e Westmore rode up, sitting her saddle mare with
that natural grace which comes only when the horse and rider have
been friends long enough to become as one. Richard Travis rode with
her.

The Bishop paled again: "My God," he muttered--"but she mustn't know
this is Cap'n Tom! I'd ruther she'd think he's dead--to remember him
only as she knowed him last."

The man's eyes were riveted on her--they seemed to devour her as she
rode up, a picture of grace and beauty, sitting her cantering mare
with the ease of long years of riding. She smiled and nodded brightly
at the Bishop, as she cantered past, but scarcely glanced at the man
beside him.

Travis followed at a brisk gait:

"Hello, Bishop," he said banteringly--"got a new boarder to-day?"

He glanced at the man as he spoke, and then galloped on without
turning his head.

"Alice!--Alice!"--whispered the man, holding out his hands
pleadingly, in the way he had held them when he first saw the Bishop.
"Alice!"--but she disappeared behind a turn in the road. She had not
noticed him.

The Bishop was relieved.

"We'll go home, Cap'n Tom--you'll want for nothin' whilst I live. An'
who knows--ay, Cap'n Tom, who knows but maybe God has sent you here
to-day to begin the unraveling of the only injustice I've ever knowed
Him to let go so long. It 'ud be so easy for Him--He's done bigger
things than jes' to straighten out little tangles like that. Cap'n
Tom! Cap'n Tom!" he said excitedly--"God'll do it--God'll do it--for
He is just!"

As he turned to go a negro came up hurriedly: "I was fetchin' him to
you, Marse Hillard--been lookin' for yo' home all day. I had gone to
the spring for water an' 'lowed I'd be back in a minute."

"Why, it's Eph," said the Bishop. "Come on to my home, Eph, we'll
take keer of Cap'n Tom."

It was Sunday night. They had eaten their supper, and the old man was
taking his smoke before going to bed. Shiloh, as usual, had climbed
up into his lap and lay looking at the distant line of trees that
girdled the mountain side. There was a flush on her cheeks and a
brightness in her eyes which the old man had noticed for several
weeks.

Shiloh was his pet--his baby. All the affection of his strong nature
found its outlet in this little soul--this motherless little waif,
who likewise found in the old man that rare comradeship of
extremes--the inexplicable law of the physical world which brings the
snow-flower in winter. The one real serious quarrel the