candy! Oh, Mr. Travis, to get beat that way!"

He laughed: "I'll pay all you ladies lose. I was just playing with
the old pacer. Bet more gloves and candy on the next heat!"

"Oh--oh," they laughed. "No--no-o! We've seen enough!"

Travis smiled and walked off. He turned at the gate and threw them
back a bantering kiss.

"You'll see--" was all he said.

The old man spent the twenty minutes helping to rub off Ben Butler.

"It does me good--kinder unkeys me," he said to Bud and Jack. He put
his ear to the old horses' flank--it pulsed strong and true.

Then he laughed to himself. It vexed him, for it was half hysterical
and he kept saying over to himself:

"Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty--
All Thy works shall praise Thy name, in earth and sky and sea;
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty--"

Some one touched his arm. It was Jack: "Bishop, Bishop, time's up!
We're ready. Do you hear the bell clanging?"

The Bishop nodded, dazed:

"Here, you're kinder feeble, weak an', an' sorter silly. Why, Bishop,
you're recitin' poetry--" said Jack apologetically. "A man's gone
when he does that--here!"

He had gone to the old man's saddle bags, and brought out his ancient
flask.

"Jes' a swaller or two, Bishop," he said coaxingly, as one talking to
a child--"Quick, now, you're not yo'self exactly--you've dropped into
poetry."

"I guess I am a little teched, Jack, but I don't need that when I can
get poetry, sech poetry as is now in me. Jack, do you want to hear
the gran'est verse ever writ in poetry?"

"No--no, Bishop, don't! Jack Bracken's yo' friend, he'll freeze to
you. You'll be all right soon. It's jes' a little spell. Brace up an'
drop that stuff."

The old man smiled sadly as if he pitied Jack. Then he repeated
slowly:

"Holy, holy, holy, all the saints adore Thee
Castin' down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
Cherubim an' Seraphim, fallin' down before Thee
Which wert an' art, an' ever more shall be."

Feebly he leaned on Jack, the tears ran down his cheek: "'Tain't
weakness, Jack, 'tain't that--it's joy, it's love of God, Whose done
so much for me. It's the glory, glory of them lines--Oh, God--what a
line of poetry!"

"Castin' down their golden crowns around the glassy sea!"

Ben Butler stood ready, the bell clanged again. Jack helped him into
the sulky; never had he seen the old man so feeble. Travis was
already at the post.

They got the word immed