But one day, when the good pastor put it at him in so many
words, Charles gave token of some apprehension.
"Do you really think so, sir?" said he, thoughtfully; "ain't you
playin' it on me?"
"I assure you, Charles," said the good man, catching a ray of hope
from the boy's dawning seriousness, "you will certainly end your days
in a workhouse, unless you speedily abandon your course of
extravagance. There is nothing like habit--nothing!"
Charles may have thought that, considering his frequent and lavish
contributions to the missionary fund, the parson was rather hard upon
him; but he did not say so. He went away in mournful silence, and
began pelting a blind beggar with coppers.
One day, when Johnny had been more than usually provident, and Charles
proportionately prodigal, their father, having exhausted moral suasion
to no apparent purpose, determined to have recourse to a lower order
of argument: he would try to win Charles to economy by an appeal to
his grosser nature. So he convened the entire family, and,
"Johnny," said he, "do you think you have much money in your bank?
You ought to have saved a considerable sum in nine years."
Johnny took the alarm in a minute: perhaps there was some barefooted
little girl to be endowed with Sunday-school books.
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