, 1898-08-04
THE B Doc.

little village at the extreme end of Prov.
ence-the Provence of the olden time,
when doubts had not yet crept in to cor
rupt the simple faith of the peasants.
The old priest lived happily among his
,parishioners, kindly souls all Of them,
and so obedient to the commandments
of God and our holy mother church
that their lives We're a real banediction
for their spiritual father. The good man
had no need to touch them up every
now and then with a r~ousing sermon,
nor did he ask the aid of others moro
eloquent than himself to convert his
flock. They were born, lived and died
i'll the fold, and their pastor discharged
his simple priestly duties and led in
anticipation the life of the blessed.
The able adored nature, and every
day you could have seen him strolling
among the fields, reading his brcviary,
while from time to time he glanced at
the gambols of Oremus, his little dog.
They were as inseparable as St. Eoch
and his famous bowwow. Orcmus en-
joyed these strolls as much rs his mas
ter, but in n different fashion. The
priests pleasure was purely contempla-
tive, that of the doggie active.
Orelnus firmly believed that God gave
four legs to little dogs so that they
could be twice as alert as their masters,
who, poor creatures, had but two. So
he raced over the fields, sometimes be.
hind, sometimes ahead of the cure,
jumping, making a corkscrew of his
tail, swapping at the birds and giving
himself up to all the pranks BETTING
the well bred dog of n priest.
Supertluous to add that Oremus un.
derstood absolutely all that his master
said to him and that he could do ev-
erything but speak, AS for tricks, our
Oremus could have given points to the
whole canine world. He danced on his
hind legs and shook hands like Il Chris
tian, and his great feat was to refuse
the most delicious chop, the ~luiciest
morsel, if offered with the left hand.
You may well believe. that this vic
tory over the canine flesh was not gain
ed without effort. The able and his dog
had given much time and patience to
the perfecting of this triumph, and
evenings after the cure had dined alone
the little dog was put through his PAGES,
always ending the performance with the
famous ''chop act" Then the able,
with tears in his eyes, would ask him.
self if the good God could have the
heart to refuse a scrap of paradise to
such q creature. Let us hasten to add
that the worthy priest would have died
before giving voice to such q sentiment
he, n sono of the church.
But nothing is perfect in this world,
and one day the sacred calm of Abiho
was turned into confusion. Listen, and
you will learn how. Ayoung conscript,
who had been absent seven years and
who was supposed by the villagers to
have been killed in the war, ]reappearod
n fine morning and Immediately took
up his old life of farming. So far so
good. But what a scandal arose, my
friends, when it was known that lie
Faiard abseuted himself from mass on
Sunday, swore like u pirate at every
word, and. more than all. ate meat on
Friday!
Able Sauteu almost died of mortitica.
ton. Night and day he racked his brain
to find some means of bringing the apos.
tate back to the faith of his childhood
AS if by accident NJ. 10 Cure often
strolled past the field where Lo Faiard
was working. Almost always he stop
ped to gossip with his black sheep, and
very often the conversation turned on
the all absorbing question. lie Faiard,
for his part. was only too ready to argue
the point. He was a pigheaded fellow,
who liked to hear himself talk, and fire.
quently it happened that our good able
who was by no means n well of learn
ing-found himself iioored by the argu-
ments which his opponent had picked
up in his military life and which he
reeled off with Il parIotlike volubility.
One day when Lie Faiarl had reduced
his adversary to silence, he asked, us a
finishing stroke:
Anyway. father. do you take me for
a saint"
ALAS, far from it, my son.
1.-The devil fly away with me, then,
if you don't demand more Of me than a
saint or even an apostle is capable of.
Heaven forbidr' calculated the
priest, falling %innocently into the snare.
well then iatner' said IL fa'ard'
Lave on tho faith If othersp D;dn,t he
reonire n miracle. and, troue.de-Diep
what n mir,cleI who car blame mo
for t]olloyinr St. Thomas oxamnlo-
only T asl, less than his saintsbip Show
me the least little miracle, | don't cere
how small. and III 20 to confession