midnight
He would n't take advice from his own mother , his wife , or me , or anybody . He was just going to the devil on a gallop , and it was only a question of a year or two when he would die . I loved that man like a brother , but he would get mad the minute I spoke of his drinking , and I quit talking to him , though I wanted to save him . I have smoked dog-leg tobacco many a night till after midnight , trying to study a way to save the only man in the world that I ever actually loved , and I finally got it down fine . I began to act as though I was half drunk whenever I saw my friend , spilled whisky on my coat sleeves , and acted disreputable , and got a few good fellows to talk with him about what a confounded wreck I was getting to be ; and he actually got to pitying me , and finally got disgusted with me ; and one day he said to me that I was a disgrace , and was making more different kinds of a fool of myself than any drunkard he ever met . I got mad at him , and told him to attend to his own business and left him . Then the boys got to telling him that the only way to save me was to get me to go to a cure ; and , do you know , that good fellow that I would have given the world to save , came to me and urged me to , take the cure ; and at first I was indignant that he should interfere in my affairs , and finally he said he would go if I would .