At first, with the habitual levity of the
young and skeptical, he congratulated himself upon an encounter
which promised to afford him a good subject for quizzing; but a
moment's reflection counselled him to a more worldly policy, and he
restrained his natural impulse in order that he might first sound
the depths of the preacher, and learn in what respect he might be
made subservient to his own purposes. He had already learned from
the latter that he was on his way to Charlemont, of which place
he seemed to have some knowledge; and the youth, in an instant,
conceived the possibility of making him useful in procuring for
himself a favorable introduction to the place. With this thought,
he assumed the grave aspect and deliberate enunciation of his
companion, expressed himself equally gratified to meet with a person
who, if he did not much mistake, was a divine, and concluded his
address by the utterance of one of those pious commonplaces which
are of sufficiently easy acquisition, and which at once secured
him the unscrupulous confidence of his companion.
"Truly, it gladdens me, sir," said the holy man in reply, "to meet
with one, as a fellow-traveller in these lonesome ways, who hath a
knowledge of God's grace and the blessings which he daily sheddeth,
even as the falling of the dews, upon a benighted land.
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