With deep sagacity I put these mentions into the form of sorrowing recollections and left-handed sham- supplications that the sins of those boys might be allowed to pass unnoticed--'Possibly they may repent.' 'It is true that Jim Smith broke a window and lied about it--but maybe he did not mean any harm.

And although Tom Holmes says more bad words than any other boy in the village, he probably intends to repent--though he has never said he would.

And whilst it is a fact that John Jones did fish a little on Sunday, once, he didn't really catch anything but only just one small useless mud-cat; and maybe that wouldn't have been so awful if he had thrown it back--as he says he did, but he didn't.

Pity but they would repent of these dreadful things--and maybe they will yet.' But while I was shamefully trying to draw attention to these poor chaps -- who were doubtless directing the celestial attention to me at the same moment, though I never once suspected that--I had heedlessly left my candle burning.

It was not a time to neglect even trifling precautions.
There was no occasion to add anything to the facilities for attracting notice to me--so I put the light out.
It was a long night to me, and perhaps the most distressful one I ever spent.