by yourself

Hello Gordon (from another Gordon) :-) I have to be honest and say that the text you have given is pretty difficult even for a native English speaker because it is written in a very old fashioned and dialect based style. I think the author is trying to let you "hear" the way the characters speak but also the words used and the phrasing patterns are unusual. In this context "trying yourself" means (something like) ... upsetting yourself or exhausting yourself. It is a very old fashioned and rare use of the verb "to try" ... where it has an entirely different meaning from the usual one. It's not easy to explain but here goes .... Think of it like this: We have a phrase "he/she is very trying." It means very exhausting or very stressful. For example: I like John but spending a lot of time with him is difficult. His personality makes being with him very trying." Or : "It's fun to look after my grandson but all his tantrums make it very trying after a while" So - "you're just trying yourself" in the extract above means "you're just getting yourself upset and exhausted" I hope that helps. Sorry for the long answer but you've chosen a very rare and unusual use of a word. You definitely shouldn't worry that you didn't understand it. Most native speakers wouldn't understand it either. :-)