Connecticut western news., 1879-09-03
VOL. IX.
he watchedthe child eat his supper, and heard his sighs of contentment.

he watched+he child eat his supper, and heard his sighs of contentment.
 "Where shall he sleep2 Tim O'Brlen's beds no made yet"
 "I'l shake straw in the corner there near the fire," replied Peggy, "an' throw wheen sacks over him. He'll sleep rightly, I'll warrant him."
 "Ay; it Il be better nor the back O dike, I'm thinking" returned John.
 The poor creature was not quite dry and warm he lay down on the straw that the kind woman prepared for him, but he first caught hold of her hand, and pressed his lips upon it.
 "Look, John, look l" cried she, with tears in her eyes " did you ever see the like O that p
 It was twenty years since child had slept under that roof, full twenty years since small black coffin had been car ried down the mountain, containing Peggy Donneps son, and more than half her heart. She dreamed of her dead son that night as she had not dreamed for a very long time. She fancied that he came to her bedside, and begged her to be good to the friendless child for his sake.
 The storm lulled before dawn, and by the time the Donnels got up to their work the stranger was up also. When Peggy took her milk pail, prepared to go out to the byre, he sprang forward, and took it from her hand. Smilingly she consented to let him help her milk Motley and Buttercup, and strain up the milk then, W hile she made break fast, he signed to John that it was his wish to assist him also. Very useful he was in finding the cattle, and driving them to fresh grazing ground and he did hundred helpful things during the day.
 "He's sight better than Tim O'Brien. Let us keep him, an he'll be as good boy as we could get," said John Donnel that evening.
 "What name shall we call him9'' asked Peggy, quite pleased at her hus- bands proposal.
 "Niel wad be good enough name" " thought John.
 So the dumb boy was called "Niel," /" was given suit of gray frejze, and shoes and socks, and became the servant in- stead of the truant, Tim O'Brien.
 A season of extraordinary prosperity began for the Donnels from the day Mel came to them. No accident happened to the cattle that winter or spring; the hens laid diligently, so that Peggy made quantities of money by selling eggs :; the churn was always so full of butter that the staff would hardly move in it i; and butter was bringing eighteen pence per pound in Letterkenny market. If Donnel sold, he gained more than his neighbors if he bought, everything was | cheap for him.
 "We did weel to shelter the boy," he was wont to remark, when any striking instance of Niel's industry or cleverness came under his observation but some times, to his wife's anger and disgust, he would animadvert upon the large ap. petite of his little servant.
 Mel gained the goodwill of the few neighbors who lived on the mountain {; but, what was more remarkable, he seemed to have a strong attraction for all birds and animals. The mice sang in corners of the house; the cock and hens loved to roost on therail at the foot of his bed the cattle lowed and horses neighed when he appeared; the singing birds alighted on his shoulder in the field and the sea-gulls from their island in the lough flew to Ipick up insects at his feet. An indescribable sense of peace and we'll l-being hevered over the dwel, ling of which he was an inmate.
 The very night after his arrival he made handsome bow, and each evening while Peggy sat at the spinning wheel he made arrows, tossing them, as he finished them, up to the loft. There was large sheaf of arrows lying beside the bow, but he never shot single one.
 "Why, but you talk your bow an arrows out-bye an yourself wee, Niel dear?" asked Mrs. Donnel, when the bright spring evenings came; but nc answer of any description was forthcom ing. It was real vexation to her that she had no means of discovering why he had made the bow and went on making so many arrows.
 When May eve arrived, and flames leaped up from fires on every hill, an6 dark figures moved round the blaze when the glow was reflected in the tough and the gulls flew screaming in thicf white cloud from their island, disturbed by the unusual noise ; and the snipt whirred by. bleating their astonishmen -on that most enchanting night of al , the year, Mrs. Donners dumb servan was greatly agitated. More than onc 5 he went to the door to gaze at the fai l scene without, and returning, as if witt , 8 strong effort, to his kind mistress r side, kissed her hand-his favorite mod of showing his affection.
 8 "He's crying, the crathur, said Peg 6 gy on one of these occasions. "Mayb it's because you scolded him this morn t ing, John, for naething, ava."
 John, whose. temper was very nasty @ had spoken sharply to the boy in Peg gy's hearing.
 @ Things went on thus throughout th d summer and autumn but when Ha
 lowe'en approached, Mel grew restles IS again. The dry benweeds shook thei y withered yellow heads in the cold breeze
 there they stood in their ugliness, sprea z, over many field, ready when Hallowe'e
 came to turn into fairy seeds. each on