the water was low
and he feared it would wholly fail." Among the replies, one said, "Well,
then, we must bear it the best we can, though it is hard."

One day, coming to a man's cell to hear a lesson, he said, "I have no
lesson, I have been in the solitary. They did so and so to me, at which
I got mad, and would not do as they wished, and they put me in there." I
thought it likely, from the circumstances, that the impatience of an
officer and his irritating course had much, too much, to do with the
matter. But that was not for me to hint at, even. I rather said, "Well,
you say you got mad and have been in the solitary. See what you have
suffered for getting mad. How much better for you to govern your temper.
You know where you are, what you did to bring yourself here. You
understand what is required, and that refusal on your part is of no
avail. Now, why not govern yourself, no matter what they say? If you
really think they bear hard upon you, control your angry passions, and
do what they require as cheerfully and promptly as possible. Thus, you
can become accustomed here to governing yourself, that, when you go out,
you will be the better able to meet the vexations of the world. Now,
will you not try this course?" He replied, "I don't know, Chaplain, it
is a hard case." In a few days he remarked, "Chaplain; I have been
almost constantly thinking of what you said the other day, have come to
the conclusion that your way is the best, and am resolved to attempt
putting it in practice." With most hearty congratulations on his new
resolve, I left him again. Some weeks after I received from his lips
this satisfactory report: "Well, Chaplain, I have been practicing your
method since our last conversation, and find it works like a charm. I
have but little trouble now, and am determined to keep on as I have
begun." Thus he proceeded till released. This man was naturally
irritable and easily angered. He had not previously labored to control
himself in regard to this important point; but now, when summoning all
his better powers to the task, he resolutely addressed his mind to it,
and a noble victory was his.

There was another man here who also could be easily aroused, but was
perhaps still more stubborn, when angry. He, too, had been an inmate of
the solitary more or less. To him I appealed in a manner similar to the
above, and, after persistent labors, succeeded in inducing him to
earnestly try the proposed course, and with li