CHARACTER.
“Depend upon it, madam,” said the schoolmaster,
“that, with a moral basis, men may risk themselves with
any temptation, and come out triumphant.” Mrs. Partington
placed her hand gently on the cuff of his coat,
and just three grains of snuff made their mark upon the
broadcloth. “There 's where all the deficiency is,” said
she. “'T is the moral baseness that does it, and temptation
melts 'em as the sun does the grafting-wax, and
the buds don't take root, however strongly they may
seem to be set, and they find, after all, as the best of
us do, that we are none too good.” The schoolmaster
brushed off the snuff as she removed her hand; but the
lesson remained, as though her words had been Indiaink,
and her finger-points the needles that wrought them
in enduring form upon the memory. Ike was engaged
in twisting a fishing-line upon the big wheel.
