ll, I am mighty glad you realise that, so 's ef you go away an' fall
into sinful ways you can't lay none of it to my bringin'-up."

"I feel somehow as if I would like to have a go with sin some time, to
see what it is like."

"Well, I lay you 'll be satisfied before you 've been in Cincinnaty
long, for ef there ever was livin' hells on airth, it 's them big
cities."

"Oh, I have got faith to believe that Fred ain't a-goin' to do nothin'
wrong," said Eliphalet.

"Nobody don't know what nobody 's a-goin' to do under temptation sich as
is layin' in wait fur young men in the city, but I 'm shore I 've done
my best to train you right, even ef I have made some mistakes in my poor
weak way an' manner."

"If I do fall into sinful ways, Aunt Hester, I shall never blame you or
your training for it."

"But you ain't a-goin' to do it, Fred; you ain't a-goin' to fall into no
evil ways."

"I don't know, Uncle 'Liph. I never felt my weakness more than I do
now."

"Then that very feelin' will be yore stren'th, my boy. Keep on feelin'
that way."

"It 'll not be a stren'th in Cincinnaty, not by no means. There is too
many snares an' pitfalls there to entrap the weak," Mrs. Hodges
insisted.

It is one of the defects of the provincial mind that it can never see
any good in a great city. It concludes that, as many people are wicked,
where large numbers of human beings are gathered together there must be
a much greater amount of evil than in a smaller place. It overlooks the
equally obvious reasoning that, as some people are good, in the larger
mass there must be also a larger amount of goodness. It seems a source
of complacent satisfaction to many to sit in contemplation of the fact
of the extreme wickedness of the world. They are like children who
delight in a "bluggy" story,--who gloat over murder and rapine.

Brent, however, was in no wise daunted by the picture of evil which his
guardian painted for him, and as soon as breakfast was over he got his
things in hand ready to start. Buoyant as he was with his new freedom,
this was a hard moment for him. Despite the severity of his youthful
treatment in Dexter, the place held all the tender recollections he had,
and the room where he stood was the scene of some memories that now
flooded his mind and choked his utterance when he strove to say
good-bye. He had thought that he should do it with such a fine grace. He
would prove such a strong man. But he found his eyes suffused wi