'
[Illustration: "_Only this once_."]
"Thus by degrees, his lessons were neglected, and as study became
irksome, his love for excitement and gaiety increased, till one day I
overheard a gentleman, who knew him well, remark that he feared Frank's
'only this once' would prove his ruin.
"But a few years before, Frank would have been shocked with the thought
of spending the afternoons in racing, and evenings in billiard saloons.
He had not at first really intended to visit these places more than
'once,' 'just to see for myself;' but there are very few who ever stop
in the course of wrong doing at 'only this once.'
"At length his father died. When the sad tidings reached the son, he
seemed more thoughtful for a time; but in an hour of temptation he
yielded. Before long his old companions surrounded him again, and of
them he soon learned how to spend the large fortune left him by his
father, in a most reckless manner.
"In vain his true friends tried to check him in his wild career; and,
five years ago, Harry, my poor friend Frank died a drunkard."
"Oh, father, how dreadful!" and Harry shuddered.
"Yes, it is dreadful, my son; but there are countless untold stories as
dreadful as this one. If we were to visit a prison, and ask the wretched
inmates how it was that they were first led into crime, we should find
that '_only this once_' brought most of them there.
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