“And what do you want, pray?”

“I want you to take me back again,” replied Gordon.  “I have signed the pledge, and intend leading a sober life hereafter.”

“The devil you have!”

“Yes sir.  I signed it yesterday, after you discharged me.”

“How long do you expect to keep it?” asked Evenly, with a sneer.  “Long enough to reach the next grogshop?”

“I have taken the pledge for life, I trust,” returned the workman, seriously.  He was hurt at the contemptuous manner of his old employer, but his dependent condition made him conceal his feelings.  “You will have no more trouble with me.”

“No, I am aware of that.  I will have no more trouble with you, for I never intend to let you come ten feet inside the front door of my shop.”

“But I have reformed my bad habit, Mr. Evenly.  I will give you no more trouble with my drinking,” said the poor man, alarmed at this language.

“It’s no use for you to talk to me, Gordon,” replied Evenly, in a rough manner.  “I’ve long wanted to get rid of you, and I have finally succeeded.  Your place is filled.  So there is no more to say on that subject.  Good morning.”

And the man turned on his heel and left Gordon standing half stupified at what he had heard.

“Rum’s done the business for you at last, my lark!  I told you it would come to this!” said an old fellow workman, who heard what passed between Gordon and the employer.  He spoke in a light, insulting voice.

Without replying, the unhappy man left the shop, feeling more wretched than he had ever felt in his life.

“And thus I am met at my first effort to reform!” he murmured, bitterly.

“Hallo, Gordon!  Where are you going?” cried a voice as these words fell from his lips.

He looked up and found himself opposite to the door of one of his old haunts.  It was the keeper of it who had called him.

“Come!  Walk in and let us see your pleasant face this morning.  Where were you last night?  My company all complained about your absence.  We were as dull as a funeral.”

“Curse you and your company too!” ejaculated Gordon between his teeth, and moved on, letting his eyes fall again to the pavement.

“Hey-day!  What’s the matter?”

But Gordon did not stop to bandy words with one of the men who had helped to ruin him.

“It’s all over with us, Mary.  Evenly’s got a man in my place,” said Gordon, as he entered his house and threw himself despairingly into a chair.  “But won’t he give you work, too?” asked Mrs. Gordon, in a husky voice.

“No!  He insulted me, and said I should never come ten feet inside of his shop.”

“Did you tell him that you had signed the pledge?”

“Yes.  But it was no use.  He did not seem to care for me any more than he did for a dog.”

The poor man’s distress was so great that he covered his face with his hands, and sat swinging his body to and fro, and uttering half-suppressed moans.