ing the villagers into silence,
his eyes fell on Kate. "That's all right," he thought, and he looked
for the others, and spied Pat Connex and Peter M'Shane near the door.
"They're here, too," he thought. "When the lecture is over I will see
them and bring them all together. Kate Kavanagh won't go home until she
promises to marry Peter. I have had enough of her goings on in my
parish."

But Kate had caught sight of Peter. She would get no walk home with Pat
that night, and she suspected her brother of having done this for a
purpose. She got up to go.

"I don't want anyone to leave this room," said the priest. "Kate
Kavanagh, why are you going? Sit down till the lecture is over."

And as Kate had not strength to defy the priest she sat down, and the
lecturer continued for a little while longer. The priest could see that
the lecturer had said nearly all she had to say, and he had begun to
wonder how the evening's amusement was to be prolonged. It would not do
to let the people go home until Michael Dunne had closed his
public-house, and the priest looked round the audience thinking which
one he might call upon to say a few words on the subject of
poultry-keeping.

From one of the back rows a voice was heard:--

"What about the pump, your reverence?"

"Well, indeed, you may ask," said the priest.

And immediately he began to speak of the wrong they had suffered by not
having a pump in the village. The fact that Almighty God had endowed
Kilmore with a hundred mountain streams did not release the authorities
from the obligation of supplying the village with a pump. Had not the
authorities put up one in the neighbouring village?

"You should come out," he said, "and fight for your rights. You should
take off your coats like men, and if you do I'll see that you get your
rights," and he looked round for someone to speak.

There was a landlord among the audience, and as he was a Catholic the
priest called upon him to speak. He said that he agreed with the priest
in the main. They should have their pump, if they wanted a pump; if
they didn't, he would suggest that they asked for something else.
Farmer Byrne said he did not want a pump, and then everyone spoke his
mind, and things got mixed. The Catholic landlord regretted that Father
Maguire was against allowing a poultry-yard to the patients in the
lunatic asylum. If, instead of supplying a pump, the Government would
sell them eggs for hatching at a low price, somethin