"Oh, they all laughed at us, of course, an' nicknamed the colt Mister Isaacs, because, like Sarah's son, he came in answer to prayer. An' when in his two-year-old form, I led him out of the stable one cold, icy day, an' he was full of play an' r'ared an' fell an' knocked down his hip, they said that 'ud fix Mister Isaacs. "But it didn't pester me at all. I knowed God had done bigger things in this world than fixin' a colt's hip, an' it didn't shake my faith. I kept on prayin' an' kept on trainin'. "Well, it soon told. His hip was down, but it didn't stop him from flyin'. As a three-year-old he paced the Nashville half mile track in one-one flat, an' though they offered me then an' there a thousand dollars for Ben Butler, I told 'em no,--he was God's colt an' I didn't need but half of that to raise the mortgage, an' he'd do that the first time he turned round in a race. "I drove him that race myself, pulled down the five hundred dollar purse, refused all their fine offers for Ben Butler, an' me an' him's been missionaryin' round here ever since." "Great hoss--great!" said Bud, his eyes sparkling,--"allers told you so! Think I'll get out and hug him." This he did while the Bishop sat smiling. But in the embrace Ben Butler planted a fore foot on Bud's great toe. Bud came back limping and whimpering with pain. "Now there, Bud," said the Bishop, consolingly. "God has spoken to you right there." "What 'ud He say?" asked Bud, looking scary again. "Why, he said through Nature's law an' voice that you mustn't hug a hoss if you don't want yo' toes tramped on." "Who must you hug then?" asked Bud. "Yo' wife, if you can't do no better," said the Bishop quietly. "My wife's wussern a hoss," said Bud sadly--"she bites. I'm sorry you didn't take that thar thousan' dollars for him," he said, looking at his bleeding toe. "Bud," said the old man sternly, "don't say that no mo'. It mou't make me think you are one of them selfish dogs that thinks money'll do anything. Then I'd hafter watch you, for I'd know you'd do anything for money." Bud crawled in rather crest-fallen, and they drove on. CHAPTER IV HOW THE BISHOP FROZE The Bishop laughed outright as his mind went back again. "Well," he went on reminiscently, "I'll have to finish my tale an' tell you how I throwed the cold steel into Jud Carpenter when I got back. I saw I had it to do, to work back into my daddy-in-law's graces an' save my reputation. "Now, Jud had lied to me an' swindled me terribly, when he put off that old no-count hoss on me. Of course, I might have sued him, for a lie is a microbe which naturally develops into a lawyer's fee. But while it's a terrible braggart, it's really cowardly an' delicate, an' will die of lock-jaw if you only pick its thumb.