Year: 1877

These shafts of eloquence struck home;
the women set up screaming, and pulled
their caps off their heads, which in that
part was equivalent to gentle-folks draw
ing their swords.


"Oh, murther murther, was it for
this married you, Gullaum Taafe ?"


"Och, Shamus, will we sit an hear me
compared to the likes? Would / rebel
against Brian Boru, Shamus, ara
gal ?"


"Dont heed him, avourneen," said
Shamus she is an ould man."


But she would not be pacified. ooh
vo vo if ever / thought the like 'ud be
said of me, that I'd rebel against Brian
Boru I"


AS for the other, she prepared to leave
the house.


"Guillaum," said she, "Td never stay
a day undher your roof with them as
would say I'd burn Throy. Does he for
get he ever had mother himself q? All
tbs bad apple, that's what it is, that
despises the tree it sprung from"


All this heated Shamus, SO that he told
the woman sternly to sit down, for the
offender should go and upon that, to
show they were of one mind, Guillaum
deliberately opened the door. Lurcher
ran out, and the wind and the rain
rushed in. 1t was a stormy night.


Then the old man took fright, and
humbled himself


"Ah ! Shamus, Gnillaum, achree, let
we have it as we will I'm sorry for what
l said, ara gal. Don't turn me out on
the high-road in my old days, Guillaum,
and I'll engage I'll never open my
mouth against one O We the longest day
1 live. All Shamus, it isn't long have
to stay wild We, any way. Yer own hair
will be as white as mine yet, plaise God
and yell be thanking him we showed
respect to mine. this night.


But they were all young and of one
mind, and they turned him out and
barred the door. He crept away shiv-
ering in the wind and rain, till he got on
the lee side of a stone wall, and there he
stopped and asked himself whether he
could live through the night Presently
something cold and smooth poked
against his hand it was large dog
that had followed unobserved till
he stopped. BY white mark on
his breast he saw it was Lurcher, Gar
rett's dog.


"Ah |" said the poor wanderer, "you
are not so wise dog as thought, to
follow me-" When he spoke to the dog,
the dog fondled him. Then he burst out
sobbing and crying "Ah, Lurcher
Garrett was not wise either; but he
would niver have turned me to the door,
this bitter night, nor even thee" And
so he moaned and lamented. But
Lurcher pulled his coat, and by his
movement conveyed to him that he
should not stay there all night so then
he crept on and knocked at more than
one door, but did not obtain admittance,
it was so tempestuous. At last he lay
down exhausted on some straw in the
corner of an clubhouse 7; but Lurcher lay
close to him, and it is probable the
warmth of the dog saved his life that
night.


Next day the wind and rain abated;
but this aged man had other ills to fight
against besides winter and rough wealth
er. The sense of his sons ingratitude
and his own folly drove him almost mad.
Sometimes he would curse and thirst for
vengeance, sometimes he would shed
tears that seemed to scald his withered
cheeks. He got into another county and
begged from door to door. AS for Lurch-
er, he did not beg; he used to disappear,
often for an hour at time, but always
returned, and often with rabbit or even
hare in his mouth. Sometimes the
friends exchanged them for a gallon of
meal, sometimes they roasted them in the
woods; Lurcher was civilized dog, and
did not like them raw.


Wandering hither and thither, Brian
Taafe came ut last within a few miles of
his own house; but he soon had cause to
wish himself farther off it; for here he
met his first downright rebuff, and, cruel
to say, he owed it to his hard-hearted
sons. One recognized him as the father
of that rogue Guillaum Taafe, who had
cheated him in the sale of q horse, and
another as the father of that thief
Shamus, who had sold him q diseased
COW that had died the week after. So,
for the first time since he was driven out
of his home, he passed the night supper
less, for houses did not lie close together
in that part. Cold, hungry, houseless,
and distracted with grief at what he had
been and now was, nature gave way at
last, and, unable to outlast the weary,
bitter night, he lost his senses just be-
fore dawn, and lay motionless on the
hard road.


The chances were he must die; but
Just at deaths door his luck turned.


Lurcher put his feet over him and his
chin upon his breast to guard him, as he
had often guarded CARROTS coat, and that
kept little warmth in his heart; and at
the very dawn of day the door of farm
house opened, and the master came out
upon his business and saw something un-
usual lying in the road a good way off.
So he went toward it and found Brian
Taafe in that condition. This farmer was
very well-to-do, but he had known
trouble. and it had made him charitable.
He soon halloed to his men and had the
old man taken in; he called his wife, too,
and bade her observe that it was rev.
erend face, though he was all in tatters.
They laid him between hot blankets, and,
when he came to bit, gave him warm
drink, and at last good meal. He re-
covered his spirits, and thanked them
with certain dignity.


When he was quite comfortable, and