k off."

"I can remember two especially. One of them was a drunkard, and the
other was a hypocrite. In taking off the drunkard he called himself
`Mr Adolphus Swillerly.' You never heard anything more amusing in your
life."

"And the hypocrite?" asked Walter, but with less of amusement in his
tone.

"Ah, I think that was better still! He assumed the character of `Simon
Batter-text;' and he mimicked his preaching, and his praying, and his
sighs, and his `ahmens' in a wonderful way. It really was perfect. I'm
so sorry you were not there, you would have so thoroughly enjoyed it."

There was a pause, and a general silence, for the attention of the rest
of the company had been drawn to the subject and the speakers.

"Surely you don't see any harm in a little fun like that?" asked the
young lady in some dismay, as she noticed that Walter's face and manner
were troubled as he hesitated in his reply.

All eyes were on him. What should he say? He turned very red; and
then, having helped himself to a glass of wine, he said, carelessly, and
with a short, merry laugh, "Harm! oh, of course not! The man meant no
harm; he didn't attack individuals. All the better if he made
drunkenness and hypocrisy ridiculous.--Don't you think so, Amos?"

For a moment his brother hesitated, for every eye was directed towards
him. No one spoke; not a knife nor fork clattered.

"Well, my boy," said his father, "let us have your opinion."

Thus appealed to, Amos no longer hesitated, but said calmly, and in a
low distinct voice, heard by every one at the table, "I had rather not
have given my opinion; but, when I am thus openly appealed to, I must
not shrink from expressing it. I think it wrong, utterly wrong, to
ridicule sin in any shape or form. To put sin in a funny light is not
the way to make us hate it as we ought to do. Our Saviour never made
light or a jest of sin; and I believe that the man who mimicked a
drunkard and a hypocritical preacher had no love for either sobriety or
holiness."

The profoundest silence reigned while Amos uttered these words. At
first his voice had trembled, but it immediately became perfectly firm,
and a quiet peace rested on his sweet face as he finished. A sudden
chill seemed to have fallen on most of the party. Some shrugged their
shoulders, some smiled, others looked annoyed. Mrs Morse and her
daughter exchanged looks of bewilderment behind Amos's back. Walter,
with feelings of mingled