F. Colburn (Francis Colburn) Adams
Chapter 24
"Never mind-(the young man checks himself)-I was going to say there
is a chance for you yet; and there is a chance; and you must
struggle; and I will help you to struggle; and your friends--"
Tom interrupts by saying, "I've no friends."
"I will help you to struggle, and to overcome the destroyer. Never
think you are friendless, for then you are a certain victim in the
hands of the ruthless enemy--"
"Well, well," pauses Tom, casting a half-suspicious look at the
young man, "I forgot. There's you, and him they call old Spunyarn,
are friends, after all. You'll excuse me, but I didn't think of
that;" and a feeling of satisfaction seemed to have come over him.
"How grateful to have friends when a body's in a place of this
kind," he mutters incoherently, as the tears gush from his distended
eyes, and child-like he grasps the hand of the young man.
"Be comforted with the knowledge that you have friends, Tom. One
all-important thing is wanted, and you are a man again."
"As to that!" interrupts Tom, doubtingly, and laying his begrimed
hand on his burning forehead, while he alternately frets and frisks
his fingers through his matted hair.
"Have no doubts, Tom-doubts are dangerous."
"Well, say what it is, and I'll try what I can do. But you won't
think I'm so bad as I seem, and 'll forgive me? I know what you
think of me, and that's what mortifies me; you think I'm an overdone
specimen of our chivalry-you do!"
"You must banish from your mind these despairing thoughts," replies
the young man, laying his right hand approvingly on Tom's head.
"First, Tom," he pursues, "be to yourself a friend; second, forget
the error of your mother, and forgive her sending you here; and
third, cut the house of Madame Flamingo, in which our chivalry are
sure to get a shattering. To be honest in temptation, Tom, is one of
the noblest attributes of our nature; and to be capable of forming
and maintaining a resolution to shake off the thraldom of vice, and
to place oneself in the serener atmosphere of good society, is
equally worthy of the highest commendation."