mfortable would it be an' we had one in the family like Larry
himself, to send back the news to ould friends, when we got safe
here.' Do ye not mind, mother dear, how often you've said that same
since? Well, now, I've been and learned what ye wanted so much; and
first cooms the praste and makes a big fuss, and then you, mother,
spake as if I had thried to anger in the room o' plasing ye. I'm sure
I've thried to plase you all I could."

"So ye have, mavourneen; so ye have," said Biddy, her voice softening
as she turned to look at the chicken and other things that Annorah had
brought. "It's not yer mother, honey, that has a word to say against
you; but when Father M'Clane talks o' yer being a heretic, it angers
me. This Bible that he frets about, what is it, Norah?"

"It's God's truth, mother, that he has given to teach us all; and a
brave book it is. Father M'Clane has one himself; and what frets him
is, that the heretics, as he calls them, can read it for themselves
and find out God's will; for only the praste has it with us."

"Well, then, an' the praste tells us the same, it saves us a world o'
bother, shure."

"But if the praste is not a good man, he can tell us whatever he
likes; and how do we know what is God's Word? Now, mother, in all
God's Word there is never a bit about confessing to a praste, but a
great deal about praying and confessing to God himself. But, you see,
if all our people knew that same, sorra a bit o' money would go to the
praste's pocket in comparison to what he gets now. It's that, mother
dear, that makes him so afraid we shall learn. He can't get the money
from those who can read God's Word for themselves."

"Are you sure it's all thrue?" asked Biddy, her eyes wide open with
astonishment.

"It is the truth of God. An' it's this same learning that's got out of
the holy Book that makes the difference between Protestants and
Catholics. They go to the Word itself, an' we take on hearsay whatever
the praste tells us. An' there is no word in all the Book, mother,
about praying to Mary the mother of Jesus, or to any of the saints.
Everybody is invited to pray straight up to God himself."

The girl's downright heresy, and her contempt for the mummeries of the
Romish communion, troubled her mother. But what could she do? The
change for the better in the child's temper had prepared her to look
favourably upon the change in her religion. She listened to Annorah's
continued account of what she had