e
pockets of his overcoat. Now he stopped in his walk to scold two
children who were trying to light a peat fire in a tumbled down grate.

"Don't be tired, go on blowing," he said. "You are the laziest child I
have seen this long while."

Ned came in and blew out his lantern, but the lady he had mistaken for
the lecturer was a lady who had come to live in the neighbourhood
lately, and the priest said:--

"You must be very much interested in poultry, ma'am, to come out on
such a night as this."

The lady stood shaking her waterproof.

"Now, then, Lizzie, run to your mother and get the lady a chair."

And when the child came back with the chair, and the lady was seated by
the fire, he said:--

"I'm thinking there will be no lecturer here to-night, and that it
would be kind of you if you were to give the lecture yourself. You have
read some books about poultry, I am sure?"

"Well, a little--but--"

"Oh, that doesn't matter," said the priest. "I'm sure the book you have
read is full of instruction."

He walked up the room towards a group of men and told them they must
cease talking, and coming back to the young woman, he said:--

"We shall be much obliged if you will say a few words about poultry.
Just say what you have in your mind about the different breeds."

The young woman again protested, but the priest said:--

"You will do it very nicely." And he spoke like one who is not
accustomed to being disobeyed. "We will give the lecturer five minutes
more."

"Is there no farmer's wife who could speak," the young lady said in a
fluttering voice. "She would know much more than I. I see Biddy M'Hale
there. She has done very well with her poultry."

"I daresay she has," said the priest, "but the people would pay no
attention to her. She is one of themselves. It would be no amusement to
them to hear her."

The young lady asked if she might have five minutes to scribble a few
notes. The priest said he would wait a few minutes, but it did not
matter much what she said.

"But couldn't some one dance or sing," said the young lady.

"Dancing and singing!" said the priest. "No!"

And the young lady hurriedly scribbled a few notes about fowls for
laying, fowls for fattening, regular feeding, warm houses, and
something about a percentage of mineral matter. She had not half
finished when the priest said:--

"Now will you stand over there near the harmonium. Whom shall I
announce?"

The young woman told him her