CHAPTER XXV.
VARIOUS KINDS OF SOCIETY.
Peter spent Christmas with his mother, and found her very much worried over his "salooning." "It's first steps, Peter, that do the mischief," she told him.
"But, mother, I only go to talk with the men.

Not to drink." "You'll come to that later.

The devil's paths always start straight, my boy, but they end in wickedness.

Promise me you won't go any more." "I can't do that, mother.

I am trying to help the men, and you ought not ask me to stop doing what may aid others." "Oh, my boy, my boy!" sobbed the mother.
"If you could only understand it, mother, as I have come to, you wouldn't mind.