d in time to escape the threatened missile.

After an absence of a few minutes he was heard returning, attending upon
the footsteps of another. And the next minute he entered, ushering in
the Rev. Mr. Goodwin, the parish minister of Bethlehem, St. Mary's.

"How do you do? How do you do? Glad to see you, sir; glad to see you,
though obliged to receive you in bed. Fact is, I caught a cold with this
severe change of weather, and took a warm negus and went to bed to sweat
it off. You'll excuse me. Wool, draw that easy-chair up to my bedside
for worthy Mr. Goodwin, and bring him a glass of warm negus. It will do
him good after his cold ride."

"I thank you, Major Warfield. I will take the seat but not the negus, if
you please, to-night."

"Not the negus? Oh, come now, you are joking. Why, it will keep you from
catching cold and be a most comfortable nightcap, disposing you to sleep
and sweat like a baby. Of course, you spend the night with us?"

"I thank you, no. I must take the road again in a few minutes."

"Take the road again to-night! Why, man alive! it is midnight, and the
snow driving like all Lapland!"

"Sir, I am sorry to refuse your proffered hospitality and leave your
comfortable roof to-night, and sorrier still to have to take you with
me," said the pastor, gravely.

"Take me with you! No, no, my good sir!--no, no, that is too good a
joke--ha! ha!"

"Sir, I fear that you will find it a very serious one. Your servant told
you that my errand was one of imminent urgency?"

"Yes; something like life and death----"

"Exactly; down in the cabin near the Punch Bowl there is an old woman
dying----"

"There! I knew it! I was just saying there might be an old woman dying!
But, my dear sir, what's that to me? What can I do?"

"Humanity, sir, would prompt you."

"But, my dear sir, how can I help her? I am not a physician to
prescribe----"

"She is far past a physician's help."

"Nor am I a priest to hear her confession----"

"Her confession God has already received."

"Well, and I'm not a lawyer to draw up her will."

"No, sir; but you are recently appointed one of the justices of the
peace for Alleghany."

"Yes. Well, what of that? That does not comprise the duty of getting up
out of my warm bed and going through a snow-storm to see an old woman
expire."

"I regret to inconvenience you, sir; but in this instance your duty
demands your attendance at the bedside of this dying woman----"

"I tell y