Part 17 (1/2)

”I'ain His eyes were glistening

For severalthe ahtfully, the other excitedly The older players now left offre said, ”No, I won't ot?”

Lee slapped down his cards His voice trembled a little as he asked, confidently, ”Can you beat that?”

”Yep,” said Young, and he coolly laid down his victorious hand The others all looked at it ”It's about tih; but his heart was thu hiht Young, as he gathered in whatloudly to show he did not care

He was excited, and would have gone on betting for a long ti lost, he ht have stopped; but to stop noould look mean, he reflected

”The luck has turned,” he whispered to hias, and ht he tossed in his bed, and said: ”I must stop; that's all there is about it; I _ said, ”Go ahead without ht”

”The Deacon hasn't any sporting blood He's afraid of his own pupil,”

Powelton said, and the others laughed Lucky laughed, too; he was the pupil Young played

That night Young won handily He felt especially pleased to win that night He thought, ”I'll stop the minute I have won back what I lost”

But he did not win back what he had lost, and so played on the next night, and on the next And so it went until he was brought to a stop with a jerk

It came near the end of the term and of the year, shortly before the final exaht, and of late, so nearly every time he played; but he said: ”I can't afford to stop now Surely this bad luck can't continue I must win! I in next tia his studies He had used up all his allowance of ”absences” He did not mind that, but he had within these feeeks lost--he would not allow himself to reckon how much! He had borrowed fro from the bank the precious money for which he had worked so hard, and which meant so much more to him than moneyhe made out another check to his own order ”This is positively the last time,” he said to himself He had said that before, but this tian to lose with the first hand He laughed, he played recklessly, he lost He went ho which he had forgotten to open, in hurrying to the ga leave to call your attention to the fact that your account seems to be overdrawn to the amount of seventy-five cents” It was fro owned not a cent in the world, and was a debtor even to the bank besides owing various sums to his companions He was bankrupt It was pretty bad But that was not the worst of it That was not the reason he stood by the table letting his la at the letter in his hand

He had kept with his personal account the fund of his class, and every cent of it was gone with the rest He had held it in trust as treasurer

It had a over one hundred dollars

But he had drawn it out unconsciously? No; he knew he had used all his own o

But surely he had meant to return what he had borrowed fro” is called ely word It reallycould not take it all in at first For awhile he stood there, saying to himself, ”Isn't it funny this letter was in --isn't it funny?”

Then he looked up, sniffed, and said, ”That la” He turned it down, and stared at the flame for nearly a minute Then suddenly he blew it out, and was alone in the darkness

Oh, yes, it was all true There was no way of getting out of it He realized it all now vividly He, Willia, a aht name--a thief!

He was the one of who East for a higher education He was the one for whos He was the one who had his tuition reh e were read aloud at the sewing society by a proud little ht he was the best son in the world

Why hadn't he stayed at ho hard in the bank or as a plain farood little Charlie? Oh, how did he ever sink so low? If he only had a chance to do it all over again--if he could only wake up and find it all a dream--if he could only wipe it all out of existence, how joyous and sunny would be life and duty and hard work again!

But it wasn't a dream! It was all very real, indeed None of it could be wiped out It was all there and staring him in the face, real, horribly real And that was not all; matters could not remain only as bad as _this_ He was an out-and-out embezzler, liable to be found out and exposed as such at any raced nao hoet there before he did Everyone in the county would hear it, and talk about hih and sneer, and say, ”Too bad!” and really be secretly glad