Page:The Sins of the Cities of the Plain.djvu/188

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
74
THE SINS OF THE

evening, after supper, I asked him how he would like to go back to the Ragged School Refuge again, as I did not think I should keep him very long.

"You should have seen the tears come into his beautiful eyes, as he threw himself on his knee& and begged I would keep him, that he would die for me, and do anything he could to please me.

"It was some time before I would appear at all moved by his appeal; then I said: 'Well, Joe, will you promise never, never, to let out any of my secrets or what games I may play with you? Now swear it, sir, on the Bible!'

"So I made him take a fearful oath, which I felt sure had a great effect on him after his Sunday School teaching.

"'Bring me that small bottle of liqueur off the sideboard, Joe,' I said, as