ever, if not wuss." Poor old Nan was a very ardent and sincere
Christian, spite of her infirmities of temper, and she would wrestle in
prayer with and for her husband till her black cheeks shone under
streams of tears. She wrestled all the harder because the ungodly Caesar
would sometimes turn upon her, and in the most sarcastic and ungenerous
way ask if he didn't keep his temper better "without religion than she
did with it:" upon which Nan would groan and travail in spirit, and
beseech the Lord not to "go an' let her be a stumbler-block in Caesar's
way." The Squire's death had produced a great impression on Caesar: from
that day he had been, Nan declared, "quite a changed pusson;" and the
impression deepened until three months later, in the course of a great
midnight meeting in the Methodist church, Caesar Gunn suddenly announced
that he had "got religion." The one habit which it was hardest for Caesar
to give up, in his new character, was the habit of swearing. Profanity
had never been strongly discountenanced at "Gunn's." The old Squire and
the young Squire had both been in the habit of swearing, on occasion, as
roundly as troopers! and black Caesar was not going to be behind his
masters, not he. So he, too, in spite of old Nan's protestations and
entreaties, had become a confirmed swearer. It had really grown into so
fixed a habit that the words meant nothing: it was no more than a trick
of physical contortion of which a man may be utterly unconscious. How to
break himself of this was Caesar's difficulty.

"Yer see, Nan!" he said, "I dunno when it's a comin': the fust I know,
it's said and done, an' what am I goin' to do 'bout it then, 'll yer
tell me?" At last, Caesar hit on a compromise which seemed to him a
singularly happy one. To avoid saying "damn" was manifestly impossible:
the word slipped out perpetually without giving him warning; as soon as
he heard it, however, his righteous soul remorsefully followed up the
syllable by,--

"Bress the Lord," in Stentorian tones. The compound ejaculation thus
formed was one which nobody's gravity could resist; and the surprised
and grieved expression with which poor Caesar would look round upon an
audience which he had thus convulsed was even more irresistible than the
original expression. Everybody who came to "Gunn's" went away and
said,--

"Have you heard the new oath Caesar Gunn swears with since he got
religion?" and "Damn bress the Lord" soon became a very by-wo