the priest might solemnize marriage for
Protestants as well as Catholics; they visited the sick, no matter how
distant, in summer and in winter alike, and Toy day or by night; they
went at any summons to bury the dead; and they tried to go again, so
that the priest might do what he could to comfort the living. Yet with
all this untiring zeal for the soul's welfare, there was also a
ceaseless care for the body's welfare, and a divine disregard of any
narrow line of faith; for wherever Toby carried Father Orin that good
man's heart was always moved by compassion for any distress of mind,
body, or estate, always overflowing with a deep, wide pity infinitely
greater and more Christian than any creed.

It is not strange, then, that the good man and the good horse had become
almost one in mind and body, and that they were quite one in spirit. It
is not in the least strange, certainly, that Toby came to know the
nature of their errand almost as well and nearly as quickly as Father
Orin himself. He easily knew a sick call by the haste with which they
set out, and he knew its urgency by their going with the messenger. He
seemed to be able to tell unerringly when they were bearing the
Viaticum, and it was plain that he felt the responsibility thus resting
upon his speed and sureness of foot. Then it was that he would go like
the wind, through utter darkness, through storm and flood and over an
icy earth, without a pause or a misstep. Many a time, after such a
struggle as this, has Toby turned his head, as if trying to see why
Father Orin was slow in doing his part when the rain, freezing as it
fell, had frozen the priest's poor overcoat to the saddle, and his
ragged leggins were heavy and clumsy with icicles. But the apologetic
tone in which Father Orin always said, "Well, here we are, old man," and
the explanatory pat that he always gave Toby's neck, after going through
the respectful form of hitching him, never failed to make this right.
And when the priest came out of the house, he always had something in
his pocket for Toby, if any one had remembered to give himself anything
to eat.

But their errands were not all so sad as this. Sometimes there were
weddings to attend, and Toby entered into the happy spirit of that
lively business quite as heartily as Father Orin. The only thing that
Toby was strict about then, was that his friend should not forget to
wear his best clothes, which he was too apt to do, even if he had not
g