sir."

Mortimer didn't, but a look from Allis's eyes inexplicably enough caused
him to hedge very considerably in his reply.

"I know nothing about the race course," he said, "but from what I see of
the thoroughbreds I believe a man would have to be of very low order
if their noble natures did not appeal to him. I think that courage, and
honesty, and gentleness--they all seem to have it--must always have a
good influence. Why, sir," he continued, with a touch of excitement, "I
think a man would be ashamed to feel that he was making himself lower
than the horses he had to do with."

Allis looked grateful. Even Porter turned half about in his chair,
and gazed with a touch of wonderment at the battered young man who had
substituted common sense for sophistical reasoning.

The reverend gentleman frowned. "It's not the horses at all," he said,
"it's the men who are disreputable."

Mrs. Porter gave a little warning cough. In his zealousness Mr. Dolman
might anger her husband, then his logic would avail little.

"The men are like the horses," commented Porter, "some bad and some
good. They average about the same as they do in anything else, mostly
good, I think. Of course, when you get a bad one he stands out and
everybody sees him."

"And sometimes horses--and men, too, I suppose--get a bad name when they
don't deserve it," added Allis. "Everybody says Lauzanne is bad, but I
know he's not."

"That was a case of this dreadful dishonesty," said Mrs. Porter,
speaking hastily. She turned in an explanatory way to Crane. "You know,
Mr. Crane, last summer a rascally man sold my husband a crooked horse.
Now, John, what are you laughing at?" for her husband was shaking in his
chair.

"I was wondering what a crooked horse would look like," he answered, and
there were sobs in his voice.

"Why, John, when you brought him home you said he was crooked."

As usual, Allis straightened matters out: "It was the man who was
crooked. Mother means Lauzanne," she continued.

"Yes," proceeded the good woman, "a Mr. Langdon, I remember now, treated
my husband most shamefully over this horse."

Crane winced. He would have preferred thumbscrews just then. "John is
honest himself," went on Mrs. Porter, "and he believes other men, and
this horse had some drug given him to make him look nice, so that my
husband would buy him."

"Shameful," protested Dolman. "Are men allowed to give horses drugs?" he
appealed to Mr. Porter.

"No; the