it is
only for having been jolly, hearty fellows, and we have more spirit
than to repent of that I hope: all the harm we have done is living a
little too fast, like honest bucks as we are." "Ay, ay," said Jolly
George, "had we been such sneaking miserly fellows as Stock, we need
not have come hither. But if the ill nature of the laws has been so
cruel as to clap up such fine hearty blades, we are no _felons_,
however. We are afraid of no Jack Ketch; and I see no cause to
repent of any sin that's not hanging matter. As to those who are
thrust into the condemned hole indeed, and have but a few hours to
live, they _must_ see the parson, and hear a sermon, and such stuff.
But I do not know what such stout young fellows as we are have to do
with repentance. And so, Jack, let us have that rare new catch which
you learnt of the strollers that merry night when you lost your
pocket-book."

This thoughtless youth soon gave a fresh proof of the power of evil
company, and of the quick progress of the heart of a sinner from bad
to worse. Brown, who always wanted principle, soon grew to want
feeling also. He joined in the laugh which was raised against Stock,
and told many _good stories_, as they were called, in derision of
the piety, sobriety, and self-denial of his old friend. He lost
every day somewhat of those small remains of shame and decency which
he had brought with him to the prison. He even grew reconciled to
this wretched way of life, and the want of money seemed to him the
heaviest evil in the life of a jail.

Mr. Stock finding from the jailor that his letter had been treated
with ridicule, would not write to him any more. He did not come to
see him nor send him any assistance, thinking it right to let him
suffer that want which his vices had brought upon him. But as he
still hoped that the time would come when he might be brought to a
sense of his evil courses, he continued to have an eye upon him by
means of the jailor, who was an honest, kind-hearted man.

Brown spent one part of his time in thoughtless riot, and the other
in gloomy sadness. Company kept up his spirits; with his new friends
he contrived to drown thought; but when he was alone he began to
find that a _merry fellow_, when deprived of his companions and his
liquor, is often a most forlorn wretch. Then it is that even a merry
fellow says, _Of laughter, what is it? and of mirth, it is madness._

As he contrived, however, to be as little alone as possib