"It's a fact, isn't it?"

"Yes, I s'pose it is. But I didn't tink dat vas de first ding for a man
like you to tink about ven you vas talkin' about a feller dat has broke
off all his bad habits and is tryin' to be yoost right."

The deacon felt awkward for a moment. He did not like to be reminded of
any of his faults by a neighbor, much less by one who belonged to a
church so widely different from his own.

"Why, of course not," said he; "of course, I am thinking about the
man's eternal salvation and about his future; but, to tell you the
truth, I haven't got much faith in his professions. A man that don't
get any further than he has done, and that don't seem willing to learn
from them that's his betters and has gone into such things a good deal
deeper than he has, ain't very likely to hold out. And the last
condition of that man will be worse than the first."

"Vell," said the shop-keeper, "a good deal depends on dat. You vas a
member of von shurch and I vas a member of anoder, deacon, and we can
talk togeder like brudders,--a little vay, anyhow. Now, I tell you vat
it is: dere's a good many men in dis town dat's behavin' very decent
dat don't belong to any shurch at all, and you'd yoost as lief discount
deir notes as you vould any oder man's, and you'd go into business mit
dem yoost as qvick, and you'd take deir word for anyding yoost as
qvick. If dat's de vay mit dem men, vy isn't it true dat Sam Kimper is
a good deal better off mit vat he's got dan he vould be midout anyding
at all in de vay of religion?"

"Oh, Conrad," said the deacon, "you were brought up in darkness and