"
"'Tis a fearful place to prepare for the last change in," said Harvey,
gazing around his little prison with a vacant eye.
"Why, for the matter of that," returned the veteran, "it can reckon but
little in the great account, where a man parades his thoughts for the
last review, so that he finds them fit to pass the muster of another
world. I have a small book here, which I make it a point to read a
little in, whenever we are about to engage, and I find it a great
strengthener in time of need." While speaking, he took a Bible from his
pocket, and offered it to the peddler. Birch received the volume with
habitual reverence; but there was an abstracted air about him, and a
wandering of the eye, that induced his companion to think that alarm was
getting the mastery of the peddler's feelings; accordingly, he proceeded
in what he conceived to be the offices of consolation.
"If anything lies heavy on your mind, now is the best time to get rid of
it--if you have done any wrong to anyone, I promise you, on the word of
an honest dragoon, to lend you a helping hand to see them righted."
"There are few who have not done so," said the peddler, turning his
vacant gaze once more on his companion.
"True--'tis natural to sin; but it sometimes happens that a man does
what at other times he may be sorry for.
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