. A horseman soon appeared under the trees and came
galloping after them, and when he had drawn nearer, the priest saw, with
some annoyance, that it was Tommy Dye. As he reined up beside them, Toby
turned his head slowly and gave the horse precisely the same look that
Father Orin gave the rider. Toby wanted to have nothing more to do with
a tricky race-horse than Father Orin wished to have to do with a shady
adventurer.

Tommy Dye looked at them both with a grin. "I saw you just now--you and
the new doctor--a-toting them there youngsters."

Father Orin straightened up, feeling and showing the embarrassment and
indignation that every man, lay and clerical alike, feels and shows at
being seen by another man acting as a nurse to a child.

"Well, what of it?" he retorted, as naturally as if he had never worn a
cassock.

Tommy Dye grinned again, more broadly than before. He took off his hat
and rubbed his shock of red hair the wrong way. The humor of the
recollection became too much for him, and he roared with laughter. Toby
of his own indignant accord now moved to go on, and Father Orin gathered
up the reins saying rather shortly that he had urgent business, and must
be riding along.

"I say--wait a minute. What makes you in such an all-fired hurry?" Tommy
Dye called after them.

Toby stopped reluctantly, and he and Father Orin waited with visible
unwillingness, until Tommy Dye came up again and stammeringly began what
he had to say. He did not know how to address a priest. He had never
before had occasion to speak to a churchman of any denomination. So that
he now plunged in without any address at all:

"I say--who pays for them there youngsters, yonder?" he blurted.

Father Orin merely looked at him in silence for a moment, and then
gathered up the reins once more.

Tommy Dye saw that there was something amiss, that he had made some
mistake, and not knowing what it was, he resorted to the means which he
usually employed to set all matters right. He hastily plunged his hand
in the outer pocket of his coat, and then dropped the bottle back in its
place still more hastily, after another glance at the priest.

"Well, I thought you might like it," he said with a touch of defiance,
feeling it necessary to assert himself. "When a man's face is as red as
yours, I don't see why a fellow mightn't ask him to take a drink."

Father Orin laughed with ready good humor.

"My face is red, my friend. I can't deny that fact;