for one pannier why do ye fill up the other
wid stones off the beach?' says he.

"'Sure, 'tis to balance it,' says Barney, mighty surprised an' laffin
widin himself at the Englishman's ignorance. 'Sure,' says Barney, 'ye
wouldn't have a cock-eyed load on the baste, all swingin' on one side,
like a pig wid one ear, would ye?' says he.

"But this Englishman was one of thim stiff sort that doesn't know whin
he's bate, an' he went on arguin'. Says he--

"'But couldn't you put the half of the fish in one pannier, and the
other half in the other pannier, instead of putting all the fish in
one, and filling up the other with stones?' says he. 'Wouldn't that
balance the load?' says he. 'And wouldn't that be only half the load
for the poor baste?' says he. An' Barney sthruggled a bit till he got
a fair grip iv it, d'ye see, but by the sivin pipers that played
before Moses, he couldn't see the way to answer this big word of the
Englishman; so he says, says he, 'Musha, 'twas me father's way, rest
his sowl,' says he. 'An' would I be settin' meself up to be bettherin'
his larnin'?' says he. 'Not one o' me would show him sich impidence
and disrespect,' says he. 'An' I'll carry the rocks till I die, glory
be to God,' says he.

"Now what could ye do with the like iv _him_?"

Mr. Armour, who lived five years near Sligo, said:--"The Connaught
folks have no idea of preparing for to-morrow. They are almost
entirely destitute of self-reliance. So long as they can carry on from
one day to another they are quite content. The bit of ground they live
on is not half cultivated. In the summer time you may see two or even
three crops growing up together. If they had potatoes on last, they
got them up in the most slovenly way, leaving half the crop in the
ground. They just hoak out with a stick or a bit of board what they
require for that day's food, picking the large ones and leaving the
small ones in the ground. Oats or something else will be seen
half-choked with weeds and the growth from the potatoes so left. The
slovenliness of these people is most exasperating. Of course they are
all Home Rulers in effect, though not in theory. By that I mean that
they have no politics, except to produce politicians by their votes.
They know no more of Home Rule than they know of Heidsieck's
champagne, or Christmas strawberries, or soap and water, or any other
unknown commodity. They are precisely where their ancestors were,
except for the crop of potat