"His family, that I heard him tell you about; the family that wasn't just exactly regular, but yet was as dandy as any--I haven't forgot!" cried Mary with a sob. "Where do I come in, I should like to know? Why doesn't he go to his dandy family?" The chaplain's face, that had been set as steel, broke into lines of exquisite kindness. "My soul!" he said. "And I've only five minutes. Listen, my dear child! I'm sorry I scolded you!" Briefly he told her of the family, of Ma and Pa, Little Gal and the baby; how the lonely boy had fashioned them out of his great longing heart, had warmed himself at the shadow fire of their affection. "Till you came!" cried the chaplain. "Till love came! Then--he has just been telling me, poor boy!--his shadows grew cold and dim. He has lost them; he gets nothing in return. Mary!" "But--" Mary pressed her hands to her head, bewildered--"the child! I saw the child; he calls him--Daddy. I heard him say so; I heard him say, 'He is mine!'" "My soul!" cried Hadley again. "Where were you when he told us? The child? A waif like himself, a lost baby whom he found on the road being cruelly beaten by a brute of an Italian _padrone_. Pippin thrashed the brute and took the child. What else would he do, being Pippin? Mary!" he opened the door and spoke over his shoulder. "He is out in the barn now. I told him to wait ten minutes. Good-by! Remember, _opportunity comes once_!" But even as he left the room, there was a swift movement behind him; he heard a sob; his hand was caught and a swift, shy kiss dropped on it. * * * * * "Ain't got any too much time to spare!" said anxious Jacob, gathering up the reins. "Thank the Lord! I mean--we'll fetch it!" said the chaplain. The first words broke unconsciously from him, for he had seen from the gate a light figure emerge from the house and hasten toward the barn. "Well," said Bailey, "what d'he say when you put it to him? Saw reason, didn't he? He would! He's real reasonable, Pippin is." The chaplain hung his head. "I--I forgot!" he said. "I'll come over again next week!" * * * * * Panting, sobbing, so blinded with tears that she could hardly see her way, Mary fled out of the house, across the wide barnyard. The turkey cock, her terror and abomination, ruffled his feathers, spread his tail, and advanced upon her with swelling gobbles of wrath, but she neither saw nor heard him. There never was such a barnyard; there seemed no end to it, and she kept stumbling, now over the puppy, gamboling to meet her, now over the Muscovy duck that _would_ waddle directly in front of her. At last she reached the barn, but only to pause, for she heard voices. No! one voice, Pippin's, loud and angry, as she had never heard it before! "I tell you, _beat it while your shoes are new_! I've got no use for you, and don't you forget it. I know all you're tellin' me, and I tell _you_ I don't care!"