“Perhaps, sir, you would like to go on to the meeting,” said the doctor to David.  “It would give me pleasure to have you with me—­if you prefer to go with me.  Afterward we can ride home together.  My cabin is not far beyond Cedar House.”

After a little more talk it was decided that the boy should go with the doctor, and the priest bade them both a cheerful good night.

“Now, Toby, we must be putting in our best licks.  If you don’t look out, old man, we will be getting into idle ways.  Keep us up to the mark—­right up to the mark, old man!”

And so, talking to Toby, and chuckling as if Toby made telling replies, the good man and his good horse vanished in the earth-clouds round Anvil Rock.  But the doctor and the boy sat their horses in motionless silence, listening to the kind, merry voice and the faithful beat, beat, of the steady feet, till both gradually died away behind the night’s heavy black curtain.

VI

THE CAMP-MEETING

As they turned and were riding on toward the camp-meeting, the doctor spoke of the priest and his horse.  The boy listened with the wondering awe that most of us feel, when some stranger points out the heroism of a simple soul or an everyday deed which we have known, unknowingly, all our lives.

“Father Orin and Toby are a pair to take your hat off to,” the young doctor said.  “I have come to know them fairly well by this time, although I have not been here very long.  It isn’t necessary for any one to be long in the neighborhood before finding out what those two are doing.  And then my own work among the suffering gives me many opportunities to know what they are doing and trying to do.  The church side is only one side of their good work.  I am not a Catholic, and consequently see little of that side; but I meet them everywhere constantly caring for the poor and the afflicted without any regard for creed.  And they never have any money, worth speaking of, to help with.  They have only their time and their strength and their whole laborious, self-sacrificing lives to give.  The expedients that they resort to in a pinch would make anybody laugh—­to keep from crying.  They were out the other day with a brand-new plan.  They travelled about fifty miles through the wilderness trying to find a purchaser for the new overcoat that a Methodist friend gives Father Orin every fall.  He, of course, had given his old coat to some shivering wretch last spring while it was still cold, but that didn’t make the slightest difference.  He didn’t even remember the fact till I reminded him of it.  It is only October now—­so that he can do without the overcoat—­and a poor fellow who has come with his wife and baby to live in that deserted cabin near the court-house, is in sore need of a horse for his fall ploughing.  Father Orin had suggested Toby’s drawing the plough, thinking that some of his own work might be attended to on foot.  But Toby, it seems, drew the line at that.  It was a treat to hear Father Orin laugh when he told how Toby made it plain that he thought there were more important duties for him to perform, how firmly he refused to drag the plough.  He was quite willing, however, to do his best to sell the overcoat, so that they might have money to hire a horse for the ploughing.”