sible. It takes a year at least to make a statue of any
size. You can't go into a shop and buy a statue, as if it were a hat or
an umbrella."

"There's a good deal in what the Major says," said Father McCormack.
"I'm inclined to agree with him. I remember well when they were putting
up the monument to Parnell in Dublin it took them years before they had
it finished."

"It's a good job for everybody concerned," said the Major, "that we're
brought up short. We'd simply have made ourselves publicly ridiculous if
we'd gone on with this business."

The Major, Dr. O'Grady, and Doyle, spoke when they did speak, in an easy
conversational tone without rising from their chairs. But this was not
Gallagher's idea of the proper way of conducting public business. He
believed that important discussions ought to be carried on with dignity.
When he spoke he stood up and addressed the committee as if he were
taking part in a political demonstration, using appropriate gestures to
emphasize his words. The difficulty about the statue gave him a great
opportunity.

"I stand here to-day," he said, "as the representative of the people of
this locality, and what I'm going to say now I'd say if the police spies
of Dublin Castle was standing round me taking down the words I utter."

Young Kerrigan had been obliged to stop practising "Rule, Britannia"
on the cornet in order to eat his dinner. When he had satisfied his
appetite and soothed his nerves with a pipe of tobacco he set to work at
the tune again. The hour's rest had not helped him in any way. He made
exactly the same mistake as he had been making all the morning. It
happened that he took up his cornet again shortly before Gallagher began
his speech in which he declared himself a representative of the people
of the locality. The noise of the music floated through the open
window of the committee room. It had a slightly exasperating effect on
Gallagher, but he went on speaking.

"What I say is this," he said, "and it's what I always will say. If it
is the unanimous wish of the people of this locality to erect a statue
to the memory of the great patriot, who is gone, then a statue ought to
be erected. If the Major is right--and he may be right--in saying that it
takes a year to make a statue, then we'll take a year. We'll take ten
years if necessary. Please God the most of us has years enough before us
yet to spare that many for a good work."

Young Kerrigan continued to break down a