The Card Parties
While John was forming new acquaintances at school, Satan was not
asleep. John's active mind was soon being schooled in many evils that he
had not known before. And to make the matter still worse, John's father
had a number of bachelor friends with whom he was in the habit of
meeting for pleasant evenings, and their amusements were mostly drinking
strong drinks and playing card games.
Among these men, as among his schoolmates, John became a favorite; and
he was often praised and admired for his shrewd and manly ways. And when
the report concerning his intense desire to become a man was circulated
among them, they urged him to drink beer, saying that it would make him
more manly and that all men must learn how to drink and smoke if they
would be thought of as being manly. As a result John was soon able to
drink his share of the beer, although he did not like the taste at
first. Besides this, John discovered that at these evening gatherings he
could often replenish his supply of tobacco by slipping a little from
someone's pocket when the owner was not on his guard.
Poor little John!--such a favorite! so gifted, and yet so neglected! in
regard to high ideals and purposes in life, so ignorant! and so desirous
of that motherly love and interest that were ever denied him! He
endeavored to fill his life with other things; but in his day-dreams he
often pictured his mother, and wondered: "Was she like my aunt? Would
she take me and hold me in her arms while she smoothed my hair with her
hand? Would she bind my bruises? And would she sit by my bedside at
night and hold my hand in hers while telling me stories that she had
read?" "Oh, how would it all seem?" he would ask himself; and then,
remembering that such could never be, he would try to forget and be
happy. His mother was gone, he reasoned, and he must be content. It was
to his two little feathered friends alone that he confided his sorrows.
Had John's father remembered the determination that filled his soul on
the dark day of his wife's funeral, and had he continued to teach his
little son to pray and to serve God, how much better it might have been!
How much better might John have understood the difference between right
and wrong! In such a case, John's life's record might have been filled
with good and noble deeds, and his habits might have been clean and
wholesome.
As it was, because of his ignorance of right, he was laying a crumbling
foundation formed of evil motives and desires. And should he continue to
build, using similar material, his life's structure would be unsafe; it
would be momentarily in danger of falling. As Satan is ever waiting with
the needed supplies for a work of this kind, so he was ready to aid
little John. The card parties at which John and his father were often
present furnished John with much of his material.
The younger men among those who attended these gatherings, recognizing
in John material of the entertaining sort, began at once to educate him.
They taught him, not only to drink beer, but also to play cards and to
swear. To John beer did not at first have a pleasant taste; but as it
was when he was trying to learn to use tobacco, so it was now--the
promise that it would help him in becoming manly encouraged him to take
more; and as he drank, the appetite grew. Finally, he would sometimes
drink so much that he could not keep awake.
Usually on these occasions beer was served only as a prize to the
winners of the games. The lucky fellow alone was given a drink while
those who had lost were given only a smell of the bottle. One time when
John had won in a number of games and had been treated to as many drinks
from the bottle of beer, he became very sleepy. Going over to one corner
of the room, he crept up on a table and soon was apparently asleep.
It happened, however, that, although he was sleepy, he was not wholly
unconscious to what was going on; and suddenly he heard a plot that
seemed to him so cruel that he could scarcely believe his ears.
[Illustration: A Card-Party]
At the close of such gatherings, a chicken-roast was generally in order,
and the fowl used was usually taken from some hen-roost not far distant.
On this particular occasion when the party was about to break up, John
heard the roughest of the company ask:
"I say, boys, who's goin' fer the roast tonight? Some one ought to be
off fer it's nigh onter the midnight hour, and I, fer one's got a big
job ahead a me tomorrer."
"I'll go, Bill," someone answered; "but wha do ye say ter go?"
"Oh, it don't make no difference, so's it's not too fer away!" the other
answered, and added: "Whist, Tom, why can't we git John's turkeys?
They'd make fust-rate eatin' all right. He's too far gone to know
anything about it."
John was just about to call out that they must let his turkeys alone
when he remembered how hard it would be in the darkness to discover
their roosting-place, so he remained quiet. It was, however, with some
uneasiness that he awaited the thieves' return. When they came, he was
relieved; for they were carrying chickens instead of turkeys. Although,
because of the safety of his pets, a thrill of satisfaction swept over
John, yet he had received in his heart a wound that was deep and wide.
These cruel, heartless men were willing to take from him, in so
unprincipled a manner, his only companions and playfellows. John
somewhat realized that life had a hard and bitter side for him; but
again he endeavored with all his strength to make the best of it.
It was morning before John and his father returned to their home;
and it was with unusual joy that John found his pets waiting for their
breakfast. As he held them close to his breast, with their beaks close
to his cheek, he again thought of his mother; also he wondered about a
certain change that had come over his father.
For a time after their removal to their own home, the father had been
very devoted to John and had seemed to understand something of the boy's
loneliness. Perhaps it was a realization of this loneliness and a desire
to bring into the life of the child the motherly interest of which he
had been deprived that had turned the father's heart toward a certain
young lady of his acquaintance. Anyway, whatever was the cause, the
father became more and more interested in this young woman; while, on
the other hand, he paid less attention to John, whose loneliness daily
increased. Night after night John's pillow was dampened by the tears he
shed while waiting and listening for the sound of his father's returning
footsteps.
In course of time the father married and brought home his new bride.
At first John was very shy; but he was glad. Oh, how he wished that she
would be what he had day-dreamed that his own mother might have been!
He could then have given her all his love and confidence. He could have
told her all his boyish plans for the future, asking her for the advice
he would need. But the new mother failed to fulfill his hopes. Even she
did not understand the longings of his boyish heart; nor did she realize
that the poor little neglected boy was measuring her by what he had
imagined a true mother to be. She was kind to John; but that was all.
Her time and attention were given to her husband; and John daily saw the
gulf between his father and himself widening and deepening. A feeling of
discord crept into John's heart; all attraction for home was severed;
and he felt that his happiness would have to be sought from other
sources.