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drop that name now--was true. He could not be a good fellow with such as they are. Now it won't do any harm to try him, and he may be saved from the error of his ways. As it is, he has got a hard name, and people will shun him: and, being discouraged, he may plunge deeper into vice than ever. This is about all I have to say."
Frank resumed the chair, and several of the members, perceiving the force of the president's reasoning, expressed themselves in favor of admitting Tim; when Charles Hardy rose and "plumed himself for a speech."
"Mr. President: I confess my surprise at the direction this debate has taken. There's a destiny that shapes our ends--"
"A what?" asked Fred Harper, with a roguish smile.
"I beg the member on the other side will not interrupt me," replied Charles, with offended dignity. "I quote the line as John Adams used it, in his celebrated speech, 'Sink or swim.'"
"Who?"
"John Adams."
"I beg the member's pardon, but John Adams never made any such speech," answered Fred who, it must be confessed, was rather too fond of tantalizing the ambitious youth.
"Really, Mr. President, I am surprised that the member should deny what we all know. Why, the piece is in our reading book."
"Daniel Webster put the speech into the mouth of Adams," added Frank; "and the patriot is only supposed to have made it."
"It amounts to the same thing," continued Charles, with a slight blush.
"But your quotation was not correct," said Fred.
"Perhaps the member will give me the correct reading of the passage."
"With pleasure; the lines are from Shakspeare:--
'There's a Divinity that shapes our ends, Roughhew them as we will.'
I fancy the lines will not suit the member now," continued Fred, as he cast a mischievous glance at the discomfited speech-maker.
"Go on, if you please," said Frank to Charles.
"As I was saying, Mr. President, 'There's a Divinity that shapes our ends'--"
"You were not saying so," interposed Fred.
"Order!" said the chairman. "Proceed."
But Charles Hardy could not proceed. Undoubtedly, when he rose to speak, he had an idea in his head; but it had fled, and he could not at once recall it. In vain he scratched his head, in vain he thrust his hands into his pockets, as if in search of the lost idea; it would not come.
"You were speaking of Tim Bunker," said Frank, suggestively.
"I was; and I was about to say that--that--"
Some of the boys could no longer suppress their mirth, and, in spite of the vigorous pounding which the chairman bestowed upon the innocent table, in his attempts to preserve order, they had their laugh out. But the pleasantry of the members, and a sense of the awkwardness of his position, roused Charles to a more vigorous effort, and as he was about to speak of another topic, the lost idea came like a flood of sunshine.
"'There's a Divinity that shapes our ends.' Tim Bunker has chosen the path he will tread, and does anybody suppose he will ever abandon it? He will certainly die in the State Prison or on the gallows--my father says so. We all know what his habits are, and it is as easy for an Ethiopian to change his _spots_--"
"Skin," said Fred.
"To change his skin, as for such a fellow to be like us. He will lie, swear,--"
"The chair thinks the member's remarks are not strictly in order," interposed Frank, who was much pained to hear his friend use such violent language.
He saw that Charles was smarting under the effects of the ridicule which his companions had cast upon him, and that, in his struggle to make a speech, and thus redeem himself from the obloquy of a failure, he had permitted his impulses to override his judgment.
"I forbear, then," continued the speaker. "But I beg the club to consider the probable consequences of admitting such a fellow into the association. We have thus far enjoyed a good reputation, and we ought to be very careful how we tamper with our respectability."
"Ahem!" said Fred.
"Order!"
"A good name is rather to be chosen than--than purple and fine linen."
"Than what!" exclaimed Fred.
"Great riches," added Frank, with a smile, and even he was forced to admit "that the member was singularly unfortunate in his quotations."
"You have my opinion, gentlemen," said Charles, "and I don't know that I have any thing more to say at present;" and, much disconcerted, he sat down.
But though cast down, he was not destroyed; and in justice to his companions, it must be remarked that he had frequently annoyed the club by his attempts to make speeches more learned and ornate than his capacity would allow. Frank had reasoned with him on his propensity to "show off," but without effect, so that he did not feel so much sympathy for him at the