THE STAMESE TWINS. 211 



their heads, and said with impressive unction, " Bless ye, my children I will 

 never desert ye ! " and he kept his word. Fidelity like this is all too rare in this 

 cold world. 



By and by Eng fell in love with his sister-in-law's sister, and married her, and 

 since that day they have all lived together, night and day, in an exceeding 

 sociability which is touching and beautiful to behold, and is a scathing rebuke 

 to our boasted civilization. 



The sympathy existing between these two brothers is so close and so refined 

 that the feelings, the impulses, the emotions of the one are instantly experienced 

 by the other. When one is sick, the other is sick ; when one feels pain, the 

 other feels it ; when one is angered, the other's temper takes fire. We have 

 already seen with what happy facility they both fell in love with the same girl. 

 Now, Chang is bitterly opposed to all forms of intemperance, on principle ; but 

 Eng is the reverse — for, while these men's feelings and emotion are so closely 

 wedded, their reasoning faculties are unfettered ; their thoughts are free. Chang 

 belongs to the Good Templars, and is a hard working, enthusiastic supporter of all 

 temperance reforms. But, to his bitter distress, every now and then Eng gets drunk, 

 and, of course, that makes Chang drunk too. This unfortunate thing has been a 

 great sorrow to Chang, for it almost destroys his usefulness in his favorite field of 

 effort. As sure as he is. to head a great temperance procession Eng ranges up 

 alongside of him, prompt to the minute, and driink as a lord ; but yet no more 

 dismally and hopelessly drunk than his brother, who has not tasted a drop. 

 And so the two begin to hoot and yell, and throw mud and bricks at the Good 

 Templars ; and of course they break up the procession. It would be manifestly 

 wrong to punish Chang for what Eng does, and, therefore, the Good Templars 

 accept the untoward situation, and suffer in silence and sorrow. They have 

 oflicially and deliberately examined into the matter, and find Chang blameless. 

 They have taken the two brothers and filled Chang full of warm water and 

 sugar and Eng full of whisky, and in twenty-five minutes it was not possible to 

 tell which was the drunkest. Both were as drunk as loons — and on hot whisky 

 punches, by the smell of their breath. Yet all the while Chang's moral princi- 

 ples were unsullied, his conscience clear; and so all just men were forced to 



