one week, for a boy who had been to such a place but seven times in all
his life. It is the way of human nature. I suppose that when Adam and
Eve really got to eating the forbidden apples, they ate, and ate, and
ate. At least, this quality has been transmitted to their descendants.

Now, the bad thing about this affair, was not that "Dodd" had been to
the play-house seven times, but that he had been there clandestinely.
When a person begins to sneak about anything, he is on the down grade
to perdition, and the brakes are all off.

The result of this excess of "Dodd's" was a still further dissipation.
It is usually that way. The theatre soon had a fascination for him
that he could not withstand. He went whenever he could get money
enough to buy a ticket. After awhile he began to frequent places of
amusement of a low grade. The "variety" performance attracted him, and
he became an habitual attendant at such places. Here he formed
acquaintances and made friendships that were not to his advantage, to
say the best thing that can be said of them; and with these companions
he drifted down the descent he had started on so unthinkingly. Here,
also, he learned to drink, a vice which he had heretofore escaped.

So he kept on, down, and down. He needed money for the gratification
of his desires, and to procure it he began to venture a little now and
then on some gaming device. He was cautious and shrewd, and his early
"investments" were fortunate. He won small sums at various times, and
was elated with his success. He loitered much about the "bucket shop,"
and now and then took a "deal" as some friend gave him a "pointer." He
was fortunate here, also, and even though so young, his vivid
imagination began to picture the fortune he should some day make in
this way. He suddenly dropped his country ways, dressed flashily, and