478 LIJFB ON THS MISSISSIPPI.
—'Possibly they may repent.' * It is true that Jim Smith broke
window and lied about it—but maybe he did not mean any barm.
And although Tom Holmes says more bad words than any other bar
in the village, he probably intends to repent—though he has nero?
said he would. And whilst it is a fact that John Jones did £&»
Uttle on Sunday, once, he didn't really catch anything but only jtal
one small useless mud-cat; and maybe that wouldn't have been se
awful if he had thrown it back—as he says he did, but he didn't
Pity but they would repent of these dreadful things—and maybe
they will yet.'
But while I was shamefully trying to draw attention to them
poor chaps—who were doubtless directing the celestial attention to
me at the same moment, though I never once suspected that—I ha4
heedlessly left my candle burning. It was not a time to neglect eve*
trifling precautions. There was no occasion to add anything to the
facilities for attracting notice to me—so I put the light out.
It was a long night to me, and perhaps the most distressful o&e 1
ever spent. I endured agonies of remorse for sins which I knew I
had committed, and for others which I was not certain about, yet was
sure that they had been set down against me in a book by an ajjgd
who was wiser than I and did not trust such important matters &
memory. It struck me, by and by, that I had been making a most
foolish and calamitous mistake, in one respect: doubtless I had net
only made my own destruction sure by directing attention to those
other boys, but had already accomplished theirs!—Doubtless tfee
lightning had stretched them all dead in their beds by this time!
The anguish and the fright which this thought gave me made &f
previous sufferings seem trifling by comparison,
Things had become truly serious. I resolved to turn over a new
leaf instantly; I also resolved to connect myself with the church. &e
next day, if I survived to see its sun appear. I resolved to cease
from sin in all its forms, and to lead a high and blameless lifeforeva-
after. I would be punctual at church and Sunday-school; visit tfae
sick; cany baskets of victuals to the poor (simply to fulfill the regab-
tion conditions, although I knew we had none among us so poor twi
they would smash the basket over my head for my pains); I wodl
Instruct other boys in right ways, and take the resulting troimebg£