urn. Do you notice how the green trees grow like a
mane on the hills?"

Swallow thinks differently. It is her opinion that the dark
needle-like pines stand erect in the same way as the fur on a grizzly's
back. I know this, else why does she shy violently as we make the turn?

"You are wrong, my pretty one," say I. "These pine-trees are very
religious and much too dignified to attack you and me. Besides, the
needles of the pines drive devils away, and if you carry a sprig of
spruce with you in the woods, no ill-luck will ever come to you.
Theophile Trembly, who is a woodsman and a ranger, told me this.

"Do not linger, Sweet-o'-my-Heart; the world is young and you and I may
ride forever.

"These are juniper-bushes, any one can see. Maybe if I were to lie
under one, like the Tishbite did, an angel might touch me. And maybe I
should also find 'a cake baken with coals', and a cruse of water. I
would tell you, Swallow, how it tasted in my mouth, for the Tishbite
forgot this thing. And I would mention where the angel got the coals.
They must have been the 'coals of juniper' of which King David wrote,
for these are, to this very day, the best charcoals in all the world.
Where the divine visitant found the match to kindle the coals...

"Ah, well! I'll ask the Padre about this, but like as not he'll say,
"An irrevelant and irreverent question, M'Dear!" although it is neither
one nor the other, for it argues well for humanity that an angel, who
is generally portrayed as a rather offish being, should know where to
find a match and how to use it. A lot could be said on this very
point. It pleasures me not a little that an angel from the skies built
a fire out of doors and cooked cakes on it. This surely means that
when the angels take recreation they play at being men and that they
have a kindly feeling for us. It might be that there are more of them
around about than we have any idea, neighbourly-like angel of sap and
sinew, who occasionally bear a hand in our work and who loaf around of
evenings by the campfire. If an angel can cook on an out-door fire, he
must know how to hang a blanket to the windward side, and an angel who
knows this is no nidnoddy fellow, I can tell you.

"If you were listening more attentively, Swallow, and if I were not
afraid of the Padre finding out, I would push this idea further and say
that, when the angel was through with his meal, he would in all
likelihood be humanely tired and