een, or at other of the various bars
in our little town, I can talk to a parishioner with a kindly
familiarity that brings him close to me. By taking part in the games
of chance which form the main amusement of my flock, I still more
closely can identify their interests with my own--and even materially
improve, by such winnings as come to me in our friendly encounters,
our meagre parish finances. I have as yet taken no share in the
gun-fights which too frequently occur in our somewhat tempestuous
little community; but I am seriously considering the advisability of
still farther strengthening my hold upon the respect and the affection
of my parishioners by now and then exchanging shots with them. I am
confident that such energetic action on my part will tend still more
to endear me to them--and, after all, I must not be too nicely
fastidious as to means if I would compass my end of winning their
trust and their esteem."

While Santa Fe was talking along so slick about the way he managed his
parsoning, the little man's eyes was getting bulgier and bulgier; and
when it come to his taking a hand in shooting-scrapes they looked like
they was going to jump out of his head. All he could say was: "Good
Lord!" Then he kind of gagged, and said he'd be obliged if he could
get his brandy-and-soda right off.

Charley steered him across to the Forest Queen, and when he had his
drink in him, and another on top of it, he seemed to get some of his
grip back. But even after his drinks he seemed like he thought he must
be asleep and dreaming; and he said twice over he'd never heard tell
of such doings in all his born days.

Santa Fe just give a wink across the bar to Blister Mike--who didn't
need much winking, being a wide-awake one--and then he went ahead with
some more of the same kind. "No doubt, my dear sir, in the older
civilization to which you are accustomed my methods would seem
irregular--perhaps even reprehensible. In England, very likely,
unfavorable comment would be made upon a pastor who cordially drank
with members of his flock at public bars; who also--I do not hesitate,
you see, to give our little games of chance their harshest name--in a
friendly way gambled with them; and I can imagine that the spectacle
of a parish priest engaging with his parishioners, up and down the
street of a quiet village, in a fight with six-shooters and
Winchesters would be very generally disapproved."

"It is impossible, quite impossible,"