Their innate repulsiveness is so great that, like the snake's charm, it may fascinate; yet an indescribable, haunting disgust goes with it.

And, after all, if Alice had been asked to tell just how she felt toward the Indian she had labored so hard to save, she would promptly have said: "I loathe him as I do a toad!" Nor would Father Beret, put to the same test, have made a substantially different confession.

His work, to do which his life went as fuel to fire, was training the souls of Indians for the reception of divine grace; but experience had not changed his first impression of savage character.

When he traveled in the wilderness he carried the Word and the Cross; but he was also armed with a gun and two good pistols, not to mention a dangerous knife.

The rumor prevailed that Father Beret could drive a nail at sixty yards with his rifle, and at twenty snuff a candle with either one of his pistols..