even
more intense now than before; nor, if all were known, was Phelim less
affected with secret laughter than Peggy.

"It is makin' fun o' me you are, you thief, eh?--Is it laughin' at my
grief you are?" exclaimed Phelim. "Be the tarn' o' wor, I'll punish you
for that."

Peggy attempted to escape, but Phelim succeeded, ere she went, in taking
a salutation or two, after which both joined those who sat at the fire,
and in a few minutes Sam Appleton entered.

Much serious conversation had already passed in reference to the
courtship, which was finally entered into and debated, pro and con.

"Now, Paddy Donovan, that we're altogether, let me tell you one thing:
there's not a betther natur'd boy, nor a stouther, claner young fellow
in the parish, than my Phelim. He'll make your daughther as good, a
husband as ever broke bread!"

"I'm not sayin' against that, Larry. He is a good-nathur'd boy: but I
tell you, Larry Toole, that my daughter's his fill of a wife any day.
An' I'll put this to the back o' that--she's a hard-workin' girl, that
ates no idle bread."

"Very right," said Sam Appleton. "Phelim's a hairo, an' she's a beauty.
Dang me, but they wor made for one another. Phelim, _abouchal_, why
don't you--oh, I see you are. Why, I was goin' to bid you make up to
her."

"Give no gosther, Sam," replied Phelim, "but sind round the bottle, an'
don't forget to let it come this way. I hardly tasted a dhrop to-night."

"Oh, Phelim!" exclaimed Peggy.

"Whisht!" said Phelim, "there's no use in lettin' the ould fellows be
committin' sin. Why, they're hearty (* Tipsy) as it is, the sinners."

"Come, nabors," said Burn, "I'm the boy that's for close work. How does
the match stand? You're both my friends, an' may this be poison to me,
but I'll spake like an honest man, for the one as well as for the other.

"Well, then," said Donovan, "how is Phelim to support my daughther,
Larry? Sure that's a fair questin', any way."

"Wiry, Paddy," replied Larry, "when Phelim gets her, he'll have a patch
of his own, as well as another. There's that 'half-acre,' and a betther
piece o' land isn't in Europe!"

"Well, but what plenishin' are they to have, Larry? A bare half acre's
but a poor look up."

"I'd as soon you'd not make little of it, in the mane time," replied
Larry, rather warmly. "As good a couple as ever they wor lived on that
half acre; along wid what they earned by hard work otherwise."

"I'm not disparagin' it, Larry; I'