Whenever the way before them was not quite clear, Father Orin would let Toby lead, and only once in all their long pilgrimage together did he ever fail to lead aright.  It was on a wild winter’s night, and neither could see either heaven or earth; yet on against the bitter wind went the priest and his horse, Toby stretching his fullest length at the top of his speed, and Father Orin bending low to escape the boughs of unseen trees; and thus they sped through the stormy blackness.  Faster still they went, up hill and down hill, leaping fallen trees, flying across the hollows made by the uptorn roots, swimming swollen streams, while the priest knelt on the saddle, holding the Viaticum high above the rushing water which dashed over his knees.  At last they stopped, utterly exhausted, only to find that they were lost in the icy, dark wilderness; and they went on groping blindly for any kind of shelter under which to wait for the first glimmer of dawn.  They finally came upon a ruined cabin, and although the whole front of it was gone, some of the roof and a part of the walls were left, and Father Orin led Toby into the driest, corner.  Taking off the wet saddle and the soaked, half-frozen blanket, he laid them on the ground.  He patted Toby as he did this, and Toby’s responsive whinny said it was all right, just as plain as if he had been able to talk.  But Father Orin was not quite satisfied, and moving a little farther over in the corner, where it was so dark that even Toby could not see what he was doing, he pulled off his poor old overcoat, from which the water was dripping, but which was still warm and partly dry on the inside.  Stealing back to Toby, he laid the coat over his shivering shoulders, chuckling to think that Toby would never know that it was not the saddle-blanket.  Feeling now that he had done his best for his friend, he buttoned his cassock closer and laid down on the freezing ground, with the frozen saddle for a pillow, and tried to get what rest and sleep he could.

At times like this—­and they were not a few—­it was hard for Father Orin to believe that Toby had no soul.  It was indeed so hard now and then, as on that night, that he could not believe it; that he could not think there would be no reward of any kind for such service as Toby was giving the Faith.  It was service as faithful as his own; he could not have given his without Toby’s help.  Looking upward toward his own reward, even this bitter, black winter’s night became as nothing; but Toby—­what was there for Toby?  He did not remember that he often gave Toby the food which he needed himself, as he had just given him the warmth from his own shivering body.  He thought only of the things that Toby did for him and for the Faith.  And so thinking, very strange fancies about Toby would now and then come to him with the profoundest reverence.  And on that dreary night, when their dauntless spirits seemed to touch, while their exhausted bodies thus dozed side by side, a pleasant vision vaguely blended Father Orin’s half-conscious dreams with his perplexed waking thoughts.