“‘Ah, Malcom—­good day—­How are you?’ he said, reeling up to me and offering his hand.—­’You havn’t tried that good old rye of mine yet.  Come along now, it’s most gone.’

“‘You must excuse me today, Mr. Bradly,’ I replied, trying to pass on.

“But he said I should not get off this time—­that home with him I must go, and take a dram from his whiskey-barrel.  Of course, I did not go.  If there had been no other reason, I had no desire, I can assure you, to meet his wife while her husband was in so sad a condition.  After awhile I got rid of him, and right glad was I to do so.”

“Come, that’ll do for one day!” broke in Harry Arnold, the grog-shop-keeper, at this point, not relishing too well the allusions to himself, nor, indeed, the drift of the narrative, which he very well understood.

“No—­no—­go on! go on!” urged two or three of the group.  But Jim Braddock said nothing, though he looked very thoughtful.

“I’ll soon get through,” replied the Washingtonian, showing no inclination to abandon his text.  “You see, I did not, of course, go home with poor Bradly, and he left me with a drunken, half-angry malediction.  That night he went down into his cellar, late, to draw some whiskey, and forgot his candle, which had been so carelessly set down, that it set fire to a shelf, and before it was discovered the fire had burned through the floor above.

“Nearly all their furniture was saved, whiskey-barrel and all, but the house was burned to the ground.  Since that time, Bradly will tell you that luck has been against him.  He has been going down, down, down, every year, and now does scarcely anything but lounge about Harry Arnold’s grog-shop and drink, while his poor wife and children are in want and suffering, and have a most wretched look, as you may see by this picture on the pledge.  As for the whiskey-barrel, that was rolled down here about a month ago, and sold for half a dollar’s worth of liquor, and here I now stand upon it, and make it the foundation of a temperance speech.

“Now, let me ask you all seriously, if you do not think that James Bradly owes his rapid downfall, in a great measure, to the fact that Harry Arnold would not pay him a just debt in anything but whiskey?  And against Harry Arnold really your friend, that you are so willing to beggar your wives and children to put money in his till?  I only ask the questions.  You can answer then at your leisure.  So ends my speech.”

“You are an insulting fellow, let me tell you!” the grog-shop-keeper said, as he turned away, angrily, and went behind his counter.

The Washingtonian took no notice of this, but went to Jim Braddock, who stood in a musing attitude near the door, and said—­

“You will sign now, won’t you, Jim?”

“No, I will not!” was his gruff response.

“I am not going to sign away my liberty for you or anybody else.  So long as I live, I’ll be a free man.”