; for I feel myself sometimes one thing, and sometimes the
other."

"Ah!" replied Solomon, "I fear I must give you up, and in that case it
will not be in my power to employ you in a very confidential matter,
the management of which I imagined I could have entrusted to you.
That, however, cannot be now, as no one not amply provided with strong
religious dispositions, could be relied on in it."

Darby, who, in fact, was playing M'Slime precisely as a skilful
fisherman does his fish; who, in order to induce him the more eagerly to
swallow the bait, pretends to withdraw it from his jaws, by which means
it is certain to be gulped down, and the fish caught.

"Ah, sir," replied Darby, "I'm greatly afeared that every person like me
must struggle with great temptations."

"That is an excellent observation," said Solomon; "and I do suppose,
that since this desirable change took place in your heart, you must have
been woefully beset."

"Never suffered so much in my life," replied the other. "Now there's
your two beautiful tracts, and may I never die in sin--I hope, sir,
there's no great harm in that oath?

"No great harm but you had better omit it, however--it smacks of sin and
superstition."

"Well, sir--may I never--I beg pardon--but any how, the truth is, that
ever since I tuck to readin' them, I feel myself gettin' as dishonest as
if the devil--"

"Do not name him so, Darby--it is profane; say the enemy, or Satan, or
the tempter."

"As if the whole three o' them, then, war at my elbow. Why, for the
last three or four days, I may say, they have cleared me out as clane
of honesty as the black boy himself, and it is worse I am gettin'. Now,
sir, it stands to sense, that that's temptation."

"Unquestionably; and my great hope and consolation is, that you
yourself are conscious of it. All you have to do now, is to pray
unceasingly--wrestle in prayer, and you will ultimately triumph. Sing
spiritual songs, too; read my tracts with attention; and, in short,
if you resist the dev--hem--Satan, they will flee from you. Give
that letter to Mr. M'Clutchy, and let me see you on the day after
to-morrow--like a giant refreshed with new strength."

"Well, now," said Darby, assuming a more serious look--"do you know,
sir, that I think your words have put new strength into me. Somehow
I feel as if there was a load removed from me. May the mother of
heaven--hem--I do, sir; and now, as a proof of it, I wouldn't feel
justified, sir,