trograde_ order. The lies I
told when I was a little boy, the wicked words I spoke, the cruel things
I did, the first taint that polluted my mind, the faces of
school-fellows whom I had irreparably injured, the stolen waters of
manhood--all were dashed into my remorseful recollection; they started
up like buried, menacing ghosts, without, or even against my will. I
felt convinced that they were _indestructible_."

"That strain I heard was of a higher mood!" thought the auditors, for it
was quite a new thing to hear Brogten talk like this, and in such a
solemn, manly, sober voice.

"Fancy," said Kennedy, sighing, "_an everlasting memory_!"

The others went away, but Brogten still lingered in Kennedy's rooms,
and, rising, took him by the hand. They both remembered another scene
in these rooms, when they two were together,--the torturer and the
tortured; but it was different now.

"The worst thing that haunted me, Kennedy, when you were saving my life,
was the thought of my wickedness to you. I fear it can never be
repaired; yet believe me, that from this day forth I have vowed before
God to turn over a new leaf, and my whole effort will be to do all for
you that ever may be in my power! Do you forgive me?"

"As I hope to be forgiven," he replied.

Yet it was part of Brogten's punishment in after days to remember that
_his_ hand had set the stone moving on the steep hill-side, which
afterwards he had no power to stay. It would not come back to him for a
wish, but leapt, and rushed, and bounded forward, splintering and
splintered by the obstacles in its course, till at last--Could it be
saved from being dashed to shivers among the smooth rocks of the valley
and the brook?

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.

HAZLET'S VISION.

"And ride on his breast, and trouble his rest
In the shape of his deadliest sin."
Anon.

Before the scholarship, came the Little-go, so called in the language of
men, but known to the gods as the Previous Examination. As it is an
examination which all must pass, the standard required is of course very
low, and the subjects are merely Paley's Evidences, a little Greek
Testament, some easy classic, Scripture History, and a sprinkling of
arithmetic and algebra.

The reading men simply regard it as a nuisance, interrupting their
reading and wasting their time, _i e_, until the wisdom of maturer years
shows them its necessity and use. But to the idle and the stupid, the
name Little-go is