Title:  The Allen House, or Twenty Years Ago and Now

Author:  T. S. Arthur

Release Date:  October, 2003 [Etext #4588] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on February 12, 2002]

Edition:  10

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

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THE ALLEN HOUSE;

Or, twenty years ago and now.

By T. S. Arthur.

Philadelphia: 

1860

PREFACE.

We point to two ways in life, and if the young man and maiden, whose feet are lingering in soft green meadows and flowery walks, will consider these two ways in sober earnest, before moving onward, and choose the one that truth and reason tell them leads to honor, success, and happiness, our book will accomplish its right work for them.  It is a sad thing, after the lapse of twenty years, to find ourselves amid ruined hopes;—­to sit down with folded hands and say, “Thus far life has been a failure!” Yet, to how many is this the wretched summing up at the end of a single score of years from the time that reason takes the helm!  Alas! that so few, who start wrong, ever succeed in finding the right way; life proving, even to its last burdened years, a miserable failure!

TWENTY YEARS AGO, AND NOW.

CHAPTER I.

The rain had poured in torrents all day, and now, for the third time since morning, I came home, wet, uncomfortable and weary.  I half dreaded to look at the slate, lest some urgent call should stare me in the face.