way in a flash,
and--going in the wrong direction!

"Here, now! Here!" called the officer after him, at once stern and
suspicious. "Don't ye be leadin' _me_ no wild goose chase!" Johnnie
having halted, the other came up to him and seized him by one big
sleeve. "Ye tell me one thing, and ye start the opp'site! How's that?"

"I guess I don't know where I am," admitted Johnnie. "Y' see, I don't
git out much, and so I don't know my way good."

"Now, what could be honester, Clancy?" chided the bigger man. "Shure,
ye can see by the color o' his skin that he's a shut-in.--So, now,
square about, little flower peddler, but, oh, go easy! easy! That is, if
ye want me t' go along, or, shure, big as I am, and fat----"

"Ye're _not_ fat, Father!" denied Clancy. They were all under way now,
with Johnnie in the middle.

"Well, solid then," amended the other, breathing hard. "Shure, it's me
that cuts up a big piece of cloth when it comes t' clothes, which is
deceivin' enough, since I'm back from the war. For what's a man--and
never mind his size--if his lungs is gone? or goin'?"

Johnnie turned upward a troubled look. "Did y' git hurt in the war?" he
asked.

"Well, maybe ye wouldn't call it hurt, exactly," answered the Father.
"Shure, they didn't let out anny of the blood of me, but 'twould've been
better, I'm thinkin', if they had. No, lad dear, they sent me over a
whiff of the gas, the wind bein' right for the nasty business, and I had
the bad taste t' swallow it."

As they fared along, Johnnie kept up a steady chatter in a manner that
was obviously friendly and cheerful, this in order to make passersby
understand that his return was in the nature of another triumph, and
that he had not been arrested. As for his look and carriage, they were
those of a proud boy.

By the time his companions had learned how matters stood in the flat,
the three had reached the stairs and begun a slow climb. With the
caution of his kind, the policeman did not allow Johnnie to lead the
way. The latter came second in the procession, the priest toiling last,
with much puffing and many a grunt.

The progress of the three being so leisurely, there was time for the
inhabitants of the building to hear of the interesting pair that were
ascending with Johnnie Smith, and to assemble in groups at the landings,
while excited chatter wafted the dust which the visitors raised, and
the stairs creaked alarmingly.

When the Barber door was reached, the repre