Both men accompanied the prisoner toward his father’s house. The preacher began to deliver some cautionary remarks, but the young man burst from him, threw open the door, and shouted:
“Father!”
The old man started from his bed, shaded his eyes, and exclaimed:
“Stevie!”
The father and son embraced, seeing which the sheriff proved that even sheriffs are human by snatching the circuit-rider in his arms and giving him a mighty hug.
The father recovered and lived happily. The son and the preacher fulfilled their respective promises, and the sheriff, always, on meeting either of them, so abounded in genial winks and effusive handshakings, that he nearly lost his next election by being suspected of having become religious himself.
