Hogan and his brothers. This, however, after a time,
ceased, and she returned to the parlor a good deal chafed by the
dispute.
"There's one thing I wonder at," she observed, "that of all men in the
neighborhood, Gerald Cavanagh would allow sich vagabonds as they an Kate
Hogan is, to put in his kiln. Troth, Hycy," she added, speaking to him
in a warning and significant tone of voice, "if there wasn't something
low an' mane in him, he wouldn't do it."
"'Tis when the cup is smiling before us.
And we pledge unto our hearts--'
"Your health, mother. Mr. Burke, here's to you! Why I dare say you are
right, Mrs. Burke. The Cavanagh family is but an upstart one at best;
it wants antiquity, ma'am--a mere affair of yesterday, so what after all
could you expect from it?"
Honest Jemmy looked at him and then groaned. "An upstart
family!--that'll do--oh, murdher--well, 'tis respectable at all events;
however, as to havin' the Hogans about them--they wor always about them;
it was the same in their father's time. I remember ould Laghlin Hogan,
an' his whole clanjamfrey, men an' women, young an' old, wor near six
months out o' the year about ould Gerald Cavanagh's--the present man's
father; and another thing you may build upon--that whoever ud chance
to speak a hard word against one o' the Cavanagh family, before Philip
Hogan or any of his brothers, would stand a strong chance of a shirtful
o' sore bones. Besides, we all know how Philip's father saved Mrs.
Cavanagh's life about nine or ten months after her marriage. At any
rate, whatever bad qualities the vagabonds have, want of gratitude isn't
among them."
"'------That are true, boys, true,
The sky of this life opens o'er us,
And heaven--'
M'Bride, ma'am, will be a severe loss to his family."
"Throth he will, and a sarious loss--for among ourselves, there was none
o' them like him."
"'Gives a glance of its blue--'
"I think I ought to go to the wake to-night. I know it's a bit of a
descent on my part, but still it is scarcely more than is due to a
decent neighbor. Yes, I shall go; it is determined on."
"'I ga'ed a waefu' gate yestreen,
A gate I fear I'll dearly rue;
I gat my death frae twa sweet een,
Twa lovely een o' bonnie blue.'
"Mine are brown, Mrs. Burke--the eyes you wot of; but alas! the family is
an upstart one, and that is strongly against the Protestant interest in
the case. Heigho!"
Jemmy Burke, ha
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