All in a garden fair; the simple story of three boys ... - University Library

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ALL L\ A GARDEN FAIR.
CHAPTEE XV.
biver's legacy.
Who would have thought, when Biver began
to take the brandy bottle to bed with him, that
the whole future of two Enghsh lads would
have been affected by so simple an act, so com-
mon, too, in thirsty climes ? Such a natural
accompaniment to so many colonial careers I
When Biver went out to Shanghai as re-
presentative to the House of Brimage and
Waring, he was not a thirsty young man at all;
he was, on the contrary, a young man who held
strong moral objections to thirstiness except at
tea-time, and was great in commonplace about
the ruin caused by drink. lie was, in short,
one of those yoimg men who regard speech as
merely a vehicle for the commonplace, and the