their difference of temperament might have been observed
during their conversation, while sitting under the white thorn. Every
now and then, for instance, Hanna would start up and commence a
series of little flirtations with the blackbird, which she called her
sweetheart, and again resume her chat and seat as before; or she would
attempt to catch a butterfly as it fluttered about her, or sometimes
give it pursuit over half the green, whilst Kathleen sat with laughing
and delighted eyes, and a smile of unutterable sweetness on her lips,
watching the success of this innocent frolic. In this situation we must
now leave them, to follow Peety, who is on his way to deliver the other
letter to Bryan M'Mahon.

Our little black Mercury was not long in arriving at the house of Tom
M'Mahon, which he reached in company with that worthy man himself, whom
he happened to overtake near Carriglass where he lived. M'Mahon seemed
fatigued and travel-worn, and consequently was proceeding at a slow pace
when Peety overtook him. The latter observed this.

"Why, thin, Tom," said he, after the first salutations had passed, "you
look like a man that had jist put a tough journey over him."

"An' so I ought, Peety," he replied, "for I have put a tough journey
over me."

"Musha where were you, thin, if it's fair to ax?" inquired Peety; "for
as for me that hears everything almost, the never a word I heard o'
this."

"I was in Dublin, thin, all the way," replied the farmer, "strivin' to
get a renewal o' my laise from ould Squire Chevydale, the landlord; an'
upon my snuggins, Peety, you may call a journey to Dublin an' home agin
a tough one--devil a doubt of it. However, thank God, here we are at
home; an' blessed be His name that we have a home to come to; for,
afther all, what place is like it? Throth, Peety, my heart longed for
these brave fields of ours--for the lough there below, and the wild
hills above us; for it wasn't until I was away from them that I felt how
strong the love of them was in my heart."

M'Mahon was an old but hale man, with a figure and aspect that were much
above the common order even of the better class of peasants. There could
be no mistaking the decent and composed spirit of integrity which was
evident in his very manner; and there was something in his long flowing
locks, now tinged with gray, as they rested upon his shoulders, that
gave an air of singular respect to his whole appearance.

On uttering the last wo