you'll be like the victor rooster
crowing over a fallen antagonist."

"But Duff and I are the best friends in the world."

"No matter. I suppose he has nerves and blood, like the rest of us. Try
something else!"

"Well, what about the _Ave Maria_, or _Tu gloria Jerusalem, tu laetitia
Israel_, etc.?"

"The very thing."

"Or, the place of the Blessed Virgin in Scripture?"

"You've hit the nail on the head. That's it!"

"Well, now," said he, taking out a note-book, "how long shall it be?"

"Exactly forty-five minutes."

"And I must write every word?"

"Every word!"

"How many pages will that make?"

"Twenty pages--ordinary copy-book. The first fifteen will be expository;
the last five will be the peroration, into which you must throw all the
pathos, love, fire, and enthusiasm of which you are capable."

"All right. Many thanks, Father Dan. But I shall be very nervous."

"Never mind. That will wear off."

I said to myself, you have heavier troubles in store; but why should I
anticipate? The worst troubles are those that never arise. And where's
the use of preaching to a man with the toothache about the perils of
typhoid fever?

I went down to see my little saint.

She was "happy, happy, oh! so happy! But, Daddy Dan, I fear't won't last
long!"

"You are not going to heaven so soon, and leaving us all desolate, are
you?"

"No, Daddy Dan. But Mr. Ormsby, who thinks that I have made him a
Catholic, says he will bring down a great, great doctor from Dublin to
cure me. And I don't want to be cured at all."

"If it were God's Holy Will, dear, we should be all glad. But I fear
that God alone can cure the hurt He has made."

"Oh, thank you! thank you! Daddy Dan. You have always the kind word. And
sure you know more than all the doctors. And sure, if God wished me to
be cured, you'd have done it long ago."

"I'm not so sure of that, my child," I said; "but who is the great
doctor?"

"He's a doctor that was in the navy--like my poor father--and he has
seen a lot of queer diseases in India, and got a lot of cures."

"Well, we're bound to try every natural specific, my child. But if all
fails, we must leave you in the hands of the great Physician."

"That's what I should like best, Daddy Dan!"

"You must pray now for Father Letheby. He is going to preach a great
sermon."

"On what?"

"On our Blessed Lady."

"I should like to be there. The children tell me he preaches lovely.
They think he sees th