Mrs. Braddock said nothing, and he said nothing. But long before her eyelids closed in sleep, he was loudly snoring by her side. When he awoke in the morning, Sally had arisen and gone down. A burning thirst caused him to get up immediately and dress himself. There was no water in the room, and if there had been, he could not have touched it while there was to be had below a cool draught from the well. So he descended at once, feeling very badly, and resolving over again that he would never touch another drop of liquor as long as he lived. Having quenched his thirst with a large bowl of cool water drawn right from the bottom of the well, he went up to his wife where she was stooping at the fire, and said-- "Sally, look here--" "Go 'way, Jim," was her angry response. "No, but Sally, look here, I want to talk to you," persisted her husband. "Go 'way, I say--I don't care if I never see you again!" "So you've said a hundred times, but I never believed you, or I might have taken you at your word." To this his wife made no reply. "I was drunk last night, Sally," Jim said, after a moment's silence. "You needn't take the trouble to tell me that." "Of course not. But an open confession, you know, is good for the soul. I was drunk last night, then--drunk as a fool, after all I promised--but I'm not going to get drunk again, so--" "Don't swear any more false oaths, Jim: you've sworn enough already." "Yes, but Sally, I am going to quit now, and I want you to talk to me like a good wife, and advise with me." "If you don't go away and let me alone now, I'll throw these tongs at you!" the wife rejoined, angrily, rising up and brandishing the article she had named. "You are trying me beyond all manner of patience!" "There--there--keep cool, Sally. It'll all go into your lifetime, darlin'," Jim replied, good-humouredly, taking hold of her hand, and extricating the tongs from them, and then drawing his arm around her waist, and forcing her to sit down in a chair, while he took one just beside her. "Now, Sally, I'm in dead earnest, if ever I was in my life," he began, "and if you'll tell me any way to break off from this wretched habit into which I have fallen, I'll do it." "Go and sign the pledge, then;" his wife said promptly, and somewhat sternly. "And give up my liberty?" "And regain it, rather. You're a slave now." "I'll do it, then, for your sake." "Don't trifle with me, any more, James; I can't bear it much longer, I feel that I can't--" poor Mrs. Braddock said in a plaintive tone, while the tears came to her eyes. "I wont deceive you any more, Sally. I'll sign, and I'll keep my pledge. If I could only have said--'I've signed the pledge,' yesterday, I would have been safe. But I've got no pledge, and I'm afraid to go out to hunt up Malcom, for fear I shall see a grog-shop." "Can't you write a pledge?" "No. I can't write anything but a bill, or a label for one of your pickle-pots." "But try."