"
"'Pon my soul it did, thin,--it makes me happy whin sorra thing else in
the wide world will comfort me," replied Pat.
"But that an't nateral happiness; it an't the sort that comes of doin'
good to your feller-creturs."
"It sinds throuble away--what else is happiness?"
"But how do you feel arterwards? That's the pint."
"Arrah! bad enough, sure. Yous have the betther of me there."
"Then leave it off, Partrick," responded Uncle Nathan, drawing the
pledge from his pocket. "Sign the pledge, and you are safe."
But we need not follow Uncle Nathan in his reformatory lucubrations. Pat
signed the pledge; but whether he had an appreciating sense of the
restraint he imposed upon his appetite we cannot say. Uncle Nathan
thought him saved from his cups, and rejoiced accordingly. Perhaps, if
he had looked a little closer, he might have suspected an interested
motive on the part of Pat. He saw none, and, feeling secure in the
present victory, he admonished his disciple "to stick to it as long as
he lived."
"'Pon me word, I will, thin," replied Pat.
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