occasional choice for a sleigh-ride when the long body of some farm wagon was
placed on runners, and boys and girls--young men and women, they almost
thought themselves--were packed in like sardines. Something like
self-reproach smote Holcroft even now, remembering how he had allowed his
fancy much latitude at this period, paying attention to more than one girl
besides Bessie, and painfully undecided which he liked best.

Then had come the memorable year which had opened with a protracted meeting.
He and Bessie Jones had passed under conviction at the same time, and on the
same evening had gone forward to the anxious seat. From the way in which she
sobbed, one might have supposed that the good, simple-hearted girl had
terrible burdens on her conscience; but she soon found hope, and her tears
gave place to smiles. Holcroft, on the contrary, was terribly cast down and
unable to find relief. He felt that he had much more to answer for than
Bessie; he accused himself of having been a rather coarse, vulgar boy; he had
made fun of sacred things in that very meeting house more times than he liked
to think of, and now for some reason could think of nothing else.

He could not shed tears or get up much emotion; neither could he rid himself
of the dull weight at heart. The minister, the brethren and sisters, prayed
for him and over him, but nothing removed his terrible inertia. He became a
familiar form on the anxious seat for there was a dogged persistence in his
nature which prevented him from giving up; but at the close of each meeting he
went home in a state of deeper dejection. Sometimes, in returning, he was
Bessie Jones' escort, and her happiness added to his gall and bitterness. One
moonlight night they stopped under the shadow of a pine near her father's
door, and talked over the matter a few moments before parting. Bessie was
full of sympathy which she hardly knew how to express. Unconsciously, in her
earnestness--how well he remembered the act!--she laid her hand on his arm as
she said, "James, I guess I know what's the matter with you. In all your