ong rough land that was either
reclaimed or capable of being so. Bryan, who had not only energy and
activity, but capital to support both, felt, on becoming master of a
separate farm, that peculiar degree of pride which was only natural to
a young and enterprising man. He had now a fair opportunity, he thought,
of letting his friends see what skill and persevering exertion could
do. Accordingly he commenced his improvements in a spirit which at
least deserved success. He proceeded upon the best system then known to
intelligent agriculturalists, and nothing was left undone that he deemed
necessary to work out his purposes. He drained, reclaimed, made fences,
roads, and enclosures. Nor did he stop here. We said that the house and
offices were in a ruinous state when they came into his possession, and
the consequence was that he found it necessary to build a new dwelling
house and suitable offices, which he did on a more commodious and
eligible site. Altogether his expenditure on the farm could not have
been less than eight hundred pounds at the period of the landlord's
death, which, as the reader knows is that at which we have commenced our
narrative.

Thomas M'Mahon's family consisted of--first, his father, a grey-haired
patriarch, who, though a very old man, was healthy and in the full
possession of all his faculties; next, himself; then his wife; Bryan,
the proprietor of Ahadarra; two other sons, both younger, and two
daughters, the eldest twenty, and the youngest about eighteen. The name
of the latter was Dora, a sweet and gentle girl, with beautiful auburn
hair, dark, brilliant eyes, full of intellect and feeling, an exquisite
mouth, and a figure which was remarkable for natural grace and great
symmetry.

"Well, Bryan," said the father, "what news from Ahadarra?"

"Nothing particular from Ahadarra," replied the son, "but our
good-natured friend, Jemmy Burke, had his house broken open and robbed
the night before last."

"Wurrah deheelish" exclaimed his mother, "no, he hadn't!"

"Well, mother," replied Bryan, laughing, "maybe not. I'm afeard it's too
true though."

"An' how much did he lose?" asked his father.

"Between seventy and eighty pounds," said Bryan.

"It's too much," observed the other; "still I'm glad it's no more; an'
since the villains did take it, it's well they tuck it from a man that
can afford to lose it."

"By all accounts," said Arthur, or, as he was called, Art, "Hycy, the
sportheen, has