons of the best standing were admitted.  And, whether owing to his attractions of mind or person, the sterling worth of his character, or the independent position of his family, or perhaps all these combined, he soon found himself an object of marked interest and attention to all with whom he came in contact.

[Illustration:  The Steamboat Trip Down the Mississippi.]

“Naturally of a social disposition, and disposed to look at everything in the most favorable light, Jacob saw none of those vicious traits and habits which he had been cautioned to shun.

“He did not partake of the mirthful spirit by which the unwary are enticed into scenes of folly, neither did he deny himself innocent recreations.

“And now to the unsophisticated youth, life presented the fairest aspect.  His religious duties were carefully attended to, and in the faithful discharge of his business engagements no one could be more careful and punctual.  His evenings were devoted to the society of those who were congenial to him.  But it was not long before the hidden thorns of the flowers that strewed his path began to make themselves felt, nor was it without pain that conscience awoke him from the repose in which he had been lulling himself.

“Among the many charming sojourners at the establishment in which he had taken up his abode, was the family of a wealthy planter, who had come to the city for the winter.  Mr. and Mrs. De Veaux were a lively and fashionable couple, and their children partook of the gay and careless temperament of their parents.

“Isabel, the eldest, was now in her sixteenth year, and the faultless beauty of her face and figure was only equaled by the child-like sweetness of her disposition.  She had been brought up without much restriction or control, and now that she was entering society for the first time, being gay, spirited, and witty, she flung herself into the enjoyments of fashionable pleasure with all the zest of her nature.

“The winter glided along with its witching gayeties, and, though the young Christian was never tempted to join the giddy multitude in their unlawful pastimes, yet his views were more lax than they had been.

“With the hope of his presence having a restraining effect upon the fair being who had touched the tenderest chords of his nature, he suffered himself to be led into scenes such as sober conscience could not approve.

“At length, however, the alarm came that was to disturb his security.  A sermon was to be preached by a celebrated minister before the members of the ‘Young Men’s Christian Association.’  Jacob attended, and heard with startled interest the minister deliver, as his text, the very same verse which the pious pastor of his country home had made the subject of the last discourse he had heard from him:  ’My son, when sinners entice thee consent thou not.’