=Use of tobacco.=--Months went by. This boy’s noble father had crossed over the river into heaven. He and his widowed mother were visiting among their relatives who lived in a rough country, many miles from their home. One night, after making a long journey on horseback, he slept so well that he did not wake until the sun was an hour high. On arising, he found that his cousin, a boy fifteen years old, had been out in the woods and had killed a number of squirrels before breakfast. In his estimation, his cousin was a hero, a great man. Breakfast over, they rambled over a large tobacco farm. They became very chummy. At length they came to a large tobacco barn. His cousin pulled off a leaf of tobacco, rolled up a shapely cigar, lighted it and began smoking. As our friend stood and watched those dense clouds of smoke pour from the mouth and nose of his cousin, he whispered to himself, “Now I know why you can kill a mess of squirrels before breakfast. If I could smoke, I could do the same thing.” Once more he decided he would try to be a man. He selected the largest leaf that he could find. When he had finished making his first cigar, it resembled a saw log about as much as it did a first-class Havana. His cousin noticed that he could not get it into his mouth, and said, “You take my cigar and keep it going for a few minutes and I will make you one.” He kept it going for a few minutes, then it kept him going for about three hours. He lost little less than ten pounds of his former weight in a hurry. He was soon so weak that he could scarcely walk back to the house. His mother and friends were greatly frightened. His cousin’s face was as pale as a sheet. There was not a doctor in ten miles of the place. Many remedies were thought of and used. None did any good. Finally, his uncle’s father, quite an old man, suggested that the best remedy, ever used in those parts of Kentucky for sick stomach, was a sweetened toddy. This boy had been taught that the use of tobacco was a great sin and that the use of whisky was a still greater sin. He had acted very much like a fool and felt like one. He understood his case better than they did. He reasoned like this: “if whisky is worse than tobacco, the remedy they want me to take will kill me.” But, he was between two fires. If he confessed what he had done, he would get a switching, and if he took the remedy they were offering, he would die. What do you suppose that boy did? He was determined to keep his secret and he did not want to die, so, for convenience, he became a Christian Scientist, denied that he was sick and got well. This was his first, last and only experience in the use of tobacco.