"And when the campaign's over," queried O'mie, "will you stay in the army?" "No, O'mie, I'll find a place. The world is wide. But look here, boy. You haven't told me how you got pried loose and kicked out yet. Bud's an exception. The rest of us boys had a reason for leaving the best town on earth." "You're just right, begorra!" O'mie replied with warmth. "I was kicked out av town by His Majesty, the prophet Amos, only you've got to spell it with an 'f' instead av a 'ph.'" "Now, O'mie, confess the whole sin at once, please." O'mie looked up with that sunshiny face that never stayed clouded long, and chuckled softly. "Judson's on the crest right now. Oh, let him ride. He's doomed, so let him have his little strut. He comes to me a few days backward into the gone on, and says, says he, important and commercial like, 'O'mie, I shall not need you any more. I've got a person to take your place.' 'All right,' I responds, respectful, 'just as you please. When shall I lave off?' 'To-morrow mornin',' he answers, an' looks at me as if to say, 'Nothin' left for you but the poor-house.' And indade, a clerk under Judson don't make no such bank account as he made under Irving Whately. I ain't ready to retire yet." "And do you mean to say that because Amos Judson turned you off and cut you out of his will, you had to come out to this forsaken land? I thought better of the town," I declared. "Oh, don't you mind! Cris Mead offered me a place in the bank. Dr. Hemingway was fur havin' me fill his pulpit off an' on. He's gettin' old. An' Judge Baronet was all but ready to adopt me in the place av a son he'd lost. But I knowed the boy'd soon be back." O'mie gave me a sidelong glance, but I gave no hint of any feeling. "No, I was like Bud, ready to try the frontier," he added more seriously. "I'm goin' down with you to join this Kansas regiment." "Now what the deuce can you do in the army, O'mie?" I could not think of him anywhere but in Springvale. "I want to live out av doors till I get rid av this cough," he answered. "And ye know I can do a stunt in the band. Don't take giants to fiddle and fife. Little runts can do that. Who do you reckon come to Springvale last month?" "Give it up," I answered. "Father Le Claire." "Oh, the good man!" Bud exclaimed. "Where has he been? and where was he going?" I asked coldly. O'mie looked at me curiously. He was shrewder than Bud, and he caught the tone I had meant to conceal. "Where? Just now he's gone to St. Louis. He's in a hospital there. He's been sick. I never saw him so white and thin as whin he left. He told me he expected to be with the Osages this Winter." "I'm glad of that," I remarked. "Why?" O'mie spoke quickly. "Oh, I was afraid he might go out West. It's hard on priests in the West." O'mie looked steadily at me, but said nothing. "Who taketh your plathe, O'mie?" Bud asked. "That's the beauty av it. It's a lady," O'mie answered.