ty for self-sacrifice and the unfailing
attendance upon the sick and the afflicted in any parish. Beauty,
indeed, was but too often a snare for the unwary--temptresses, he had
been told, were usually beautiful persons.

Molly's lips trembled into a smile, and her eyes were wide and bright as
she met those of the preacher. For an instant he looked at her, gentle,
admonishing, reproachful--then his gaze passed over Judy's seraphic
features to the face of an old grey horse that stared wonderingly in
through the south window. Along the whitewashed plank fence of the
church-yard, other horses were waiting patiently for the service to
end, and from several side saddles, of an ancient pattern, hung flopping
alpaca riding skirts, which the farmer's wives or daughters had worn
over their best gowns to church. A few locust trees shed their remaining
small yellow leaves on the sunken graves, which were surrounded by
crumbling wooden enclosures. Here and there, farther off, a flat
tombstone was still visible in the tall grass; and over the dust of old
Jonathan Gay a high marble cross, selected by his brother's widow, bore
the words, unstained by the dripping trees, and innocent of satire:
"Here lieth in the hope of a joyful resurrection---"

At the end of the service there was a rustle either of relief or
disappointment, and the congregation filed slowly through the south
doors, where the old grey horse stood resigned and expectant amid the
obliterated graves. Mrs. Gay, who had lingered in the walk to speak
to Mr. Mullen, raised her plaintive violet eyes to his face when he
appeared.

"You are always so comforting. I don't know how to thank you for helping
me," she murmured, and added impulsively to the little old woman at his
side, "Oh, what a blessing such a son must be to you!"

"Orlando's never given me a moment's worry in his life, ma'am--not even
when he was teething," replied Mrs. Mullen, who looked sharper and more
withered than ever in the broad daylight. "If you'll believe me, he
wasn't more than six months old when I said to his father that I
could tell by the look of him he was intended for the ministry. Such
sweetness, such self-control even as an infant."

"How happy he must make you! And then, to have the privilege of hearing
his beautiful sermons! But you'll lose him some day, as I was just
saying to Kesiah. It won't be long before some fortunate woman takes him
away from you. We can only hope she will be worth