The knight of the sheep would have had the victory, for no soul that
wears this garment of blood and clay can surpass him. He was but once
beaten; and this is his tale of how it was. He and some farm hands were
playing at cards in a small cabin that stood against the end of a big
barn. A wicked woman had once lived in this cabin. Suddenly one of the
players threw down an ace and began to swear without any cause. His
swearing was so dreadful that the others stood up, and my friend said,
"All is not right here; there is a spirit in him." They ran to the door
that led into the barn to get away as quickly as possible. The wooden
bolt would not move, so the knight of the sheep took a saw which stood
against the wall near at hand, and sawed through the bolt, and at once
the door flew open with a bang, as though some one had been holding it,
and they fled through.




AN ENDURING HEART


One day a friend of mine was making a sketch of my Knight of the
Sheep. The old man's daughter was sitting by, and, when the
conversation drifted to love and lovemaking, she said, "Oh, father,
tell him about your love affair." The old man took his pipe out of his
mouth, and said, "Nobody ever marries the woman he loves," and then,
with a chuckle, "There were fifteen of them I liked better than the
woman I married," and he repeated many women's names. He went on to
tell how when he was a lad he had worked for his grandfather, his
mother's father, and was called (my friend has forgotten why) by his
grandfather's name, which we will say was Doran. He had a great friend,