arrow a sphere of action, I used
frequently, in company of some of the youths I speak of, to wander over
property where I not only had no right to kill game, but where I had
positively been forbidden to trespass, and where I even knew people were
on the look-out to detect me.

I had just returned from one of these lawless expeditions, when I was
encountered by my father, laden with game, and the scene I have
described took place. As I before said (and I repeat it with shame), I
felt the loss of my gun more than I cared for the lecture, or the grief
my conduct caused my father. I can scarcely now account for the
obstinacy and hardness of heart which made me shut my ears to all
remonstrances. I have since then grown wiser, and I hope better; and I
feel that I ought at once to have asked my father's forgiveness, and to
have cheerfully set to work on some occupation of which he approved.
With me, as it will be with every one, idleness was the mother of all
mischief.

For two days I sulked, and would speak to no one. On the third I set
off to take a walk by myself, across the bogs, and over the hills in the
far distance. I had got into a better spirit from the fresh air and
exercise; and I truly believe that I was beginning to see my error, and
was resolving to do my best to make amends for it, and to give up my bad
habits, when who should I encounter but Pat Doolan, one of the wildest
of my wild acquaintances!

Before a word of salutation had passed, he asked me why I had not got my
gun with me; and after a weak and vain endeavour to avoid answering the
question, I confessed all that had occurred. He sneered at my fears and
my fathers' warnings, and laughed away all my half-formed good
resolutions,--telling me that I might just as well go and borrow one of
my sister's petticoats at once, for to that I should come at last if I
was going to give up all manly pursuits. Unhappy, indeed, it was for me
that I listened to the voice of the tempter, instead of keeping my good
resolutions safely locked up in my own breast, and instantly hurrying
away from him, as I ought to have done. Or perhaps I might have
answered him, "No; I must not, and will not, listen to you. I know that
what I have resolved to do is right, and that which you want to persuade
me to do is wicked--an instigation of the evil one; so go away and leave
me." And if he persisted in remaining near me, I should have set off
and run from him as hard as I c