CHAPTER XXXII 
THE HOME-COMING 
Iw arranging to move my establishment I was 
in a quandary as to what it was best to do for 
a coachman. Lars had been with me fifteen 
years. He came a green Swedish lad, developed 
into a first-class coachman, married a nice girl — 
and for twelve years he and his wife lived hap- 
pily in the rooms above my stable. Two boys 
were born to them, and these lads were now ten 
and twelve years of age. Shortly after I bought 
the farm Lars was so unfortunate as to lose his 
good wife, and he and the boys were left forlorn. 
A relative came and gave them such care as she 
could, but the mother and wife was missed be- 
yond remedy. In his depression Lars took to 
drink, and things began to go wrong in the stable. 
He was not often drunk, but he was much of the 
time under the influence of alcohol, and conse- 
quently not reliable. I had done my best for 
the poor fellow, and he took my lectures and 
chidings in the way they were intended, and, in- 
deed, he tried hard to break loose from the one bad 
habit, but with no good results. His evil friends 
had such strong hold on him that they could and 
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