aman was perplexed. Such a question had never been put to him
before, and he knew not what to answer. After a few moments'
consideration, he replied--

"What you say is true, Swinton. You've bin a bad lot ever since I've
know'd ye. I won't go for to deny that. As to what the Almighty will
do or won't do, how can I tell? I wish I knew more about such things
myself, for I'd like to help you, but I can't."

Suddenly an idea flashed into his mind and he continued:--

"But it do seem to me, Swinton, that if a poor sinner like me is willin'
to forgive ye, ain't the Almighty likely to be _much more_ willin'?"

"There's somethin' in _that_, Grummidge--somethin' in that," said the
sick man eagerly. Then the hopeful look disappeared as he added slowly,
"but I fear, Grummidge, that what you say don't quite fit my case, for
I've got a notion that the Almighty must have been willin' all my life
to save me from myself, and that all my life I've bin refusin' to listen
to Him."

"How d'ye make that out, boy?"

"This way. There's bin somethin' or other inside o' me, as far back as
I can remember, that somehow didn't seem to be me, that has been always
sayin' `Don't' to me, whenever I was a-goin' to do a mean thing. Now, I
can't help thinkin' that it must have bin God that spoke, for a man
would never say `Don't' to himself, an' then go right off an' do it,
would he?"

"That's more than I can tell," answered Grummidge. "I remember hearin'
Master Burns a-talkin' on that point wi' the cappen, an' he thought it
was conscience or the voice of God."

"Well, conscience or no conscience, I've resisted it all my life,"
returned the sick man, "an' it do seem a mean, sneakin' sort o' thing to
come to the Almighty at the very last moment, when I can't help myself,
an' say, `I'm sorry.'"

"It would be meaner to say `I'm _not_ sorry,' wouldn't it?" returned
Grummidge. "But, now I think of it, Master Burns did read one or two
things out o' that writin' that he's so fond of, which he says is the
Word of God. If it's true what he says, he may well be fond of it, but
I wonder how he has found that out. Anyway, I remember that one o' the
things he read out of it was that the Lamb of God takes away the sins of
the world; an' he explained that Jesus is the Lamb of God, an' that he
stands in our place--takes our punishment instead of us, an' fulfils the
law instead of us."

The sick man listened attentively, even eagerly, but shook h