're talking
about!"

"Yes, I do, brotheh. I was jess so! An' s' I, he'll pull through! His
motheh's prayers 'll prevail, evm if mine don't! An' now, when ev'ybody
sees you a-changin' faw the better----"

"Better! Great Sc----"

"Yes, an' yet 'ithout the least sign o' conversion--I say, s' I, it's
restrainin' grace! Ah! don't I know? Next 'll come savin' grace, an'
then repentance unto life. Straight is the way, an' I can see right up
it!"

"Why, Mr. Tombs, you're utterly wrong! I've only learned a little
manners and a little sense. All that's ever restrained me, sir, was lack
of sand. The few bad things I've kept out of, I kept out of simply
because I knew if I went into 'em I'd bog down. It's not a half hour
since I'd have liked first-rate to be worse than I am, but I didn't have
the sand for that, either. Why, sir, I'm worse to-day than I ever was,
only it's deeper hid. If men went to convict camps for what they are,
instead of what they do, I'd be in one now."

"Conviction of sin! Praise Gawd, brotheh, you've got it! O bring it
to-night to the inquirer's seat!"

But the convicted sinner interrupted, with a superior smile: "I've no
inquiries to offer, Mr. Tombs. I know the plan of salvation, sir,
perfectly! We're all totally depraved, and would be damned on Adam's
account if we wa'n't, for we've lost communion with God and are liable
to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and the pains of hell
forever; but God out of his mere good pleasure having elected some to
everlasting life, the rest of us--O I know it like a-b-c! Mother taught
it to me before I could read. Yes, I must, with grief and hatred of my
sin, turn from it unto God--certainly--because God, having first treated
the innocent as if he were guilty, is willing now to treat the guilty as
if he were innocent, which is all right because of God's sovereignty
over us, his propriety in us, and the zeal he hath for his own
worship--O----

"But, Mr. Tombs, what's the use, sir? Some things I can repent of, but
some I can't. I'm expecting a letter to-day tha'll almost certainly be a
favorable answer to an extensive proposition I've made for opening up my
whole tract of land. Now, I've just been told by one of my squatters
that if I bring settlers up there he'll kill 'em; and I know and you
know he speaks for all of them. Well, d' you s'pose I won't kill him the
minute he lifts a hand to try it?" The speaker's eyes widened
pleasantly. He resumed: