it was impossible. It could not be--not in those faded
overalls, too long in the legs and frayed at the bottoms.

I paused, laughed at myself, and almost abandoned the chase. But the
haunting familiarity of those shoulders and that silver hair! Again
I hurried on. As I passed him, I shot a keen look at his face; then I
whirled around abruptly and confronted--the Bishop.

He halted with equal abruptness, and gasped. A large paper bag in his
right hand fell to the sidewalk. It burst, and about his feet and mine
bounced and rolled a flood of potatoes. He looked at me with surprise
and alarm, then he seemed to wilt away; the shoulders drooped with
dejection, and he uttered a deep sigh.

I held out my hand. He shook it, but his hand felt clammy. He cleared
his throat in embarrassment, and I could see the sweat starting out on
his forehead. It was evident that he was badly frightened.

"The potatoes," he murmured faintly. "They are precious."

Between us we picked them up and replaced them in the broken bag, which
he now held carefully in the hollow of his arm. I tried to tell him my
gladness at meeting him and that he must come right home with me.

"Father will be rejoiced to see you," I said. "We live only a stone's
throw away.

"I can't," he said, "I must be going. Good-by."

He looked apprehensively about him, as though dreading discovery, and
made an attempt to walk on.

"Tell me where you live, and I shall call later," he said, when he saw
that I walked beside him and that it was my intention to stick to him
now that he was found.

"No," I answered firmly. "You must come now."

He looked at the potatoes spilling on his arm, and at the small parcels
on his other arm.

"Really, it is impossible," he said. "Forgive me for my rudeness. If you
only knew."

He looked as if he were going to break down, but the next moment he had
himself in control.

"Besides, this food," he went on. "It is a sad case. It is terrible. She
is an old woman. I must take it to her at once. She is suffering from
want of it. I must go at once. You understand. Then I will return. I
promise you."

"Let me go with you," I volunteered. "Is it far?"

He sighed again, and surrendered.

"Only two blocks," he said. "Let us hasten."

Under the Bishop's guidance I learned something of my own neighborhood.
I had not dreamed such wretchedness and misery existed in it. Of course,
this was because I did not concern myself with charity. I ha