pleasure in holy things; and, conscious of his falling away,
he was now afraid to pray,--foolish boy. And thus it is--Satan tempts
us to do wrong, and then tempts us to doubt God's willingness to
forgive us, in order that, being without grace and strength, we may
fall yet deeper.

As Louis wandered along, he heard sounds familiar enough to him,
which portended a deadly fray, and when he came upon the combatants,
he discovered that one of them was his own brother. He knew it was
useless to attempt to stop the fight, and he wandered away again,
and cried a little, for he thought that something would happen, and
he and Reginald would be placed together in some unpleasant situation;
and he dreaded Dr. Wilkinson's hearing of either affair.

I must be excused for stopping my story to remark here, that in this
world, it is certain that we have great influence on one another, and
that for this influence we are responsible. Had Louis' school-fellows
acted more kindly, endeavoring to set before him the fault of tattling,
the effect would have been to raise a feeling of gratitude in his mind,
which would have been far more effectual in preventing the recurrence
of the fault, than the plan of repudiation they had adopted. Had they,
even after a day or two's penance, given him an opening into their
good graces, he would not have felt, as he did, that he had lost his
character, and it was "no use caring about it," and so gone from bad
to worse, till his name was associated with those of the worst boys
in the school. It may be said, How can school-boys be expected to have
so much consideration? but this a school-boy may do. He may mentally
put himself in the position of the delinquent, and considering how he
would wish to be treated, act accordingly.

Every thing seemed to go wrong with Louis that day. The Herodotus
that Hamilton was to have heard, was scarcely looked at; and Louis
lost two or three places in his class. Hamilton never noticed him,
and even Reginald was offended with him. Louis tried to brave it out,
and sung in a low tone, whistled, and finally, when he was roughly
desired to be quiet, walked into the school-room, and finished his
evening with Casson and Churchill.

CHAPTER XIX

"Be not deceived; evil communications corrupt good
manners."--1 Cor. xv. 32.

For the next few days Louis was regularly sent to Coventry, and
though Hamilton took no part in any thing that was said against him,
his manner