It is this, you see, which keeps me here, shoulder to shoulder with these men whom I like just as little perhaps as yourself; and it was because the soldiers came upon us just as I was beginning to lay up a little from my earnings, that made me desperate.

I dreaded to lose what I had been so long working for; and whenever the thought of Kate came through my brain, I grew rash and ready for any mischief--and this is just the way in which I ran headlong into this difficulty." "It is melancholy, Forrester, to think that, with such a feeling as that you profess for this young woman, you should be so little regardful of her peace or your own; that you should plunge so madly into strife and crime, and proceed to the commission of acts which not only embitter your life, but must defeat the very hopes and expectations for which you live." "It's the nature of the beast," replied the woodman, with a melancholy shake of the head, in a phrase which has become a proverb of familiar use in the South.

"It's the nature of the beast, 'squire: I never seem to think about a thing until it's all over, and too late to mend it.
It's a sad misfortune to have such a temper, and so yesterday's work tells me much more forcibly than I can ever tell myself.

But what am I to do, 'squire?
that's what I want to know.

Can you say nothing to me which will put me in better humor--can you give me no advice, no consolation?
Say anything--anything which will make me think less about this matter." The conscience of the unhappy criminal was indeed busy, and he spoke in tones of deep, though suppressed emotion and energy.