07.02.26. Leaving Home

26. LEAVING HOME A few days after this talk he said to his mother, "I am going away," and he mentioned a city some two thousand miles distant. His mother began crying and said, "Son, please don’t go; every time you leave home you come back in a worse condition. If you were a Christian I would not mind it, but I am afraid if you leave again you will never be saved." But he had made up his mind and her pleadings could not stop him. Next day when he started to leave she placed her arms about his neck and said, "Son, promise me you won’t drink." He answered, "Mother, I won’t." Todd meant that, but he did not keep it. In less than two hours he had fallen in with a crowd who drank, and his will power failed him. When he arrived at his destination he secured a position in an office and was drawing a very good salary, but it was a saloon town and Todd could not stay out of the saloon. More than once he came into the office, his breath polluted with whiskey and he knew that his time was short, that he would soon lose his job. Each day he grew more and more restless, and for no particular reason he became bitter toward his brothers and every one who meant anything to him.