 disconsidered sin
of self-indulgence. Instantly the text came in my head, »How can Satan cast out
Satan?« What? (I thought) I had, by self-indulgence, and the following of
pleasant paths, and the lure of a young maid, cast myself wholly out of conceit
with my own character, and jeopardised the lives of James and Alan? And I was to
seek the way out by the same road as I had entered in? No; the hurt that had
been caused by self-indulgence must be cured by self-denial; the flesh I had
pampered must be crucified. I looked about me for that course which I least
liked to follow: this was to leave the wood without waiting to see Alan, and go
forth again alone, in the dark and in the midst of my perplexed and dangerous
fortunes.
    I have been the more careful to narrate this passage of my reflections,
because I think it is of some utility, and may serve as an example to young men.
But there is reason (they say) in planting kale, and, even in ethic and
religion, room for common sense. It was already close on Alan's hour, and the
moon was down. If I left (as I could not very decently whistle to my spies to
follow me) they might miss me in the dark and tack themselves to Alan by
mistake. If I stayed, I could at the least of it set my friend upon his guard,
which might prove his mere salvation. I had adventured other people's safety in
a course of self-indulgence; to have endangered them again, and now on a mere
design of penance, would have been scarce rational. Accordingly, I had scarce
risen from my place, ere I sat down again, but already in a different frame of
spirits, and equally marvelling at my past weakness, and rejoicing in my present
composure.
    Presently after came a crackling in the thicket. Putting my mouth near down
to the ground, I whistled a note or two of Alan's air; an answer came, in the
like guarded tone, and soon we had knocked together in the dark.
    »Is this you at last, Davie?« he whispered.
    »Just myself,« said I.
    »God, man, but I've been wearying to see ye!« says he. »I've had the longest
kind of a time. A' day I've had my dwelling into the inside of a stack of hay,
where I couldna see the
