w nothing at all, let who will spake to ye o' the same."

"Yes; but, mother, what if I myself learn to--"

"Hush!--Is it o' me ye are spaking?" asked Biddy, turning to a cluster
of people who had drawn near them. "It's no hearty I feel to-night,
and poor lame Phelim is kaping me company. Is it room for the dance ye
are wanting? The other is the roomiest, and the floor is the
plainest."

Hurrying out with ready good-will to assist in the needful
preparations, Biddy soon removed any suspicions that might have been
entertained in the minds of any of her neighbours of any leaning on
her part toward heresy.

CHAPTER VII.

BIDDY DILLON BECOMES A "HERETIC."

Several months passed quietly by. It was winter, and the heaviest snow
that had fallen within the memory of that personage so universally
known and respected--namely, the oldest inhabitant--now lay upon the
ground; and all in town and country who were partial to the exercise
of skating could enjoy it freely. But the severe cold confined the
delicate invalids to their heated rooms, and fair Annie Lee again
found herself shut up to the tiresome routine of sick-room pleasures,
only varied by intervals of suffering. The pleasure, however,
predominated. She seemed almost to forget her pain and increasing
languor in her unceasing efforts to instruct her young nurse.

Annorah, on her part, thirsted for knowledge, especially for the
wisdom that cometh from above. She improved, too, rapidly enough to
satisfy a less partial teacher. In the varied arts of housewifery, and
in the more intricate use of the needle, she had also become quite
expert, and, to use Mrs. Lee's own words, "was quite a treasure in
every part of the house."

Little lame Phelim came for an hour each afternoon to Miss Annie's
room to be made a "schollard, shure;" and every Saturday evening found
Annorah, with her Bible, seated by her mother's fireside, reading, and
in her own earnest but uncouth manner expounding the truths she read.

One Sabbath evening in March, Father M'Clane set out for a walk to
Mrs. Dillon's cottage. His prospects and reflections had been of a
grave and sad character throughout the day, and his threadbare coat
and lean purse had been more than usually suggestive of the great
truth, that all earthly comforts are fleeting and transitory.

For the first time Biddy had that day absented herself from the
Catholic chapel. Annorah had lately added to her Scripture reading,
"Kir